A research on the preference of personalized products from Simmel's perspective in the context of hedonic consumption

Through the development of economic and technological conditions in the historical process, consumption and consumer have changed. Emerging consumption in order to physiological needs satisfy has become a means of pleasure to satisfy the various desires of consumers. These economic and technological developments have been increasing the importance of individual and individuality. Georg Simmel had studied the lives of individuals living in metropolis and observed that metropolis standardized the lives of individuals and emphasized the individuality of individuals against this standardization. According to Georg Simmel, individuals feel the need to preserve their individuality and to be different from others due to fear of to be ordinary. Individuals realize this need for differentiation through consumption. Nowadays, companies also adopt marketing approaches that are based on individuals and focusing individual differences. In the direction of these living developments, the position of the consumer has been changed and consumers have been taken out of passive position and taken active position. Thus, the individual has become a prosumer. Besides, standard products offered to consumers with mass production have also changed. In addition to mass production methods, companies also use mass customization methods, and the consumer offers personalized products. In this thesis, it is aimed to examine the relation of this view of Georg Simmel to consumers' preference of personalized products in the context of hedonic consumption. Besides in this thesis, the concepts of daily changing consumption and consumer are examined. The emerging new type of consumer, the personalized products produced by the mass customization method and the point of view of Georg Simmel to the people living in metropolis are examined. A survey was conducted on the students of Akdeniz University to determine the tendency of consumers to hedonic consumption, personalized product preferences and need for differentiation.