Consumption patterns and lifeworlds: using the example of convenience food

This paper offers remarkable insights into the German food market and its consumers. A solid theoretical foundation is laid by classical as well as modern authors. The works of these authors form the basis for the theoretical analysis on a social determination of taste. In the following, the field of sociology of consumption is taken into account and analysed.
In the practical part, consumers are researched using lifeworlds as a tool of categorization of German households. In the market research economy, lifeworlds are widely perceived as an appropriate tool for researching present and future market developments. The analysed empirical data on purchasing behaviour was provided by the market research study Typology of Desires 2010. Results in the direction of a social determination of taste offer valuable perceptions for theorists and practitioners alike.

Florian Schleicher, MSc, was born in 1983 in Weingarten Germany. In August 2011, he successfully graduated as a Bachelor of Arts from the Free University of Bolzano. There he studied Economy and Social Sciences. In August 2013 he successfully graduated fr