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Nominal definitions of concepts specified in marketing theories are vulnerable to problems involving conceptual ambiguity and vagueness when they are defined using natural language systems. The authors present a framework that researchers can use to assess the theoretical meaningfulness of conceptual definitions and to improve theoretical meaningfulness using the specification of formal language systems. Although the framework is applicable to any conceptual definition, the authors use several consumer expectations and related concepts to demonstrate the contribution of this framework to the improvement of conceptual definitions and to the process of theory formalization.

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The consumption of makeup by teenage girls may represent a ritual critical to the rite of passage to adulthood. To explore this issue, depth interviews were conducted with 25 teenage girls in France, ages 14-18 years, about their makeup use. The data in this exploratory study suggest that putting on makeup is a ritual that plays a critical role for adolescent girls separating from their childhood and transitioning toward adulthood. Evidence of ritual dimensions (repetition, symbolic, codification, and dramaturgy) was found. The data further suggest that the traditional rite of passage associated with primitive societies is useful in identifying ritual teenage girls' makeup consumption in modern society, although with some differences.