About Craig
J. Craig Thompson is the James R. McManus – Bascom Professor in Marketing and the Gilbert and Helen Churchill Professor in the Marketing Department of the Wisconsin School of Business.
Craig’s research addresses the socio-cultural shaping of consumer identities, with an emphasis on social class and gender and the use of interpretive methodologies in marketing research. Craig has published articles in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Advances in Consumer Research. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. He is co-author of the book The Phenomenology of Everyday Life, and co-editor of Sustainable Lifestyles and the Quest for Plenitude: Case Studies of the New Economy and Consumer Culture Theory. Craig is the president of the Consumer Culture Theory Consortium.
His teaching interests are in the area of consumer behavior, research methodology, marketing theory, and brand strategy.
Thompson received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Tennessee.
He has been awarded the 2013 Erwin A. Gaumnitz Distinguished Faculty Research Award by the Wisconsin School of Business, and the 2014 Distinguished Marketing Scholar Award by the Society for Marketing Advances (SMA). In 2017, he was named a fellow of the Association of Consumer Research.
Selected Accepted Journal Articles
Thompson, C. (2023). Toward an Ontology of Consumers as Distributed Networks (or the End of ‘Consumer Research’ as We Know It?): Retrospective Insights from the Praxeomorphism of Russ Belk’s ‘Extended Self’,” Journal of Marketing Management
Tambyah, S. & Thompson, C. (2012). Social Branding and the Mythic Re-Invention of Ethnic Identity,” Identity and Consumption
Thompson, C. Cooperative Networks, Participatory Markets, and Rhizomatic Resistance: Situating Plenitude within Contemporary Political-economy Debates, Sustainable Lifestyles and the Quest for Plenitude: Case Studies of the New Economy,
Selected Published Journal Articles
Thompson, C. & Kumar, A. (2022). Analyzing the Cultural Contradictions of Authenticity: Theoretical and Managerial Insights from the Market Logic of Conscious Capitalism Journal of Marketing
Thompson, C. & Isisag, A. (2022). Beyond Existential and Neoliberal Explanations of Consumers’ Embodied Risk-Taking: CrossFit as an Articulation of Reflexive Modernization Journal of Consumer Culture
Thompson, C. & Kumar, A. (2021). Beyond Consumer Responsibilization: Slow Food’s Actually Existing Neoliberalism Journal of Consumer Culture
Thompson, C. (2020). Risk The Dictionary of Coronavirus Culture
Thompson, C. (2020). Consumer Culture Theory: An Anthropological Contribution to Consumption Studies The Routledge Companion to Anthropology and Business
Thompson, C. (2019). The “Big Data” Myth and the Pitfalls of “Thick Data” Opportunism: On the Need for a Different Ontology of Markets and Consumption Journal of Marketing Management
Thompson, C. & Giesler, M. (2016). A Tutorial in Consumer Research: Process Theorization in Cultural Consumer Research Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. & Ustuner, T. (2015). Women Skating on the Edge: Marketplace Performances as Ideological Edgework Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. (2015). “Out of Morris Holbrook’s Aesthetics of Consumption Symbolism” Legends in Marketing—Morris Holbrook, Volume 9, Qualitative Methods, Part II: Symbolic Consumer Behavior or Consumption Symbolism, ed. Alan Bradshaw, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, forthcoming.
Thompson, C. & Humphreys, A. (2014). “Branding Disaster: Re-establishing Trust through the Ideological Containment of Systemic Risk Anxieties Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. (2014). Practicing Plenitude: An Introduction,” Sustainable Lifestyles and the Quest for Plenitude: Case Studies of the New Economy,
Thompson, C. (2014). Russ Belk’s (Belkian) Perspective on Discipline and Liberation in Consumption: A Convergence of the Cosmopolitan and the Carnivalesque —Editor’s Introduction,” Legends in Consumer Behavior—Russell Belk, Vol. 9: Discipline and Liberation in Consumption
Thompson, C. (2014). “How Community Supported Agriculture Facilitates a Re-embedding and Re-territorializing of Sustainable Consumption Practices Sustainable Lifestyles and the Quest for Plenitude: Case Studies of the New Economy,
Thompson, C. & Arnould, E. (2014). Writing Consumer Culture, Writing B-School,” Sourcebook of Anthropology in Business
Thompson, C. (2013). The Politics of Consumer Identity Work Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. & Anrould, E. & Giesler, M. (2013). Discursivity, Difference, and the Destabilizing Departures of Dirty Theory: Genealogical Reflections on the CCT Heteroglossia Marketing Theory
Coskuner-Balli, G. & Thompson, C. (2013). The Status Costs of Subordinate Cultural Capital: At-Home Fathers’ Collective Pursuit of Cultural Legitimacy through Capitalizing Consumption Practices Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. & Ustuner, T. (2012). How Marketplace Performances Produce Interdependent Status Games and Contested Forms of Symbolic Capital Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. (2011). Understanding Consumption as Political and Moral Practice Journal of Consumer Culture
Arsel, Z. & Thompson, C. (2011). Demythologizing Consumption Practices: How Consumers Protect their Field-Dependent Capital from Devaluing Marketplace Myths Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. (2010). Consumer Identity Work as Moral Protagonism: How Myth and Ideology Animate a Brand- Mediated Moral Conflict Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. (2008). Reconstructing the South: How Commercial Myths Compete for Identity Value through the Ideological Shaping of Popular Memories and Countermemories Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. & Coskuner-Balli, G. (2007). Countervailing Market Responses to Corporate Co-optation and the Ideological Recruitment of Consumption Communities Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. (2007). Enchanting Ethical Consumerism: The Case of Community Supported Agriculture Journal of Consumer Culture
Thompson, C. (2007). A Carnivalesque Approach to the Politics of Consumption The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Selected Submitted Journal Articles
Thompson, C. & Isisag, A. (2020). Consuming a Risktopia: CrossFit’s Marketplace Culture and the Heterogeneous Structuring of Consumers’ Risk Perceptions Journal of Consumer Research
Thompson, C. & Kumar, A. (2018). The Elitist Doppelgänger Brand Image and Re-Affirmative Brand Myths: How Consumer–Brand Relationships are Constituted as an Art of Living Journal of Marketing
Working Papers
Isisag, A. & Thompson, C. (2019). How Do Rival Dating Apps Capitalize on Tinder’s Doppelgänger Brand Image?
Presentations
Marketing (2022) Analyzing the Cultural Contradictions of Authenticity: Theoretical and Managerial Insights from the Market Logic of Conscious Capitalism
Marketing department seminar (2020) Rethinking Consumers’ Proactive Risk Taking: Reflexive Modernization and the Quest for Preparatory Challenges
Association for consumer research annual conference (2020) “Why Do Consumers Risk ‘Xtreme’ Fitness: A Reflexive Modernist Analysis of CrossFit’s Marketplace Culture
Consumer Culture Theory Conference (2017) Beyond Consumer Responsibilization: Actually Existing Neoliberal Governmentality and the Production of Ethical Authority in Political Consumerism
Association for Consumer Research (2016) Political Consumerism as Neoliberal Therapy: The Case of Slow Food
Annual consumer culture theory conference (2016) Craving Identity: Towards a Reflexive Sociology of Taste
Consumer Culture Theory Conference (2015) The Politics of Consumer Nostalgia: How the Slow Food Movement Constructs its Cultural Authority
Society for Marketing Advances Annual conference (2014) Consumer Culture Theory: A Reflection on the Branding of Identity
American Sociological Association Annual Conference (2014) Can Market Based Alternatives be Transformative?: Plenitude, Participatory Markets, and Rhizomatic Resistance
9th annual Consumer Culture theory Conference (2014) Hegemonic Masculinity and the Ideological Allure of Retrosexual Marketplace Myths
American Sociological Association Annual Conference (2014) Thompson, Craig J. and Juliet Schor (2014), “Can Market Based Alternatives be Transformative?: Plenitude, Participatory Markets, and Rhizomatic Resistance
Invited Seminar (2013) Becoming a Derby Grrrrl: Marketplace Performativities and the Normalization of Gender Transgression
(2013) Becoming a Derby Grrrrl: Marketplace Performativities and the Normalization of Gender Transgression
7th annual Consumer Culture Theory Conference (2012) Oil Spills as Disaster Myths: Grotesque Realism in Postmodern Consumer Culture
Social Innovations for Sustainable Lifestyle Symposium (2011) How Community Supported Agriculture Facilitates a Re-embedding and Re-territorializing Vision of Sustainable Consumption
2010 European Conference of the Association of Consumer Research, (2010) How Servicescape Figurations Mediate Socio-cultural Differences Between Consumers and Aesthetic Labourers
5th Annual Consumer Culture Theory conference (2010) “Three Waves of CCT: On Transcending Anachronistic Rhetorical Conventions
Undergraduate Courses
Consumer Behavior (MKT 305), Spring 2005.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Consumer Behavior (MKT 305), Spring 2004.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Consumer Behavior (MKT 305), Spring 2004.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Consumer Behavior (MKT 305), Fall 2002.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Consumer Behavior (MKT 305), Fall 2002.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Consumer Behavior (MKT 305), Spring 2002.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Consumer Behavior (MKT 305), Spring 2010.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Consumer Behavior (MKT 305), Spring 2010.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Consumer Beahvior (MKT 305), Spring 2007.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Consumer Behavior (MKT 305), Spring 2008.
Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior and their application to marketing decision-making. Psychological, economic, anthropological and sociological perspectives are integrated to enhance understanding of consumer acquisition processes.
Graduate Courses
Seminar-Marketing PhD (MKT 972), Spring 2006.
Continuation of Marketing 971.
Seminar-Marketing PhD (MKT 972), Spring 2004.
Continuation of Marketing 971.
Seminar-Marketing PhD (MKT 972), Spring 2002.
Continuation of Marketing 971.
Seminar-Marketing PhD (MKT 972), Spring 2010.
Continuation of Marketing 971.
Seminar-Marketing PhD (MKT 972), Spring 2008.
Continuation of Marketing 971.
Qualitatively-Based Marketing Insights (MKT 805), Spring 2007.
Understanding and application of in-depth qualitative market research methods, with an emphasis on the interpretation of qualitative data. Provides hands-o experience with different methodological techniques and immersion in a cultural perspective for systematically analyzing data from a marketing perspective.
Qualitatively-Based Marketing Insights (MKT 805), Spring 2005.
Understanding and application of in-depth qualitative market research methods, with an emphasis on the interpretation of qualitative data. Provides hands-o experience with different methodological techniques and immersion in a cultural perspective for systematically analyzing data from a marketing perspective.
Contemporary Topics (MKT 765), Spring 2005.
Contemporary Topics (MKT 765), Fall 2005.
Contemporary Topics
Contemporary Topics (MKT 765), Fall 2002.
Contemporary Topics
Contemporary Topics (MKT 765), Spring 2001.
Professional Organizations
Journal of Consumer Research
Editorial and Reviewing Activities
journal of consumer psychology – Since January 2020
Associate Editor
Journal of Marketing – Since January 2018
Editorial Board Member
Journal of Consumer research – Since January 2018
Editorial Board Member
Journal of Consumer Research – June 2011 – June 2017
Associate Editor
Journal of Consumer Culture