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7 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Self Concept |
A collection of beliefs about one's own nature, unique qualities, and typical behaviour Self-identity refers to a collection of identities that reflect the role that a person occupies in a social structure Social-identity refers to the shared attributes that define membership of the specific group one belongs to Actual self image - how consumers do in fact see themselves Ideal self image - how consumers would like to see themselves Social self image - how consumers think others see them Ideal social self - how consumers would like others to see them |
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Self-Congruency Theory |
If a person's perception of a product's image is consistent with their own self-identity - the consumer has a more positive attitude to, and increased likelihood of purchasing, the product Assumes a process of cognitive matching between product attributes and consumer's self-image Ideal-self more relevant as a comparison standard for highly expressive social product (e.g. perfume), while actual self more relevant for everyday functional products Issues: do consumers really see aspects of themselves in functional, un-emotive products? Chicken-and-egg - do they buy products similar to themselves, or assume similarity because they have bought them (similarity has been found to increase with ownership) |
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Social Identity Theory |
People are motivated to achieve and maintain positive concepts of themselves - threats to one's self-esteem increases the need for in-group favouritism as expressions of in-group favouritism enhance one's self-esteem (favoured to out-groups for self-esteem enhancement) Can be used in identity marketing - emphasise belonging to in-groups (e.g. loyalty cards, ice bucket challenge) - stress you are/can be part of a certain in-group as long as you buy/donate - to protect your social identity and hence self-concept White & Argo (2009) found brand identity linkage may sometimes have negative consequences - consumers motivated to protect and maintain feelings of individual self-worth alter their product evaluations and choices to avoid a threatened aspect of their own social identity - if identity becomes threatened and consumer doesn't highly identify with or value the identity the product may be avoided - must foster positive collective self-esteem towards that identity (e.g. Dove - links product with female identity and encourages women to feel positively about their gender identity) |
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Identity Conflict |
Assimilation - consumers choose the same products as in-group members to communicate their desired social identity Differentiation - however, they want to be different as well Chan et al. (2002) study found consumers simultaneously pursue assimilation and differentiation goals on different dimensions of a single choice - assimilate on one dimension (e.g. brand choice - often seen as signals of social identity so tends to be used as a form of signalling) - differentiate on another (e.g. uniqueness attributes e.g. colour) - people driven to select more differentiated options within their in-group rather than options outside their group |
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Identity Marketing |
Better to reference consumer identities than to define them Bhattachearjee et al. (2014) found identity referencing increased purchase likelihood while identity defining decreased it (across multiple identities/products) - humans need a sense of autonomy/choice - identity defining messages reduce their perceived ability to freely express the identity (e.g. 'a good choice for green consumers' vs. 'the only choice for green consumers') |
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Symbolic Consumption |
Products can act as symbols of the ideal self - marketers can invite consumers to use the product to project their ideal self-image to themselves and others Theory of material possessions - material goods can fulfil a range of functions - consumption is motivated by these three functions - instrumental (utility derived), affective (emotional experience derived), symbolic (sense of self/social identity that is reflected by/built from the possession) Consumers buy products for what they mean (communicate a person's unique qualities/values/attitudes, communicate group membership/status) rather than what they do |
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Social Comparison Theory |
People desire to know about themselves - one way to do this is compare self with others People develop self-knowledge and make social choices based on comparisons with others Can compare up or down - can't always control who we compare with - most frequent social comparison in our culture (often involuntarily) is with media images regarding material possessions/level of attractiveness Bias processing - hold upwards comparisons as relevant and downwards as irrelevant - danger of deficiency from comparison with an idealised image leading to negative self-feelings - serves as a motivational force to eliminate these negative feelings and repair sense of self-worth Material possessions particularly important in defining the self - social comparison an important mechanism for evaluating materialistic status |
