Giving examples that relate directly to students as consumers, and critically examining marketing practices, this work explains why people buy things and how products, services, and consumption activities contribute to the broader social world that consumers experience. The work has a strong international coverage with each chapter containing a multicultural dimensions box, and examples are drawn from the international scene - Marie Clare, Cosmopolitan, French advertizing agencies and Bennetton. This third edition contains expanded discussion of demographics, hermeneutics, relationship and database marketing, aesthetic preferences, values, personality therapy and measures, and country of origin. There is also an instructor's manual available with transparencies and a video guide (ISBN: 0-13-376269-7).