Andy Warhol was a pioneering American artist in the Pop Art movement. This paper examines how Warhol's artwork and career can provide insights into consumer behavior from the perspective of consumer research. It analyzes five areas that Warhol's work contributes to: brand equity, fashion/beauty, imagery, packaging, and self-concept. Warhol developed strong brand equity through his iconic pop imagery of everyday consumer products and celebrities that became synonymous with his artistic style. His focus on mass production and repetition in art mirrored trends in consumer culture.

1. ANDY WARHOL: CONSUMER RESEARCHER
Jonathan E. Schroeder
Advances in Consumer Research Volume 24, 1997, pp. 476-482
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Can and Dollar Bills, 1962

2. Jonathan E. Schroeder (1997) ,"Andy Warhol: Consumer Researcher", in
Advances in Consumer Research Volume 24, eds. Merrie Brucks and
Deborah J. MacInnis, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research,
Pages: 476-482.
ABSTRACT
This paper "breaks out of the box" by discussing the work of the artist Andy Warhol as a
form of consumer research. The paper asserts that Warhol’s career- successful artist,
experimental filmmaker, prolific writer and diarist, celebrity-offers insights into
consumer culture that reinforces, expands, and illuminates aspects of traditional
consumer research. Through illustrations, criticism, and interpretation, five specific areas
of consumer research that Warhol’s work might contribute to are introduced: brand
equity; clothing, fashion and beauty; imagery; packaging; and self-concept. This project
joins recent efforts by consumer researchers to include humanities based methods such as
literary criticism and semiotics into the consumer researcher’s toolbox.
I love America and these are some comments on it. The image is a statement of the
symbols of the harsh impersonal products and brash materialistic objects on which
America is built today. It is a projection of everything that can be bought and sold, the
practical but important symbols that sustain us.
- Warhol 1985, p. 78
Humanities based research has changed the parameters of consumer research.
Groundbreaking applications of semiotics (Mick 1986), literary theory (Stern 1988;
1989) postmodernism (Firat and Venkatesh 1995), history (Jones and Monieson 1990),
visual studies (Scott 1994)to- name a few-have broadened the consumer researcher’s
alette, adding useful tools to an interdisciplinary paintbox. Belk proposes that art offers a
useful medium to study consumption-citing literature, comics, painting, photography,
etc., as valuable records of materialism and non-traditional sources of data for consumer
researchers (Belk, 1986). Art and science do differ in their methods, biases, and purposes,
Belk insists, but there is much more overlap than is usually thought. He concludes by
suggesting that uses of art in research "are attempts to draw on art as data for evidence to
validate a point or to provide a thicker, richer description" (Belk, 1986, p. 27).
This paper proposes that Andy Warhol-through his worldwide success as an artist, his
choice of subject matter, his public statements, and his marketing techniques-may offer
insights into several issues of consumer research as an additional way of learning about
consumer behavior (Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry 1989; Hudson and Ozanne 1988;
Sherry 1991). Through a turn to the tools of art criticism and art history, Warhol’s
"contributions" to our understanding of consumer behavior are placed within the frame of
consumer research. Warhol, while not trained in experimental methods, nonetheless

3. offers unique insights into consumer behavior through his success as an artist who
focused on the mass produced world of brand names, fame, and consumption.
In his career as a commercial illustrator, artist, filmmaker, and author, Warhol produced a
voluminous output of material. After his death in 1987, his estate helped fund an Andy
Warhol museum in Pittsburgh (Sozanski 1994); another museum houses his work in his
ancestral home of Slovakia (Gruber 1993). His name lives on in the news; his estate
auction garnered millions and elevated cookie jars into the realm of valued collectors’
items (Bourdon 1989). A protracted battle over the value of his estate also served to
generate heated interest in his stature as an artist and cultural icon (Peers 1996). Warhol
transcended the rarefied world of fine art and became known simply as Andy Warhol
throughout the world. His obituary in Advertising Age remembered Warhol this way:
"His work pointed out the similarities between mass produced goods-soup, cleaners,
celebrities, news "events"-in a way that made clearer how images are manufactured. In
this pop culture, Andy Warhol saw America. Through him, America saw itself."
(Skenazy, 1987). Breaking out of the box, this paper sketches Warhol and his work for
their relevance to consumer researchers.
To frame Warhol as a consumer researcher, this discussion focuses on four aspects of the
Warhol oeuvre: several famous artworks, his own writings, critical discourse, and Warhol
himself. The methods, training, and outlook of artists and consumer researchers may be
quite different, but the underlying issues they are interested in often overlap considerably.
Five content areas were selected to paint a portrait of Warhol as consumer researcher:
brand equity; clothing, fashion and beauty; imagery; packaging; and self-concept. Two
levels of analysis are offered-one focuses the production of Warhol’s art, another
considers Warhol himself as the ultimate commodity. Thus, Warhol’s artistic output can
be scrutinized for insights into consumer behavior as well as his self-generated
production of the Warhol "brand." Suggestions for systematic application of art criticism
and art history are offered, along with a call for broadening the conceptions of who might
contribute to the interdisciplinary field of consumer research.
ART AND CONSUMER RESEARCH
Art Criticism is the humanities discipline that investigates art and its objects as cultural
documents-reflecting and shaping the culture that both produces and preserves them.
Discourse on art has ancient roots-visual images preceded written language as a means of
communication. Closely linked to the related fields of aesthetics, art history, art theory,
and archeolgy, art criticism requires an understanding of the styles and functions of art,
the social and cultural contexts in which artists have worked, and the technical factors
that affect artistic execution. Issues that art criticism addresses include evaluation, value,
classification, identification, comparison, etc. (Stokstad 1995). Commentary on art has its
origins in Plato’s dialogues, in which he established representation as the main function
of art; the field of art history became institutionalized within academia during the
nineteenth century (Roskill 1989). Like literary criticism, writing on art is characterized
by a myriad of schools employing a variety of approaches to the subject, context,
meaning, and production of art (cf. Stern 1989). Because art has physical-as in

4. architecture-as well as cultural functions, the object of study varies considerably,
depending on the purpose of the analysis. For example, one writer distinguishes between
journalistic criticism, pedagogical criticism, and scholarly criticism (Feldman 1987). The
art world of museums, collectors, scholars, and the public has increasingly included 'low’
forms of art, for example graffiti, advertising, comics, etc. within the realm of fine art-
thus focusing critical attention on a wide range of visual communication (e.g. Stich
1987).
Whereas the field of art criticism conceivably offers consumer researchers an astonishing
array of tools with which to interpret and understand images, few studies within
consumer research have taken advantage of a art-centered approach. However, many art
historians have ventured into issues of consumer behavior. For example, Simon Schama
discusses many aspects central to consumer research in his monumental study of Dutch
art, such as collecting, demand, luxury goods, etc. (Schama 1988). Other art historians
take a consumer research approach to the art market, demonstrating that art is governed
by market forces similar to manufactured goods (e.g. Watson 1992; Goldthwaite 1993;
Jenson 1994). For example, Goldthwaite (1993) includes a chapter titled "Consumer
Behavior" in his thorough analysis of the art market during the Italian Renaissance.
While art historians are surveying consumption of art, consumer researchers have been
slow to turn to art to analyze consumption-a central feature of the culture that art depicts,
packages, comments on, and is sold within. One recent paper recognizes the influence of
the art market in corporate strategy, dubbing corporate sponsors of art "the Modern
Medicis" (Joy 1993). However, most consumer research from an art centered approach
focuses on advertising-an important, but limited, application of the rich tradition of art
history (Ball and Smith 1992).
For example, Scott’s (1994) exceptional system for analyzing visual rhetoric, which
borrows language and systems from art history, focuses on advertising imagery. Stern
and Schroeder’s (1994) turn to literary and visual theory to analyze a Paco Rabanne
cologne advertisement. Promising extensions of the use of art based approaches include
Percy’s (1993) use of art history to look at brand equity; Heisler and Levy’s (1991)
photography based research technique, autodriving; and Havlena and Holak’s work on
nostalgic images (1996). Following Belk’s (1986) call for art based research on
materialism, Schroeder (1992) investigated the connections between materialism and the
Pop Art movement, demonstrating the complex links between a consumer research
derived concept and artwork. The draw toward art based criticism prompted this
observation: "investigating the Pop Art movement through a consumer research
framework can shed light on consumption; Pop Art provides impressive and eloquent
content to examine materialism" (Schroeder 1992, p. 13).
Another stream of consumer research has focused on aesthetics-an important branch of
art history useful for scholars interested in the phenomenology of consumption (e.g.
Holbrook and Zirlin 1985). Aesthetics within the consumer context usually refers to a
response to a sensory stimulus produced by media, entertainment, or the arts (Holbrook
1980). What sets artistic responses apart is an appreciation of the stimulus for its own
sake. Painting, then, enjoys a esthetic reaction due to its existence as a end in itself, rather

5. than a means to some other end. For example, Holbrook has called for a study of the
experience of art and its creation as a basis for understanding aesthetics within artistic
organizations (Holbrook & Zirlin, 1985). Aesthetics and our perceptual systems are
integral to our understanding and appreciation of art (e.g. Arnheim, 1966). The role of the
image is critical in understanding issues central to mainstream consumer research-
perception, categorization, brand image, advertising response, for example. Thus,
borrowing from art criticism seems a logical choice for a more complete analysis of
consumer behavior, with the goals of understanding the historical, cultural, and
representational contexts of consumption.
CONSUMPTION INTO ART: ANDY WARHOL AND THE POP ART MOVEMENT
By preempting the celebrity of his subjects-from Campbell’s soup and Coca-Cola to
Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley-[Warhol] parlayed his own name and face into
commercial commodities that became recognized-and valued-around the world -Bourdon
1989, p. 9
Pop art utilized subjects "that anybody walking down Broadway could recognize in a
split second-comics, picnic tables, men’s trousers, celebrities, shower curtains,
refrigerators, Coke bottles-all the great modern things" (Stokstad 1995, p. 1130). Pop
borrowed from the world of advertising, grocery stores, billboards, television, etc., to an
unprecedented degree. Warhol, in particular, focused on the objects he consumed on a
daily basis-Campbell’s soup, Coca-cola, money, famous people, and newspapers. These
are stimulus materials for many consumer behavior studies, and provide an important link
between the world of art and the realm of consumer research. Depicting material goods
and consumer artifacts was not entirely new to the art world. The history of painting is
replete with examples of scenes of wealth, possessions, and display (e.g. Berger, 1972).
The Dutch, to illustrate, favored paintings of the abundant goods an affluent society
produces (Schama 1988). What set Pop apart is the critical and commercial success of a
group of artists, all having a common concern with the problems of the commercial
image and popular culture (Mashun, 1987).
The Pop movement was, in part, a reaction to the current dominant form of painting of
the day, Abstract Expressionism, which focused on the inner imagination of the artist and
the technique of creating art. In contrast, Pop artists drew from the popular culture in
achieving an easily recognizable and reproducible art form. Warhol realized that people
receive the same message over and over, and often like messages or images sheerly
through repetition exposure (see Figure). He claimed to eat the same thing day after day,
including-yes, indeed-cans of Campbell’s soup and lots of Coca-cola.
Unconcerned with painterly style and brushwork, many Pop artists utilized mass
production techniques in their work. Indeed, several influential Pop artists, inluding
Warhol, were trained in commercial art and printing and advertising techniques. Pop Art
gained commercial and popular (if not always critical) acceptance in the early 1960s.
Along with Andy Warhol, success came rapidly for artists such as James Rosenquist,

6. Tom Wesselmann, Claes Oldenburg, and Roy Lichtenstein. Warhol, however, became an
icon for the movement, and was dubbed the Pope of Pop.
Warhol was trained in commercial art at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now part of
Carnegie Mellon University) and was a highly successful commercial artist in New York
City during the 1950s. His advertising work won him several awards and constant work
(Bourdon 1989). Warhol’s forays into fine art-producing images not driven by specific
commercial jobs-drew its inspiration from comic strips and advertising slogans. His first
huge success resulted from the Campbell’s Soup can series, which attracted widespread
attention and notoriety (e.g. Stuckey, 1989; Swenson, 1963, 1964). Other works of this
period include the Coca-Cola series, consisting of repeated images of Coke bottles, Brillo
box wood sculptures, reproductions of commercial shipping containers, and celebrity
portraits. He produced many self portraits throughout his career, as well as dozens of
films, several books, and, after he was famous, continued to do commercial work
(Bourdon 1971; Hackett 1989; Warhol 1975, 1983, 1985). The Andy Warhol Museum
opened its doors in Pittsburgh in 1994, and is the largest museum in the U.S. devoted to a
single artist (Sozanski 1994). Currently, his work commands high prices at auction
(Vogel 1993), and the "cult" is alive and well (e.g. Gruber 1993).
WARHOL’S CONTRIBUTION TO UNDERSTANDING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
An analysis of five areas of consumer behavior in terms of Warhol’s work and reactions
to it demonstrates the potential of placing art within consumer research. The five areas
were chosen for this study to demonstrate the diverse potential of turning to visual artists
to understand consumer behavior. As a masterful producer of cultural discourse, Warhol
isolated and reified the banal and commonplace objects of consumption. Insight gleaned
from this exercise complements and reinforces concepts and ideas developed by
consumer researchers. This multi-method approach is capable of offering confirmation of
experimental research findings, generating new research ideas, and uncovering hidden
aspects of consumer behavior. Material for this analysis is drawn from several sources;
the art itself; critical comments; Warhol’s own reflections and quips; and scholarly
writing about Warhol. Warhol’s statements are notoriously unreliable-he constantly
misled interviews about his background and intentions (Bourdon 1989). However, for the
purposes of this paper, his comments provide interesting findings about an accomplished
marketer whose most successful product was himself.
Since the birth of Modernism around the turn of the century, a significant project for
artists is the development of an individual style (Jenson 1994). Thus, art history might
offer lessons in brand equity-an identifiable trademark, designed for consumption (Percy
1993). Andy Warhol was extremely successful in building his own version of brand
equity, interestingly enough by using an imitator strategy of adopting ready made
symbols in his art.
BRAND EQUITY

7. Andy Warhol developed one of the most globally recognizable styles in the history of art,
even though his work lacked signature brushwork or technique (Stokstad 1995).
Moreover, of course, many of his most famous subjects were originally designed by
others-the Brillo box designer sued Warhol for breach of copyright (he lost) (Bourdon
1989). Despite the fact that he did not "create" the original image, Warhol became
irrevocably linked to his flat depictions of Campbell’s soup cans. In essence, then, he
developed a strong brand identity and brand equity. By introducing images that were
easily identified and linked with himself as an artist, Warhol achieved his own style-in
marketing terms, his own brand: "it is one the many paradoxes of Warhol’s career that
[his images] should be so inescapably his own" (Rockwell 1991, p 347). He aggressively
pursued potential buyers for his art; "his metamorphosis into a Pop persona was
calculated and deliberate" (Bourdon 1989, p. 6).
Warhol changed the way we look at products, especially Campbell’s soup. The
Campbell’s brand has meaning apart from that of a heavily advertised consumer product,
because of Warhol’s art and ensuing fame. Indeed, the Campbell’s soup company,
initially antagonized by Warhol’s use of their trademark, hired him to paint a series of
Campbell’s dry mix soup cartons in the 1980s (Honnef 1991). Warhol’s major work
prefigured scholarly attention of brand equity, but he was very aware of the powerful
associations found in his Pop images: "Andy always seized on the most familiar and
recognizable objects" (Bourdon 1989, p. 90). Popular brands tended to promote equal
opportunity for consumers, Warhol stated in a famous quote: "A Coke is a Coke, and no
amount of money can get you a better Coke" (Warhol 1975, p. 100). His eye, trained in
art, and focused on mainstream success and fame, gave him "an uncanny gift for
selecting motifs from the glut of visual information characteristic of a modern industrial
society overwhelmed by consumer products, newspapers, magazines, photographs,
television, and the cinema" (Livingstone 1990, p. 118). Warhol was a shrewd marketer of
both his work, and perhaps more significantly, his image. His background in advertising
assisted him in knowing what sells and how to sell it.
Through his international success, Andy Warhol became a major "brand" himself,
allowing him to command high prices for his prolific output, and amassed a fortune
valued at $400 million after his death (Peers 1996). Andy’s persona matched that of his
art-detached but friendly, familiar, yet distant. His pursuit of fame was legendary, he
became a product endorser through his celebrity, appearing in ads for a variety of
products (Pomeroy 1971). In 1986, he came full circle by creating Absolut Warhol, thus
inaugurating the artist produced Absolut Vodka series. Warhol was a shrewd marketer,
his public image designed for maximum impact and appeal. He was driven a desire to be
famous-for anything: "I wish I could invent something like bluejeans. Something to be
remembered by. Something mass" (Warhol 1975, p. 13). Warhol assured his immortality
through the creation of the richly endowed Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts,
which helped develop the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. His success has become
its own icon: "Warhol’s Dollar Signs are brazen, perhaps even insolent reminders that
pictures by brand-name artists are metaphors for money, a situation that never troubled
him" (Bourdon 1989, p. 384).

8. Warhol also attempted to create "superstars"-celebrities known for their association with
him. He had some success in promoting the careers of the rock group The Velvet
Underground, the film personality Edie Sedgwick, and an entourage at his studio, dubbed
the Factory. This is an interesting example of brand extensions-new "products" associated
with old favorites. Warholwas tremendously invested in his "aura," and one company
expressed interest in securing his services to promote their products (Bourdon 1989).
Warhol represents a charismatic figure totally concerned with strategically marketing the
ultimate commodity, oneself. He was careful not to become confused with other early
pop artists, such as Roy Liechtenstein, who worked with comics. His insights and
concerns with his identity will be addressed further under "self-concept."
Warhol showed us that a well recognized brand name might succeed in attracting
consumers in a different context-brand extension. He demonstrated that consumer’s
positive feelings about products often lay far outside the product itself-he did not paint
Campbell’s soup, after all, he painted the branded can. His success was phenomenal
evidence that brands are psychological entities, with associations far outside the context
of consumption. Moreover, he showed that equity is linked to recognizability. Advertisers
may have known this far some time, but Warhol’s contribution extends beyond the
domain of marketing-for his art has created an extra layer of brand equity to such well-
known products as Campbell’s soup and Coca-Cola. Cigarette brands like Camel and
Marlboro are pursuing this concept by selling clothing and Marlboro gear to consumers.
Harley Davidson figured out that they can sell more t-shirts and wallets than motorcycles.
Coca-Cola has started selling clothing. Perhaps these are more sophisticated examples of
brand value, but Warhol remains an compelling figure in the history of brand equity.
CLOTHING, FASHION AND BEAUTY
Warhol was fascinated with celebrities and was profoundly affected by Marilyn
Monroe’s suicide in 1962. He began to work on a series of paintings of her, starting with
a publicity photograph of her he had purchased. In the next several years, he produced
what many art critics consider to be his strongest work, the Marilyn series. In the work,
Warhol used a silk-screen technique to highlight Monroe’s features with brighter than life
colors. In this period he began experimenting with repetition, mass production, and
"mistakes"-poorly aligned images and smudges. In a famous image, Marilyn Monroe
Twenty Times, Warhol experiments with repeated the image of Monroe over and over,
creating subtle differences in each repetition, while maintaining the mass produced
appearance of a consumer good. Moreover, his work comments on the reproduction of
images, art, and originality (see Benjamin 1968).
Celebrities are like goods, Warhol seemed to be saying, by creating similar works with
Coca-cola bottles, S & H Green Stamps, and even U.S. currency. Warhol helps us realize
that celebrities have brand equity, consumer awareness, etc. In Warhol’s paintings,
Monroe gazes coolly out at the viewer behind a publicity smile and heavily applied
makeup. Warhol felt these paintings were an homage to Monroe’s beauty and fame, but
art critics have pointed out the ghoulish nature of reproducing the image of a beauty
queen amidst evidence of a tragic life and death (Mamiya 1992). In one example, a single

9. image of Monroe is surrounded by a field of gold, like a Byzantine icon: "By
symbolically treating the famous actress as a saint, Warhol shed light on his own
fascination with fame" (Livingstone 1991).Warhol shows us the construction of fame and
beauty. He was perennially dissatisfied with his looks, undergoing plastic surgery and
wearing a wig at all times. His portraits of Liz Taylor and Jackie Kennedy also dealt with
issues of fame, beauty, and tragedy. Once again, his choice of material rings true- tragic
undertones infuse many great works of art and literature. Warhol returned to Marilyn
Monroe several times throughou his career, producing an eerie reverse-color series late in
his career. In Reverse Marilyn, the image is as recognizable from his earlier work as from
Monroe’s fame-but it seems fraught with trauma, her face darkened and eyes glowing as
if on fire. Warhol was willing to show us how we consume celebrities, while also
providing a thoughtful reminder of the discrepancies between public persona and private
identity. This theme was tremendously important in his own life, as evidenced by his
friends and his written work. Warhol was always on stage, even when writing in his
diaries, which were produced for public consumption (Hackett 1989).
IMAGERY
Mr. Warhol was among the first to point out that we are a country united, most of all, by
commercialism. He opened our eyes with art. Whether silk-screening soup cans or
Marilyn Monroe, he showed us that the things we know best and react to most
instinctively are those images brought to us via mass markets, mass media, and mass
production.
-Skenazy 1987
Imagery is the area that Warhol made perhaps the most profound contributions to issues
of consumer behavior. Warhol injected many images into the cultural discourse. His
repeated motifs are classics of twentieth century art. Warhol investigated ideas of
originality and the original image through his choice of subject matter, technique, and
reproduction (silk-screen, prints, reworking). His success, however, was in becoming an
icon himself, the image of a fabulously famous artist. His preeminence as a cultural icon
is summarized as follows: "In the postwar era, if an artist wants to do more than merely
fuel the art apparatus, the most effective strategies usually involve working with the
institutions of culture. The artist who most fully met this challenge and who is the
paradigm of the artist-producer is Andy Warhol" (Staniszewski, 1995, p. 262). Another
critic concurs: "Warhol’s art represented the culmination of dilemmas about the
relationship of art, media, and advertising that artists had confronted since the turn of the
century" (Bogart 1995, p 300).
Warhol’s most successful images are tied into the mainstream cultural symbols-
abundance, mass marketed products, images of the good life. His subject matter revolves
around high involvement images . His art, and the Warhol phenomenon instructs us in
how we consume images and symbols. When his household belongings were auctioned,
Sotheby’s estimates were far exceeded, commonplace cookie jars sold for $1000. People
were eager to own something that belonged to him-he probably would have been thrilled.

10. His image had been carefully constructed-his wigs became progressively more noticeable
and odd, his face often caked with white foundation and make-up. He was an original, yet
his art blatantly copied mainstream designs. He reflected the ideal of mass marketing
techniques-appealing to uniqueness through consuming mass produced goods: "Buying is
much more American than thinking and I’m as American as they come" (Warhol 1975, p.
229).
PACKAGING
Warhol’s "boxes" series isoates package design, focusing our attention on the package as
an object in its own right. These works are wooden sculptures, made to look exactly like
shipping cartons for popular consumer goods-Del Monte canned fruits, Brillo cleaning
pads, Campbell’s soup. Warhol achieved a great deal of notoriety, scorn, and press from
the boxes series, and they remain some of his most successful works. In the Campbell’s
soup can painting series, Warhol takes a close look at packaging, too. In Big Torn Soup
Can, for example, he shows us the package behind the label, calling attention to the
object of consumption. In this painting, a brand extension, if you will, of his earlier soup
can paintings, the Campbell’s label is torn, hanging off the can, but still instantly
recognizable. The can is exposed, and in some hints of a painterly technique, its steel case
reflects light toward the viewer. One is struck by the dual packaging of the image-the
label and the can. The can looks plain, uncovered, unlabeled without the Red and White
Campbell’s. We realize that labels reassure us of safe contents, protecting us from harm.
Once again, product designers and market tests might pick up these insights, but Warhol
made them available for all. He also fixed his attention on the packaging of Coca-cola,
painting the patented bottle over and over.
Warhol’s work comments on the packaging of celebrities, as well. Marilyn Monroe and
Elvis Presley, two of his major subjects, both lived desperate lives in marked contrast to
the media image they enjoyed. By choosing their publicity images, Warhol deliberately
pointed out contradictions of the package. However, the image of Marilyn Monroe as a
beauty outlived her personal anguish, with Warhol’s disturbing portraits of her a vague
reminder of her private pain.
SELF-CONCEPT
Writing about Warhol’s cultural contributions in 1971, one art critic suggested that one of
his most important contributions was to show the evolution of a personal mythology by
means of an extremely consistent persona (Josephson 1971). Warhol’s self portraits are
an interesting study in an expression of the self-concept. He was fascinated in the
relationships between image and reality-especially his own: "It must be hard to be a
model, because you’d want to look like the photograph of you, and you can’t ever look
that way" (Warhol 1975 p. 63). He completed many self-portraits throughout his career,
eventually adopting his repeated techniques for his own image.
In all of his self portraits, he remains aloof, composed, and very much Andy Warhol. It is
his self-portraits that are the most well known images of Warhol as a person. Thus, he

11. controls his image by producing it. Warhol’s many self-portraits can be viewed as a great
marketing campaign for himself. For a Pop exhibition in Germany, he provided a huge
self-portrait-a glorious ad for Andy Warhol (Bourdon 1989). Warhol knew that the best
marketing for his art was the creation of celebrity, and his self-portraits were an
important component of this strategy. Warhol’s public record shows a remarkable
consistency throughout his career, stretching back into his college years, that is a
hallmark of psychological conceptions of the self-concept. His self-portraits offer
evidence of the construction of self-concept; a process we all engage in, albeit with
somewhat less intention than Warhol.
CONCLUSIONS
Warhol’s impact on art and society was tremendous; this paper offers a highly restricted
view of his potential for consumer researchers. By applying some methods of art
criticism to his vast body of work, insight was gained in key areas of consumer research:
brand equity; clothing, fashion and beauty; imagery; packaging; and self-concept. Art
history is equipped with much more theoretically challenging theories and frameworks-
this paper gleaned insights from a surface skimming of the treasures of art criticism and
art history. Further work is necessary to articulate how art historical techniques might
complement literary tools that have earned a place within the consumer researcher’s
toolbox.
As we move into a postmodern society, dominated by visual images, informed by five
hundred cable television channels, and obsessed with global symbols, visual literacy
takes on greater importance to both the consumer and marketer. Art criticism seems a
useful area to study the central role images play in consumer behavior-joining successful
applications of other humanities based approaches. Marketing, in particular, encourages
symbolic associations: products to images, images to products. To fully understand
consumer behavior requires an appreciation of the long heritage of art scholarship. This
project represents a step toward mining the rich ground of art history to extract nuggets of
wisdom about consumers and the society they live in.
REFERENCES
Arnheim, Rudolf (1966), Toward a Psychology of Art, Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Ball, Michael S. and Gregory W. H. Smith (1992), Analyzing Visual Data, Newbury
Park, CA: Sage.
Belk, Russell W. (1986), "Art versus Science as Ways of Generating Knowledge about
Materialism," in Perspectives on Methodology in Consumer Research, ed. David
Brinberg and Richard J. Lutz, New York: Springer-Verlag, 3-36.
Belk, Russell W., Melanie Wallendorf, and John F. Sherry, Jr. (1989), "The Sacred and
the Profane: Theodicy on the Odyssey," Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (June), 1-38.

12. Benjamin, Walter (1968), Illuminations, trans. Hannah Arendt, New York: Schocken.
Berger, John (1972), Ways of Seeing, London: Penguin/BBC. Press.
Bogart, Michele H. (1995), Artists, Advertising, and the Borders of Art, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Bourdon, David (1971), "Warhol as Filmmaker," Art News, 59 (3), 48-53.
Bourdon, David (1989), Warhol, New York: Abradale Press.
Feldman, Edward B. (1987), The Varieties of Visual Experience, 3rd ed., New York:
Prentice Hall/Abrams.
Firat, A. Fuat and Alladi Venkatesh (1995), "Liberatory Postmodernism and the
Reenchantment of Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, 22 (December), 29-
267.
Goldthwaite, Richard A. (1993), Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy 1300-1600,
Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Gruber, Ruth Ellen (1993), "Warhol Pops Up in Carpathia," New York Times, February
21, 23.
Hackett, Pat (ed.) (1989), The Andy Warhol Diaries, New York: Warner.
Havlena, William J. and Susan L. Holak (1996), "Exploring Nostalgia Imagery Through
the Use of Consumer Collages," in Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 23, ed. Kim P.
Corfman and John G. Lynch, Provo: UT: Association for Consumer Research, 35-42.
Heisley, Deborah A. and Sidney J. Levy (1991), "Autodriving: A Photoelecitation
Technique," Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (December), 257-273.
Holbrook, Morris B. (1980), "Some Preliminary Notes on Research in Consumer
Esthetics," in Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 7, ed., Jerry Olson, Provo:
Association for Consumer Research, 104-108.
Holbrook, Morris B. and R. B. Zirlin (1985), "Artistic Creation, Artworks and Aesthetic
Appreciation," in Advances in Nonprofit Marketing, vol. 1, ed. Russell Belk Greenwich,
CT: JAI Press, 1-54.
Honnef, Klaus (1991), Andy Warhol: Commerce into Art, Koln, Germany: Benedikt
Tachen.

13. Hudson, Laurel Anderson, and Julie L. Ozanne (1988), "Alternative Ways of Seeking
Knowledge in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (March), 508-
521.
Jensen, Robert (1994), Marketing Modernism in Fin-de-SiFcle Europe, Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Johnston, Jill (1989), "The Artist in a Coca-Cola World," in Pop Art: The Critical
Dialogue, ed. Carol A. Mashun, Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 41-47.
Jones, Brian D. G., and David D. Monieson (1990), "Historical Research in Marketing:
Retrospect and Prospect," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 18 (4), 269-
278.
Josephson, Mary (1971), "Warhol: The Medium as Cultural Artifact," Art News, 59
(May-June), 41-47.
Joy, Annamma (1993), "The Modern Medicis: Corporations as Consumers of Art," in
Research in Consumer Behavior, vol. 6, ed. Russell W. Belk, New York: JAI Press, 29-
54.
Lippard, Lucy R. (1966), Pop Art, New York: Thames and Hudson.
Livingstone, Marco (1990), Pop Art: A Continuing History, New York: Abrams.
Livingstone, Marco (1991), Pop Art, An International Perspective, New York: Rizzoli.
Mahsun, Carol A. (1987), Pop Art and the Critics, Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.
Mamiya, Christin J. (1992), Pop Art and Consumer Culture, Austin: University of Texas
Press.
Mick, David Glen (1986), "Consumer Research and Semiotics: Exploring the
Morphology of Signs, Symbols, and Significance," Journal of Consumer Research, 13
(September), 196-213.
Peers, Alexandra (1996), "Court Upholds Value of Warhol’s Estate," Wall Street Journal,
February 9, B2.
Percy, Larry (1993), "Brand Equity, Images, and Culture: Lessons from Art History," in
European Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 1, eds. W. Fred van Raaij and Gary
Bamossy, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 569-573.
Pomeroy, Ralph (1971), "The Importance of Being Andy Andy Andy Andy Andy," Arts
& Artists, (February), 14-19.

14. Rockwell, John (1991), The Meanings of Modern Art, rev. ed., New York: Museum of
Modern Art/HarperCollins.
Roskill, Mark (1989), What is Art History? Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Runyon, William M. (1981), "Why Did Van Gogh Cut Off His Ear? The Problem of
Alternative Explanations in Psychobiography," Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 40, 1070-1077.
Schama, Simon (1988), The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch
Culture in the Golden Age, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Schroeder, Jonathan E. (1992), "Materialism and Modern Art," in Meaning, Measure, and
Morality of Materialism, ed. Floyd Rudmin and Marsha Richins, Provo, UT: Association
for Consumer Research, 10-14.
Scott, Linda A. (1994), "Images of Advertising; The Need for a Theory of Visual
Rhetoric," Journal of Consumer Research, 21 (September), 252-273.
Sherry, John F. Jr. (1991), "Postmodern Alternatives: The Interpretive Turn in Consumer
Research," in Handbook of Consumer Behavior, ed. Thomas S. Robertson and Harold H.
Kassarjian, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 548-591.
Skenazy, Lenore (1987), "Andy Warhol, R.I.P.," Advertising Age, March 2, 72.
Smith, Ruth Ann, and David S. Lux (1993), "Historical Method in Consumer Research:
Developing Causal Explanations of Change," Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (March),
595-610.
Sozanski, Edward J. (1994), "Andy Warhol goes Home," Chicago Tribune, June 19,
13:18-20.
Staniszewski, Mary Anne (1995), Believing is Seeing: Creating the Culture of Art, New
York: Penguin.
Stern, Barbara B. (1988), "Medieval Allegory: Roots of Advertising Strategy for the
Mass Market," Journal of Marketing, 52 (July), 84-94.
Stern, Barbara B. (1989), "Literary Criticism and Consumer Research: Overview and
Illustrative Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (December), 322-334.
Stern, Barbara B. and Jonathan E. Schroeder (1994), "Interpretive Methodology from Art
and Literary Criticism: A Humanistic Approach to Advertising Imagery," European
Journal of Marketing, 28 (September), 114-132.

15. Stich, Sidra (1987), Made in U.S.A.: An Americanization in Modern Art, the ’50s
and’60s, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Stokstad, Marilyn (1995), Art History, New York: Abrams.
Stuckey, C. F. (1989). Warhol in Context, in The Work of Andy Warhol, ed. G. Garrels,
Seattle: Bay Press, 3-33.
Swenson, G. (1963), "What is Pop Art? Part 1," Artnews, 62, 25-27, 61, 62.
Swenson, G. (1964), "What is Pop Art? Part 2," Artnews, 62, 40-43, 62-67.
Vogel, Carol (1993), "A Sotheby’s Sale offers the Tops in Pop," New York Times, April
9, C23.
Warhol, Andy (1975), The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, San Diego: Harvest/HBJ.
Warhol, Andy (1983), Popism: The Warhol Sixties, New York: Harper & Row.
Warhol, Andy (1985), America, New York: Harper.
Watson, Peter (1992), From Manet to Manhattan: The Rise of the Modern Art Market,
New York: Random House.
Wilson, Simon (1974), Pop, London: Thames & Hudson.
Yenawine, Philip (1991), How to Look at Modern Art, New York: Abrams.