Measuring consumer rituals : a marketing application

Rituals are an important part of society, and are a frequent topic of investigation among sociologists and anthropologists. Although researchers have previously investigated ritual, this paper is the first to generate a scale to measure consumption ritual. This study uses a sample of 651 attendees at an Australian Football League game to explore ritual behavior, define the gameday rituals observed, and design a scale to measure consumption ritual. As a newly generated construct, Australian football sports fan ritual has two dimensions – personal and social rituals. For academic researchers, the findings help establish the role of ritual in consumption and the possibility of marketers to generate ritualistic activities to enhance sales. Future research opportunities in other product categories are also discussed.