Jan L. Logemann
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226660011
- eISBN:
- 9780226660295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226660295.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The making of consumer capitalism was informed by transnational transfers and transatlantic exchanges in ways that have been largely overlooked by historians. A surprising number of mid 20th-century ...
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The making of consumer capitalism was informed by transnational transfers and transatlantic exchanges in ways that have been largely overlooked by historians. A surprising number of mid 20th-century consumer experts were European immigrants and émigré refugees. They excelled in areas such as market research and advertising psychology as well as in industrial and graphic design. In different capacities, these experts helped to engineer the midcentury consumer´s republic by developing new marketing tools that fundamentally informed the dynamic expansion of American consumer capitalism. As corporate and government advisors, furthermore, they acted as transatlantic mediators after the war, facilitating postwar transfers in marketing knowledge and commercial practices back to Europe. This introduction contextualizes their story within the historiographies on mass consumption and business history as well as within research on elite migration and transnational knowledge transfers. In a mid centrury era of high modernity and social engineering, these émigré experts played crucial roles as transatlantic cultural intermediaries of consumer capitalism.Less
The making of consumer capitalism was informed by transnational transfers and transatlantic exchanges in ways that have been largely overlooked by historians. A surprising number of mid 20th-century consumer experts were European immigrants and émigré refugees. They excelled in areas such as market research and advertising psychology as well as in industrial and graphic design. In different capacities, these experts helped to engineer the midcentury consumer´s republic by developing new marketing tools that fundamentally informed the dynamic expansion of American consumer capitalism. As corporate and government advisors, furthermore, they acted as transatlantic mediators after the war, facilitating postwar transfers in marketing knowledge and commercial practices back to Europe. This introduction contextualizes their story within the historiographies on mass consumption and business history as well as within research on elite migration and transnational knowledge transfers. In a mid centrury era of high modernity and social engineering, these émigré experts played crucial roles as transatlantic cultural intermediaries of consumer capitalism.
Jan L. Logemann
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226660011
- eISBN:
- 9780226660295
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226660295.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Engineered to Sell traces the transnational careers of consumer engineers in advertising, market research and commercial design who transformed capitalism, from the 1930s through the 1960s. It argues ...
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Engineered to Sell traces the transnational careers of consumer engineers in advertising, market research and commercial design who transformed capitalism, from the 1930s through the 1960s. It argues that the history of marketing consumer goods is not a story of American exceptionalism. Instead, the careers of immigrants point to the limits of the “Americanization” paradigm. First, the book traces changes in marketing approaches increasingly tailored to consumers which gave rise to a dynamic world of goods. Second, it asks how and why this consumer engineering was shaped by transatlantic exchanges. From Austrian psychologists and little-known social scientists to the illustrious Bauhaus artists, the émigrés at the center of this story illustrate the vibrant cultural and commercial connections between metropolitan centers: Vienna and New York; Paris and Chicago; Berlin and San Francisco. These mid-century consumer engineers crossed national and disciplinary boundaries not only within arts and academia but also between governments, corporate actors, and social reform movements. By focusing on the transnational lives of émigré consumer researchers, marketers, and designers, Engineered to Sell details the processes of cultural translation and adaptation that mark both the mid-century transformation of American marketing and the subsequent European shift to “American” consumer capitalism.Less
Engineered to Sell traces the transnational careers of consumer engineers in advertising, market research and commercial design who transformed capitalism, from the 1930s through the 1960s. It argues that the history of marketing consumer goods is not a story of American exceptionalism. Instead, the careers of immigrants point to the limits of the “Americanization” paradigm. First, the book traces changes in marketing approaches increasingly tailored to consumers which gave rise to a dynamic world of goods. Second, it asks how and why this consumer engineering was shaped by transatlantic exchanges. From Austrian psychologists and little-known social scientists to the illustrious Bauhaus artists, the émigrés at the center of this story illustrate the vibrant cultural and commercial connections between metropolitan centers: Vienna and New York; Paris and Chicago; Berlin and San Francisco. These mid-century consumer engineers crossed national and disciplinary boundaries not only within arts and academia but also between governments, corporate actors, and social reform movements. By focusing on the transnational lives of émigré consumer researchers, marketers, and designers, Engineered to Sell details the processes of cultural translation and adaptation that mark both the mid-century transformation of American marketing and the subsequent European shift to “American” consumer capitalism.
Jan L. Logemann
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226660011
- eISBN:
- 9780226660295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226660295.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The professionalization of marketing research and efforts in “consumer engineering” drew on new insights in fields from social psychology to communication studies, which thrived at mid-century ...
More
The professionalization of marketing research and efforts in “consumer engineering” drew on new insights in fields from social psychology to communication studies, which thrived at mid-century because of transatlantic knowledge-circulation. This chapter follows the exemplary transatlantic careers of members of the “Vienna school of market research.” The group emerged from the Wirtschaftspsychologische Forschungsstelle, a social research institute associated with the University of Vienna during the early 1930s. Next to Paul Lazarsfeld, the group most prominently included the sociologist Hans Zeisel as well as the motivation research specialists Herta Herzog and Ernest Dichter. Their careers suggest a more transnational understanding of midcentury American consumer capitalism with European – in this case particularly Viennese – influences shaping marketing practices, which consumer historians still often regard as a quintessentially “American” phenomenon of psychological consumer manipulation. Transfers took place on several levels and this and subsequent chapters will analyze the role of individual émigré scholars, of the professional networks they formed, as well as the research concepts and methodologies they developed between Europe and the United States.Less
The professionalization of marketing research and efforts in “consumer engineering” drew on new insights in fields from social psychology to communication studies, which thrived at mid-century because of transatlantic knowledge-circulation. This chapter follows the exemplary transatlantic careers of members of the “Vienna school of market research.” The group emerged from the Wirtschaftspsychologische Forschungsstelle, a social research institute associated with the University of Vienna during the early 1930s. Next to Paul Lazarsfeld, the group most prominently included the sociologist Hans Zeisel as well as the motivation research specialists Herta Herzog and Ernest Dichter. Their careers suggest a more transnational understanding of midcentury American consumer capitalism with European – in this case particularly Viennese – influences shaping marketing practices, which consumer historians still often regard as a quintessentially “American” phenomenon of psychological consumer manipulation. Transfers took place on several levels and this and subsequent chapters will analyze the role of individual émigré scholars, of the professional networks they formed, as well as the research concepts and methodologies they developed between Europe and the United States.
