Consumption as experiential area An innovative and interdisciplinary reading of consumption is provided, with the specific aim of enriching both sociology and marketing. According to Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems, today’s society does not have a pyramidal structure anymore and is characterized by functional differentiation. In order to understand consumption, it is therefore necessary to focus on consumer processes and so-called ‘meeting points’. Contrary to economic and sociological traditions, great importance is then attached to consumption, defined as the main ‘experiential area’. In this perspective, today’s society corresponds to the society of consumption, where consumption has symbolic, relational, and ethical connotations.