Consumer Behaviour at the Generic Level: Theoretical Perspectives

Suppose you had unexpectedly
received some money, for instance a gift or
a lottery prize. What would you like to do
with the money? Why the action you chose
to do is of much importance to you? What
would you like to achieve by that action?
This is a simple illustration of the generic
level of consumer decision making,
henceforth the generic level. It is important
to note that neither money nor unexpec-
tedness defines the generic level. Although
there are plenty of examples of receiving a
windfall, gifts and lottery prizes being two
of them, the generic level also concerns
situations when expectations rule. For
example, people may expect to receive a
bumper bonus, an extra profit, a tax
return, gain excessive money from a pre-
vious budget, or even to inherit some
valuable assets from their beloved parents.
To a certain degree, people in such
situations must ponder of the different
ways to utilize the money. The defining
features of the generic level concern the
mental processes of decision making in
which an individual is trying to allocate a
consumer resource into different cate-
gories of activities (Van Veldhoven &
Groenland, 1993).