Imaginative pleasure through daydreaming has been theorized to be important in understanding the experience of desire and as a factor in escalating consumption. However, there is a risk this underplays the range of potentially immersive and intense experiences of daydreaming, prior to and independent of the purchase or use of marketplace commodities. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant diaries and projective techniques, this study brings empirical data to extant conceptual work on the consumer imagination to examine the variety of consequences of elaborate daydreaming for commodity acquisition. We suggest that it need not necessarily perpetuate or expand ‘actual’ consumption but may instead engender a longer, more reflective, pleasurable and meaningful experience from which purchase or acquisition may never materialize. Our study challenges accepted theories that associate daydreaming with consumerism or see it as an inevitable precursor to consumer disappointment, while shining a more positive light on the role of fantasizing in shaping consumers’ decisions.

从理论上讲，通过做白日梦来实现想象中的愉悦感对于理解欲望的体验很重要，并且是消费增长的一个因素。但是，存在这样的风险，即在购买或使用市场商品之前和与之无关的情况下，这种行为会淡化潜在的沉浸式和激烈的白日梦体验的范围。借助深入的访谈，参与者日记和投影技术，本研究将经验数据带入了现有的关于消费者想象力的概念性研究工作中，以检验精心制作的白日梦对商品获取的各种后果。我们建议，它不一定需要永久或扩大“实际”消费，而可以带来更长久，更具反思性，令人愉悦和有意义的经验，而购买或收购可能永远不会实现。