1. Self Concept and Consumption
Consumer Behavior #10
Self Concept and Consumption

2. Self Concept
The self-concept strongly influences consumer behavior.

3. Learning objectives
When you finish this chapter, you should understand why:
The self-concept strongly influences consumer behavior.
Products often play a key role in defining the self-concept.
Society’s expectations of masculinity and femininity help to determine the products we buy to meet these expectations.

4. Learning objectives
When you finish this chapter, you should understand why:
The way we think about our bodies (and culture tells us we should think) is a key component of self-esteem.
Our desire to live up to cultural expectations of appearance can be harmful.
Every culture dictates certain types of body decoration or mutilation.

5. Positivity Content or Negativity Intensity, Stability Over Time
The Self-Concept Refers to the Beliefs a Person Holds About His or Her Attributes, and How He or She Evaluates These Qualities.
Components of the Self-Concept Include:
Positivity
or Negativity
Content
Intensity,
Stability Over Time
and Accuracy

6. Components of Self-Concept
Content: facial attractiveness, body image*, and mental aptitude
Self-esteem*: positivity or negativity, includes self-efficacy
Assessment and reliability: intensity, stability*, and accuracy

7. Self-Concept Self-Esteem Real and Ideal Selves
Refers to the Positivity of a Person’s Self-Concept
Real and Ideal Selves
Ideal - How a Person Would Like to Be
Real - Realistic Appraisal of Who We Really Are
Self-Concept
Fantasy: Bridging the Gap Between the Selves
When the Gap Between the Real and Ideal Self is Large,
Those Consumers are Good Targets for Fantasy Appeals

8. Body Image Subjective evaluation of one’s physical self
Ideals of beauty
Physical features, clothing styles, cosmetics, hair styles, skin tone, muscular tone, etc.
Change over time
What industries cater to self concept and body image?
Are unrealistic standards of beauty set?

9. Self Concept
An organized configuration of perceptions of the self, which are available to awareness
It is not distinct from society and culture
Sources of Selfhood, which is multi-faceted
Significant others
Materials, objects, places
Ideas, beliefs and values
Activities, goals, feelings, roles, traits

10. Types of Self-Concept
How many ways can you divide the self? Here are some distinctions consumer researchers make between types of self.
Actual self (me-self)
Ideal self (desired self)
Looking glass self
Image congruence hypothesis
self-concept is reinforced as positive responses from others support consumption activities
Situational self*
Multiplicity of identity indicates that selfhood is a collection of diverse but related self-perceptions – the self includes a multiplicity of things that people are to themselves and to one another
I-self
the active observer, the knower, or the information processor
Me-self
the known, observed, and constructed self-image
Looking-glass self
Image congruence hypothesis
self-concept is reinforced as positive responses from others support consumption activities
Extended self
external objects to which we are emotionally attached and that we consider a part of ourselves

11. Real and Ideal Selves
Ideal self: our conception of how we would like to be
Actual self: our more realistic appraisal of the qualities we have
Products can:
Help us reach ideal self
Be consistent with actual self
Impression management means that we work to “manage” what others think of us
We choose some products because we think they are consistent with our actual self, while we buy others to help us reach an ideal standard. We may strategically choose clothing and other products to show off to others. In other words, we are managing their impression of us with our product choices.

12. You Are What You Consume
Social identity as individual consumption behaviors
Question: Who am I now?
Answer: To some extent, your possessions!
Inference of personality based on consumption patterns
People who have an incomplete self-definition complete the identity by acquisition
Identity marketing is a promotional strategy where consumers alter some aspects of their selves to advertise for a branded product.
For instance, Air New Zealand created “cranial billboards” in exchange for a round-trip ticket to New Zealand. 30 participants shaved their heads and walked around with an ad for the airline on their skulls. The Casa Sanchez restaurant in San Francisco gives free lunches for life to anyone who gets its logo tattooed on their body. The restaurant estimates that the cost of the identity marketing promotion is $5.8 million – in terms of the free lunches redeemed. The image shown in the slide is the Casa Sanchez tattoo on a loyal customer.
The reflected self helps shape self-concept, which implies that people see themselves as they imagine others see them. Because what others see includes a person’s clothing, jewelry, furniture, car, and so on, it stands to reason that these products also help to create the perceived self. A consumer’s possessions place her into a social role which helps to answer the question, “Who am I now?”
People use an individual’s consumption behaviors to identify that person’s social identity. In addition to looking at clothes and grooming habits, we make inferences about personality based on choices of leisure activities, food preferences, and home decorating choices.
When we use objects to maintain our self-concept, we tend to become attached to those objects. For example, someone who drives a Mini Cooper may rely upon the image of Mini to relay information about his or her own identity (as a fun, distinctive, stylish person). The more the person relies upon the possession as a way of defining and supporting his or her identity, the more attached the person will be to the possession.

13. Self/Product Congruence
Consumers demonstrate their values through their purchase behavior
Self-image congruence models: we choose products when attributes matches the self
Research supports this idea that there is a match between product usage and self-image. In one study, car owners’ rating of themselves tended to match their perceptions of their cars. In another study, observers were able to match photos of male and female drivers to the cars they drove 70% of the time. =
Product Usage
Self-Image

14. Self-Esteem Self-esteem
People’s attitudes about themselves (positive to negative)
Low self-esteem is related to exaggerated concerns with looking glass self and influences
compulsive buying and
addictive behaviors

15. For Reflection
Advertising can utilize a consumer’s self-esteem in promoting a product by offering the product as a remedy to low self-esteem. Self-esteem advertising: products provide remedy to low self-esteem.
How effective do you think this form of advertising is?

16. Compulsive Consumption
Practices undertaken to bolster self-esteem, but they are inappropriate, excessive, and disruptive to the lives of those involved
Examples?*?
Some social service agencies and task forces have been founded to deal with compulsive consumption
Examples? Gambling, smoking

17. Multiple Selves
Marketers pitch products needed to facilitate active role identities
Sister
Woman
Friend
Wife
We all have multiple roles we play in our lives. We may have as many selves as we do different social roles. For the person depicted in the slide, she plays the roles of athlete, wife, sister, friend, and so on. She may behave differently in one role than in another, and she buys products associated with the various roles. Often times, these roles are situation-specific. The person here would probably not wear her basketball jersey to her daughter’s PTA meeting. Not only are roles sometimes situation-specific, some are also more central to our overall selves than others. Her role as athlete is probably more central to her identity than is her role as American citizen.
If each person potentially has many social selves, how does each develop? How do we decide which to activate at any point in time? Symbolic interactionism stresses that relationships with other people play a large part in forming the self.
Spokesperson
Pro athlete
Mother
American citizen

18. Multiple Selves
The self has different components, or Role Identities, that are active at specific times.
They cause us to prefer different products and services.
Some of the identities are more central than others (i.e. husband, boss, student).
Other identities may be more dominant in certain situations (i.e. stamp collector, dancer, volunteer).
Symbolic Interactionism stresses that relationships with other people play a large part in forming the self.
Looking-Glass Self: Process of imagining the reactions of others toward us (self fulfilling prophecy).

19. Self-Concept is flexible
People can change their self-concept (i.e., self-concept is not always stable)
Especially dynamic during certain role transitions (e.g., adolescence)
People have past, present, and future views of self

20. Ideals of Beauty Exemplar of appearance
“What is beautiful is good” stereotype
Favorable physical features:
Attractive faces
Good health and youth
Balance/symmetry
Feminine curves/hourglass body shape
“Strong” male features
Virtually every culture has a beauty bias. Preferences for some genetic features are genetic rather than cultural – like large eyes, high cheekbones, and a narrow jaw.

21. Body Image
A person’s feelings about his or her body can be described in terms of Body Cathexis.
Ideals of Beauty
A person’s satisfaction with the physical image he or she presents to others is affected by how closely that image corresponds to the image valued by his or her culture.
Examples of ideals are physical features, clothing styles, cosmetics, hairstyles, skin tones and body type.
Sexual Dimorphic Markers - those aspects of the body that distinguish between the sexes.

22. Working on the Body Fattism
The pressure to be slim is continually reinforced by advertising and peers.
Body Image Distortions
Exaggeration of appearance importance can result in disorders of great magnitude such as anorexia or bulimia.
Cosmetic Surgery
Consumers increasingly are electing to have cosmetic surgery to change a poor body image

23. Self Monitoring of Self Concept
Importance of communicating self to others may differ across individuals and situations
High self-monitors
concerned with being consistent with their conception of how people behave in a particular situation
Low self-monitors
concerned with being themselves in various situations

24. For Reflection and Discussion
What is considered the ideal of beauty among your peers?
How does this ideal affect your choices as a consumer?
The Western ideal of beauty is based on cues such as skin color, eye shape, and other aesthetic cues. We can see the manifestation of this ideal of beauty in products like Pond’s Skin Lightening Moisturizer and colored contacts. Have you seen a shift in what is considered beautiful among your friends over time?

25. Communicating Self to Others Through Products
Step 1: Person buys product symbolic of self
Step 2: Reference group associates product with person
Step 3: Reference group attributes to person qualities
of the product
Person’s
self-concept
Reference group
Step 3
Symbolic
Product
Step 2
Step 1
Arnould et al. slide

26. Situational self Working or activated self-concept
Description of oneself varies with situations and motives.
People selectively retrieve different aspects of their self-concepts on goals and motives
Sometimes consumers use products to trigger aspects of the situational self
Wife, mother, daughter, friend, professor, colleague, mentor, mentee, collector, etc.
Society’s expectations of masculinity and femininity help to determine the products we buy to meet these expectations.

27. Products That Shape the Self: You Are What You Consume
People use an individual’s consumption behaviors to make judgments about that person’s social identity:
Clothing, grooming habits
Leisure activities,
Food preferences,
Cars.
Symbolic Self-Completion Theory predicts that people who have an incomplete self-definition tend to complete this identify by acquiring and displaying symbols associated with it.

28. Consumption and Self-Concept
Loss of Self
Contribution of possessions to self-identity is most apparent when these treasured objects are lost or stolen.
Self-Image Congruence Models predict that products will be chosen when their attributes match some aspect of the self.
Ideal-self : more relevant for highly expressive social products.
Actual-self: more relevant for everyday, functional products.

29. There Are Four Levels of the Extended Self:
Those External Objects That We Consider a Part of Us Comprise the Extended Self.
There Are Four Levels of the Extended Self:
Individual Level
Personal Possessions
Family Level
Residence and Furnishings
Community Level
Neighborhood or Town
Group Level
Social Groups

30. Extended Self Products are an extension of our bodies – (Russ Belk)
We are what we own
Different props for different parts of our “self” (family, individual, community member, professional, athlete)
See your collage……..

31. The Extended Self Individual: personal possessions (cars, clothing)
Family: residence and furnishings
Community: neighborhood or town where you live
Group: social or other groups
The external objects that we consider a part of us make up our extended selves. The Italian ad shown demonstrates that our products are part of who we are.
Many material objects can help to form a person’s identity. Consider the role of Manolo Blahniks for Carrie’s character in Sex and the City!

32. Extended self – products are an extension of our bodies – “we are what we own”
What would you take in a fire? Why?

33. Indiviudal: you are what you wear
Family: house and furniture
Community: neighborhood and hometown
Group: your religion, flag, sports team
Example:
The degree to which people incorporate their communities into their selves helps to predict how cohesive and safe a neighborhood will be. One study that examined suburban areas found a relationship between the use of “territorial markeers,” such as shrubs, to indicate one’s property and willingness to defend one’s neighborhood. Another group of researchers also found that residents who personalized their homes by displaying property markers and holiday decorations were more attached to their communities and that their actions also deterred property crimes.
Pavia AIDS study “we are what we have the ability to generate and own”

34. For Reflection
Construct a “consumption biography” of a friend, family member, or classmate.
Make a list of his/her most favorite possessions, and see if you or others can describe this person’s personality just from the information provided by this catalogue.

35. Consumer Goods and Consumption Behavior
Integrate incompatible self-conceptions
Close gap between actual and desired self
Try on a "possible self"
Contribute to self narrative
Illustrate aspects of self
Symbolize or mark self-change
Arnould et al. slide

36. Sex Role Assumptions
This Israeli poster exhibits the contrast in our stereotypes of men and women, pointing out the complexity of choices for women and the simplicity of men. The tag line for the ad is “Thank God you’re a man.”

37. Sex Roles Gender Differences in Socialization
Gender Versus Sexual Identity
Sex Roles
Females:
Communal Goals Such As
Affiliation, Relationships
Males:
Agentic Goals Such as
Self-Assertion, Mastery
Sex-Typed Traits
Sex-Typed Products
Androgyny
Roles

38. For Reflection and Discussion
What are two examples of sex-typed products?
Are there situations for which promoting sex-typed products might limit the market for a product?

39. Case: Should You Get An MBA
How might concepts in this chapter help us to understand a person’s decision to seek an MBA?
How might the concept of the extended self help us explain the value of Harvard’s MBA network?
How might the concept of consumer self-narratives help account for the enduring popularity of MBA programs?
Do you think MBA students on average would score higher or lower on a measure of self-monitoring than the average person? Justify your answer.
Do you think MBA students on average would score higher or lower on a measure of need for cognition than the average person? Justify your answer.