Imagining Consumers : Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning /

"Imagining Consumers is the first book to tell the story of American consumer society from the perspective of mass-market manufacturers and retailers. It relates the trials and tribulations of china and glassware producers in their contest for the hearts of working- and middle-class women, who...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Blaszczyk, Regina Lee
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019
Series:Book collections on Project MUSE.
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Online Access:Full text available:
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Summary:"Imagining Consumers is the first book to tell the story of American consumer society from the perspective of mass-market manufacturers and retailers. It relates the trials and tribulations of china and glassware producers in their contest for the hearts of working- and middle-class women, who by the 1920s made up more than 80 percent of those buying mass-manufactured goods. Following a model pioneered by Josiah Wedgwood during Great Britain's eighteenth-century industrial revolution, successful American manufacturers closely collaborated with retailers to sort out consumer priorities and tailored their products accordingly
In contrast, companies that tried to stimulate desire, reshape taste, and encourage profligate spending by using the tools of persuasion - mass advertising, extravagant styling, and installment selling - found their efforts thwarted, for consumers refused to buy products that they did not really want."--Jacket
Item Description:Originally published as Johns Hopkins Press in 2000.
The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License.
Open access edition supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities / Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.
Physical Description:1 online resource (408 pages): illustrations, plates
ISBN:9781421437262
Access:Open Access