It’s the practice of buying something not because it is simply some ‘thing’ but some idea that is embodied by that thing.
Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University and Michael Norton, an assistant professor of marketing at the Harvard Business School, wrote about it in The Annual Review of Psychology. You can read their paper here.
From the abstract: As technology has simplified meeting basic needs, humans have cultivated increasingly psychological avenues for occupying their consumption energies, moving from consuming food to consuming concepts; we propose that consideration of such “conceptual
consumption” is essential for understanding human consumption. We first review how four classes of conceptual consumption—consuming expectancies, goals, fluency, and regulatory fit—impact physical consumption.
Rob Walker discussed the idea of ‘consumption of goals’ in his New York Times Magazine column by using the example of Lululemon.
The notion of consumption of goals ‘may be relevant to the purchase of, say, a $128 jacket or a $48 T-shirt that is “yoga-inspired.” With connotations of healthful living, mindfulness and self-improvement, yoga is a pretty appealing concept.’
It seems that consuming these goals is increasingly annoying to yoga devotees. Walker writes:
‘Elaine Lipson, a writer and editor in Boulder, Colo., who has practiced yoga since 1993, laments the transformation of something that’s basically free into something vaguely upper class, female and “all about the lifestyle and the clothes.” To her, Lululemon is peddling “props” that may offer a sense of community to some but alienate others who might benefit from yoga but don’t fit what she calls the chain’s “yoga chick” image and attitude.’
Yoga in Québec
According to PMB 2008 data, women in Québec are significantly less likely to practice yoga. 6.1% of women in Québec say they practice yoga compared to 11.4% of women in the rest of Canada.
PMB data on the purchase of apparel also suggest that they’re less likely to ‘consume the goals of yoga’ via the purchase of athletic wear.
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