Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being

Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being covers what happens before, during and after the point of purchase. It investigates how having or not having certain products affects our lives, especially in the canon of social media and the digital age.

In the 12th Edition, up-to-date content reflects major marketing trends and changes that impact this field of study. Since we are all consumers, many of the topics have both professional and personal relevance. This makes it easy to apply the theory outside of class and maintain an edge in the fluid and evolving field of consumer behavior.

About our author

Michael R. Solomon, PhD, is Professor of Marketing in the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Before joining the Saint Joseph’s faculty in the fall of 2006, he was the Human Sciences Professor of Consumer Behavior at Auburn University. Before moving to Auburn in 1995, he was chair of the Department of Marketing in the School of Business at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Professor Solomon began his academic career in the Graduate School of Business Administration at New York University, where he also served as Associate Director of NYU’s Institute of Retail Management. He earned his BA degrees in psychology and sociology magna cum laude at Brandeis University and a PhD in social psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1996 he was awarded the Fulbright/FLAD Chair in Market Globalization by the US Fulbright Commission and the Government of Portugal, and he served as Distinguished Lecturer in Marketing at the Technical University of Lisbon. He held an appointment as Professor of Consumer Behaviour at The University of Manchester (UK) from 2007 to 2013.

Professor Solomon’s primary research interests include consumer behavior and lifestyle issues; branding strategy; the symbolic aspects of products; the psychology of fashion, decoration, and image; services marketing; marketing in virtual worlds; and the development of visually oriented online research methodologies. He has published numerous articles on these and related topics in academic journals, and he has delivered invited lectures on these subjects in Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America. His research has been funded by the American Academy of Advertising, the American Marketing Association, the US Department of Agriculture, the International Council of Shopping Centers, and the US Department of Commerce. He currently sits on the editorial or advisory boards of The Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Critical Studies in Fashion and Beauty, and Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education, and he served an elected six-year term on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Marketing Science. He was selected as a Fellow of the Society for Marketing Advances in 2018. Professor Solomon has been recognized as one of the 15 most widely cited scholars in the academic behavioral sciences/fashion literature, and as one of the 10 most productive scholars in the field of advertising and marketing communications.

Professor Solomon is a frequent contributor to mass media. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com, where his columns focus on issues related to consumer behavior. His feature articles have appeared in such magazines as Psychology Today, Gentleman’s Quarterly, and Savvy. He has been quoted in numerous national magazines and newspapers, including Allure, Elle, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Mirabella, Newsweek, The New York Times, Self, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on television and speaks on radio to comment on consumer behavior issues, including appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, Newsweek on the Air, the Entrepreneur Sales and Marketing Show, CNBC, Channel One, the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, the WOR Radio Network, and National Public Radio. He acts as a consultant to numerous companies on consumer behavior and marketing strategy issues and often speaks to business groups throughout the US and overseas. In addition to this text, Professor Solomon is co-author of the widely used textbook Marketing: Real People, Real Choices. He has 3 children, Amanda, Zachary, and Alexandra; a son-in-law, Orly; and 3 granddaughters, Rose, Evey, and Arya. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Gail.