The process of consumption can be goal directed or experiential, according to Donna Hoffman and Thomas Novack. Goal-directed consumption is motivated by extrinsic concerns such as the utilitarian value of an object or the need to fulfill a specific extrinsic goal. Goal-directed consumption is typically planned and directed. Overall, goal-directed consumption is slow, conscious, effortful, highly modifiable, and largely effect free. Experiential consumption, in contrast, is motivated by intrinsic concerns such as the immediate hedonic benefit or the need to complete a ritualized behavior. Overall, experiential consumption is fast, automatic, effortless, more difficult to modify, and intimately bound up with emotional processing.

It remains uncertain which system is more important in deciding consumer behavior and how the two systems might relate and interact. Clearly, people can ...