Abstract:
Postmodernism was a prominent social theory for almost three decades (Christensen et al, 2005) but marketing field has not explicitly recognized it as an important descriptor of the current social conditions than from 90 years (Lo 'pez-Bonilla and Lo' pez-Bonilla 2009). Postmodernism has grown steadily in marketing, and contributed to the rise of reflections on paradigms that allow understanding the complexity of postmodern consumption (Hirschman, Holbrook, 1992), the role of marketing in the consumer society (Firat, Venkatesh, 1993; Badot and Cova 1992) and especially, the understanding of consumer behavior. Indeed, many researchers are attracted by postmodernism because of its interdisciplinary nature that enables the crossing of theoretical limits which potentially gives a more open and rich vision of the consumer (Miles, 1999).
Our paper aims to understand the postmodern consumer through a theoretical study of the five conditions of postmodern society which are: hyperreality, fragmentation, decentred subject, the reversal of production-consumption and the paradoxical juxtaposition of opposites.
Our idea is therefore to identify the characteristics of the new consumer that emerges from these conditions and their impact on Tourism Marketing practices. Postmodern orientations reflect the holistic cultural sensibility of an individual (Lash, 1992; Lyotard, 1984), they are quite stable over time, as they reflect an overall approach of postmodern consumer regarding the meaning of life and existence (Firat and Shultz 2001). For example, postmodern consumer can navigate several identities it is this sensitivity or overall orientation to life which enables this navigation and this multiplicity. These orientations are extracted from postmodern conditions listed above, and are composed by three dimensions: multiphrenic self, decentered subject and hyperreality (Firat and Shultz 2001). The Multiphrenic self dimension: it’s the result of both postmodern conditions: fragmentation and the paradoxical juxtaposition of opposites. Multiphrenic self implies that postmodern individual tend to be present under different identities rather than conforming to a single one.
Then, the Decentered subject dimension: which reflects the influence of objects to guide individual (consumer) desires (Baudrillard, 1981; Faoucault, 1970). The postmodern consumer seems to have a greater acceptance and comfort with the decentered existence. And Finally, the Hyperreality dimension: it is related to the hyperreality condition, considered as the constitution of social reality through powerful meanings and representations of simulation (Firat and Venkatech 1993).
From a deep literature review, it appears that each postmodern orientation affects in a definite way the consumer and the consumption process, which will generate important implications for tourism marketing practices. Postmodern orientations suggest, in fact, that consumer sustained a radical change: The consumer emerging from postmodern conditions is less materialistic, searching experiences and immersion, producing meanings and symbols, constructing identities and a member of a tribe. Tourism marketing practices seems to be affected: tourism themes are often the best way to provide an impressive immersion in the experience of consumption (museums, theme parks,..) quested by the postmodern consumer( Firat and Vankatech, 1995). Then, through tourism and leisure activities (Ruccio and Amariglio, 2003), consumers can build several postmodern identity suitable to each touristic activity. Finally tourism marketing contributes to placing the consumer into postmodern tribes, such as, planned holidays and weekends, that form a temporary community, which disperses after the experience is over (Goulding et al, 2002). Détecter l’influence du cadre postmoderne et surtout l’émergence du consommateur postmoderne et sur les pratiques du marketing touristique constitue une voie de recherche très importante afin d’en tirer les bénéfices et améliorer les pratiques dans le secteur du tourisme.
