The Self

The Self

1. SELF CONCEPT - The beliefs a person holds about his/her own attributes, and how he/she evaluates these qualities. [Some more positive than other]

   • Complex Structure
   • Examples: Facial attractiveness vs Mental aptitude.
   • ATTRIBUTE DIMENSIONS - Content, positivity, intensity, stability over time, and accuracy.
   • CONSUMPTION AND SELF CONCEPT
     • Social identity as individual consumption behaviours. Who am i? You are your possessions!
     • Inference of personality based on consumption patterns
     • Consumers may attach themselves to products to maintain self-concept.
     • SYMBOLIC SELF-COMPLETION THEORY - People who have an incomplete self-definition complete the identity by acquiring and displaying symbols associated with it.
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2. SELF ESTEEM

   • Low self-esteem do no expect that they will perform very well, and they will try to avoid embarrassing, failure, or rejection.
   • High self-esteem expect to be successful, will take more risks and are more willing to be the centre of attention.
   • SOCIAL COMPARISON - Where the person tries to evaluate their self by comparing it to the other people depicted in these artificial images. [Ads can Influence a persons self-esteem]
     • Marketers have tapped into this need by supplying idealized images of happy, attractive people who just happen to be using their products.

3. REAL AND IDEAL SELVES

   • IDEAL SELF - A person's conception of how they would like to be.
   • ACTUAL SELF - Our more realistic appraisal of the qualities we have.
     • Products help us reach out ideal self and be consistent with actual self.
   • IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT - Where we work to "manage" what others think of us.
     • PUBLIC SELF (SOCIAL) - Actual : How others see me. Ideal: How I would like others to see me. Undesired: How I would not like others to see me.
     • PRIVATE SELF - Actual: How I see myself. Ideal: How I would like to see myself. Undesired: How I would not like to see myself.
   • Brands need: Fit in with actual/ideal self and identify engaging communications.
   • FANTASY: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THE SELVES - Self-induced shift in consciousness.
     • Most people experience a discrepancy between their real and ideal selves, for some consumers this gap is larger than others.
   • VIRTUAL IDENTITY - People assuming virtual identities in cyber space.
     • More than 11 million people belong to the virtual world of second life.
     • How does online "selves" affect consumer behaviour?

4. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM - Stresses that relationships with other people play a large part in forming the seld.

   • People that exist in a symbolic environment, and the meaning attached to any situation or object is determined by the interpretation of these symbols.
   • LOOKING- GLASS SELF - Imagining the reactions of others towards us is known as 'taking the role of others'
     • Some stores are testing new interactive mirror that doubles as a high-resolution digital screen.
     • We take readings of our own identity and try to project what impressions they have of us.
   • SELF CONSCIOUSNESS: Awareness of self
     • Those that score high in: Public self-consciousness are more interest in clothing and use more cosmetics.
     • Some people are very aware and sensitive to the image they communicate to others, some are oblivious.
     • Social appropriateness is also very important.

5. LOSS OF SELF

   • The contribution of possessions to self-identity is perhaps most apparent when these treasured objects are lost or stolen.
   • One of the first acts performed by institutions that want to repress individuality and encourage group identity, such as prisons or convents, it to confiscate personal possessions.
     • Victims of burglaries and natural disasters commonly report feelings of alienation, depression or of being 'violated'.

6. SELF/PRODUCT CONGRUENCE

   • Consumers respond favourably to products/brands that help to improve, enhance or maintain their self-concept.
   • ACTUAL SELF CONGRUITY: Brand image matches consumer's actual self.
   • IDEAL SELF CONGRUITY: Brand image matches consumer's ideal self.
   • SOCIAL SELF CONGRUITY: Brand image matches consumer's social self.
   • IDEAL SOCIAL SELF CONGRUITY: Brand image matches consumers ideal social self.

7. THE EXTENDED SELF (Belk, 1988)

   • INDIVIDUAL: Personal possessions (Cars, clothing)
   • FAMILY: Residence and furnishings.
   • COMMUNITY: Neighborhood or town where you live.
   • GROUP: Social or other groups.
   • Many of the props and settings consumers use to define their social roles in a sense become part of their selves.
     • Personal possessions and pets to national monuments or landmarks help to form a consumer's identity.
   • FUNCTIONS OF EXTENDED SELF
     • HAVING: Possessions can contribute to our capabilities for DOING and BEING. Having & being are distinct but inseparable.
       • Having a computer with internet allows us to communicate to someone who is far. It extends our boundaries.
       • Having a Harley Davidson symbolizes you are rebellious and marginal.
     • POSSESSIONS AND THE SENSE OF PAST: Extension of self through personal past, family past, nations past, past objects which represent status, hand-crafted objects.
   • PROCESS OF SELF EXTENSION
     • Ways of incorporating Possessions into self.
       • Appropriating/controlling an object
         • Learning to play piano
         • Giving gifts to others is a way of extending giver's identity to include the recipient.
       • Creating it: E.g. Your disseration
       • Buying: Money provides us power to select objects to extend ourselves.
       • Knowing a person, place, or a thing (contains producers self).

8. MULTIPLE SELVES

   • Marketers pitch products needed to facilitate active role identities.
   • We have as many selves as we do different social roles.
   • Depending on the situation, we act differently, use different products and services, and we can even vary in terms of how much we like ourselves.
   • E.G. Sister, Women, Wife, Friend, Mother etc.
   • HOW DOES THIS LINK TO MARKETING
     • CLOTHES RETAILING: Different stores as reflecting different selves. E.g. New Look vs Miu, Miu. Within stores multiple selves catered for. [Weekend, professional, job interview, sporty, nightlife.
     • IDENTITY CONFLICTS: Identity as multifaceted: Can this be problematic?
       • Possible selves/goals not always complementary/
     • Ahuvia 2005
       • O Demarcating - The consumer makes a choice between the 2 identities
       • O Compromising - Where the consumer would try to create an identity that lay somewhere between two identities.
       • O Synthesising - Where the consumer seeks to synthesise a new identity which takes on the positive aspect of both identities.

9. Gender Difference in Socilaization

   • People often conform to their culture's expectations about how those of their gender should act, dress, speak and so on.
   • Gender roles vary by culture.
   • Many societies expect traditional roles: AGENTIC ROLES: Men are expected to be assertive and have certain skills. COMMUNAL ROLES: Women are taught to foster harmonious relationshops.
   • SEX-TYPED TRAITS AND PRODUCTS
     • Sex role identity is a state of mind as well as body. A persons biological gender does not totally determine whether they will exhibit sex-types traits that are stereotypically associated with one sex or the other.
     • Sex-typed traits - characteristics we stereotypically associate with one gender or the other.
     • Sex-typed products - Often created or perpetuated by marketers ('Boys and girls toys', baby coloured nappies).
       • Men tend to buy instrumental and leisure items impulsively, projecting independence and activity.
       • Women tend to buy symbolic and self-expressive goods and concerned with appearance and emotional aspects of self.
     • FEMALE SEX ROLES - Gender roles for women are changing rapidly. Social changes - more in waged work. Modern women not play a greater role in decision regarding traditionally male purchase. 60% of new car buyer under age of 50 are females. Targeting working females usually portray a women in a glamours executive poisiton.
     • MALE SEX ROLES
       • MASCULINISM - Study of male image and the complex cultural meanings of masculinity. Three traditional models of masculinity.
         • BREADWINNER - Respect and achievement vs. autonomy.
         • REBEL - Immaturity stigma vs. conformity stigma (emphasises rebellion, independence, adventure and potency).
         • MAN-OF-ACTION-HERO - [Synthesis that draws from the better of the other two models].
   • SEX-TYPED PEOPLE - Many products are sex-typed. Stereotypically they take on masculine or feminine attributes, and consumers often associate them with one sex or another.
     • Females are more sensitive to pieces of information.
     • METRO-SEXUAL - A straight, urban male who is keenly interested in fashion, home design, gourmet cooking, and personal care.
     • ANDROGYNY - Possessions of both masculine and feminine traits. People whose mixture of characteristics allows them to function well in social situations. Women with relatively strong masculine component in their sex-role identity prefer and portrayals that include non-traditional women.
     • GLBT Consumers (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender)
       • Still largely ignored by marketers - Ikea the Swedish retailer, broke a new ground by running a TV spot featuring a gay male couple purchasing a dining-room table.
       • Gay consumers can get a rainbow credit card.
       • Becoming more accepted, high disposable income, usually have a 2nd house and hold a professional job.