ABSTRACT
Two core principles defined modern marketing: the marketing concept and consumer satisfaction. In 1995, Firat, Dholakia, and Venkatesh (1995) argued that these two principles, which led to the practice of providing products for the needs of consumers identified in the markets, were becoming obsolete. Marketers, they argued, had to turn to facilitative processes that allowed consumers to participate in the design, construction, and consumption of products. This idea was later articulated in Firat and Dholakia (1998), and has been echoed by others (cf., Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2000, 2004; Vargo and Lusch 2004), in terms of conceptualizing consumers as cocreators. Contemporary conditions present a radically different market than the one envisioned, constructed, and “managed” in the era that is now identified as modernity (Featherstone 1991; Jameson 1991; Jencks 1987; Lyotard 1984).
