Abstract

"'Have it Your Way': Marketing Expertise and Consumer Culture in the Neoliberal Era"

Elin Åström Rudberg, Stockholm University (elin.astromrudberg@ekohist.su.se), Klara Arnberg, Stockholm University (klara.arnberg@su.se)

This paper examines the broad changes in marketing and consumer culture from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s, a topic which has hitherto received only scant attention in historical, and business historical literature. Drawing on previous research and statistical measures, it aims to flesh out two broad, theoretically informed, arguments about the developments in consumption and marketing within mature consumer societies in the neoliberal context. First, from the 1970s onwards consumption emerged as a key area of economic expansion and expanded into new personal and societal spaces. This development interacted with the introduction of new distinctive economic-technological opportunities and new marketing features which played crucial roles in shaping present-day consumer societies together with broader socio-cultural shifts. The slogan used in the title of this paper – “Have it Your Way” – was introduced by Burger King in the mid 1970s and captures several aspects of the new direction of commercial life, emphasizing individualization, freedom and self-fulfillment. Second, the paper engages in dialogue with recent economic and political research on neoliberalization and the market turn, arguing for the value of bringing this literature into closer contact with the scholarship on marketing and consumption history. This approach allows us to examine the interconnections between politics – where governments during this period increasingly adopted market principles and framed citizens as “sovereign consumers” – and marketing, where self-expression and choice emerged as parallels at the political level. In conclusion, the paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of the art and outlines key avenues for future historical research in the field.