Researchers are forever looking for newer ways of engaging and understanding consumers. In this paper, I will be discussing how Dramaturgy, a concept borrowed from the study of theatre and introduced to sociology, can be applied in consumer research to gain deeper insights into their life-worlds. Dramaturgy has the potential to be the overarching research philosophy that influences how we collect, analyse and interpret data. Dramaturgy, or the theatric metaphor, has a special connect with people in the Indian subcontinent who have been nurtured on a diet of Bollywood. These films, whose origin lies in India's traditional drama forms (e.g. Yatra) are widely known for their high voltage dramatic contents and emotional impact. People in India are passionate about Bollywood and view it as a consolidation of their everyday lives. This paper celebrates the Indian passion for drama and explores how it can be harnessed and leveraged in consumer research through a case study on women and their multiple identity roles.
The study demonstrates that the concept of Dramaturgy can be successfully applied in consumer research to explore complex phenomenon such as multiple identities and relate these with needs, aspirations and behaviour. It is an effective substitution of ethnography and apt for a range of studies that include explaining the concept of Dramaturgy with the help of Bollywood, people across cultures will be able to relate to the concept as it is based on the fundamental human instinct of impression management and identity projection.