Aesthetic value

Consumer researchers have an approach-avoidance relationship with aesthetic value. In their private lives, they embrace aesthetic value because beauty in the products they buy, the homes they live in, and the public spaces they frequent brings them pleasure and personal enrichment. But in their professional lives, they avoid research on aesthetic value. One reason for this may be that beauty is viewed as an abstruse concept, difficult to define and operationalize. The purpose of this chapter is to encourage more research on aesthetic value by exploring the nature of beauty. In the process, it will be shown that aesthetic value is as amenable to scientific inquiry as quality, status, esteem, or any other category of consumer value.