More than two decades ago Hoch (1988) noted, “consumer researchers have focused almost exclusively on understanding consumers…however, product and service offerings are the result of managerial decisions; the marketplace is an open system based on reciprocal relations between marketers and consumers” (p.316). It is not that the interplay among consumers and brands, products and organizations has been ignored, but rather that studies have remained largely indifferent to the perspective of the managers who produce the objects, symbols and experiences with which consumers interact.

This research addresses this gap by examining individual managers’ relationships with their targeted consumers in the context of product development. Product development is a rich context for investigating the relationships producers construe with consumers, for it is during this process that managers actively explore and address the fundamental nature of consumers’ motivations, desires and behaviors before deciding how to respond in product form.