The first decade: emerging issues of the twenty‐first century in consumer marketing

Purpose – As one rewinds the clock to the early days of the twenty‐first century, it can be quite surprising to realise how much the consumer landscape has changed from what it is today. This paper aims to introduce the special issue and attempts to take stock of the last decade and reflect on the transformation of key areas of the changing marketplace and its impact on consumption. Design/methodology/approach – A critical and integrative appraisal of emerging issues in consumer marketing is used to develop a framework for reviewing the relationship between demand‐side and supply‐side trends in the consumer landscape. Findings – In reviewing major developments and trends of the last decade, the paper argues that the consumption landscape now operates in a rapidly changing environment that can be characterised as both turbulent and disruptive. These major shifts are emerging from the physical environment, technological innovation and the transformation of major markets. In all these scenarios, significant events are being experienced which disrupt the ways in which consumers behave and a retrospective of the first decade underscores several of these major shifts. Research limitations/implications – All of the papers included in this special issue have used one or more methods of inquiry based on conceptual, qualitative and/or quantitative approaches and open up fascinating avenues for future research in areas such as social marketing, branding, anti‐consumption, co‐creation, and social networking to name a few. Practical implications – The last decade saw a great deal of attention given to social marketing and tackling the “dark side” of marketing to selected groups, often identified as vulnerable consumers. In other cases, such as with “anti‐consumption”, consumers totally avoid consuming certain products which, as a result, may have negative consequences not only for them but for the whole of society such as is the case with the avoidance of vaccination. Originality/value – This paper is a unique examination of the last decade and its impact on consumer marketing backed up by a collection of strong contributions in emerging areas such as anti‐consumption, social networking, health promotion and addictive products, consumer co‐creation, sustainability and fair trade, branding and multicultural markets.