(C) Emerald Group Publishing Limited DIFFERENT WAYS OF SAYING GOODBYE: OUTLINING THREE TYPES OF ABANDONMENT OF A PRODUCT CATEGORY Maribel Suarez and Marie Agnes Chauvel ABSTRACT Purpose À Little attention has been directed to investigating abandon- ment which refers to the deliberate choice of giving up something previ- ously consumed. In this chapter, we look into meanings that motivate the abandonment of a product category and also the meanings abandon- ment gives rise to. Design/methodology/approach À The research used a qualitative meth- odology to collect and analyze data obtained from in-depth interviews with 16 Brazilian consumers who gave up automobile ownership. This category was chosen due to its intense symbolic dimension. Findings À The interviews suggest that, rather than being a discrete event, an action, or decision that is circumscribed by a given moment, abandonment is in fact a process. The analysis also outlines three types of abandonment: contingent, positional, and ideological. Contingent Research in Consumer Behavior, Volume 14, 277À295 Copyright r 2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 0885-2111/doi:10.1108/S0885-2111(2012)0000014018 277