MKT 305: Chapter 6- The Mind, Body and Gender
What are the four levels of the extended self Triangle?
1. Individual Level 2. Family Level 3. Community Level 4. Group Level (Top-Bottom)
What is the purpose of decorating and altering our bodies?
1. To separate group members from nonmembers. 2. Place the individual in social organization. 3. Place person in gender category. 4. Enhance sex-role identification. 5. Indicate social conduct. 6. Indicate high status or rank. 7. Provide a sense of security.
Fanatics
A consumer obsessed by an excessive enthusiasm for something.
Why is self-consciousness important for marketers and for consumers?
A heightened concern about the nature of one's self image also results in more concern about the social appropriateness of products and consumption activities.
What is our culture's stereotype of the typical male?
A male should be a tough, aggressive, muscular man who enjoys manly sports.
Cosmetic Surgery
A medical operation to improve a person's appearance or change a poor body image.
Ideal of Beauty
A particular model, or exemplar of appearance. May include physical features as well as clothing styles, cosmetics, hairstyles, skin tone, etc.
Collective Self
A person derives his or her identity in large measure from a social group.
Ideal Self
A person's conception of how her or she would like to be.
Is a person's self-concept concrete?
A person's self-concept is a work in progress. Some parts are fairly stable, but each of us modifies some elements of it as we make our way through life- especially when we discover new social groups, trends, cultures, etc.
Empty Self
A perspective that points to the decline of shared points of reference over the last 50 years as we witnessed a decline in family, community and traditions.
Embodied Cognition
A perspective that states of the body modify states of the mind. In other words, our behaviors and observations of what we do and buy shape our thoughts.
Selfie
A picture a smartphone user takes of himself or herself on a smartphone is a common form of communication.
Fattism
A preference for thin people and disabled people with discrimination against overweight people.
Medical Tourism
A rapidly growing sector of the global economy that encourages consumers to travel to other countries for surgical procedures that may be unavailable, more dangerous or more expensive than where they live.
Symbolic Self-Completion Theory
A theory that suggests that people who have an incomplete self-definition tend to complete this identity when they acquire and display symbols they associate with that role.
Gender-Bending Products
A traditionally sex-typed item adapted to the opposite gender (pink guns for women).
Bromance
Affection between straight male friends.
Fantasy
Also a daydream, this is a self-induced shift in consciousness, which is sometimes a way to compensate for a lack of external stimulation or an escape from problems in the real world.
Identity
Any category label with which a consumer self-associates that is amenable to a clear picture of what a person in that category looks like.
Body anxiety
Because many consumers experience a gap between their real and ideal physical selves, they often go to great lengths to change aspects of their appearance (bras, plastic surgery, tanning, etc.)
Tattoos
Both temporary and permanent markings on a person's body that are popular forms of body adornment.
Sex-Typed Traits
Characteristics we stereotypically associate with one gender or the other.
Intersex Children
Children born with both genitals or ambiguous sex characteristics.
When do children pick up on the concept of gender identity?
Children pick up on the concept of gender identity at an earlier age than researchers previously believed- by as young as age 1 in some cases.
How do consumers demonstrate their values?
Consumers demonstrate their values through their purchase behavior.
Public-Self Consciousness
Consumers express more interest in clothing and use more cosmetics than those who score lower. They seem to have a greater willingness to buy personal products.
Individual Level
Consumers include many of their personal possessions in self-definition. These products can include jewelry, cars, clothing, etc. You are what you wear reflects the belief that one's things are part of one's identity.
How do we describe self-concept along dimensions?
Content (facial attractiveness versus mental aptitude), positivity (self-esteem), intensity and stability over time and accuracy (degree to which one's self assessment corresponds to reality).
Wearable Computing
Devices that integrate digital interactions with the physical body (i.e. Google Glass, iWatch).
Why must we consider the 'chicken and the egg' question?
Do people buy products because they see these are similar to themselves, or do people assume that these products must be similar to themselves because they bought them?
Digital Self
Elements of self-expression that relate to a person's online identity.
What do emotional connections do for consumers that see brands in positive and negative lights?
Emotional connections make people defensive of their favorite brands if they see negative information about them.
Product usage _______ Self-Image
Equals
Extended Self
External objects that we consider a part of us constitute this self.
Neuroendocrinological science
Focuses on the potential role of hormonal influences on preferences for different kinds of products or people. (girl wearing a revealing shirt during ovulation to go out to attract males).
Gender roles _____ by culture but are _______.
Gender roles vary by culture but are changing.
What is important to remember when targeting and marketing to a consumer?
In a way, each of us really is a number of different people. We have as many selves as we do different social roles.
Self-Monitors
Individuals who are more attuned to how they present themselves in social environments, and their estimates of how others will perceive their product choices influence what they choose to buy.
Community Level
It is common for consumers to describe themselves in terms of the neighborhood or town
Why is knowledge acquired from symbolic interactionism important?
It is important to understand consumer behavior because it implies that our possessions play a key role as we evaluate ourselves and decide who we are.
When is the contribution to self-identity most apparent?
It is most apparent when we lose treasured objects.
What is the conclusion about gender differences and culture?
It is not clear to what extent gender differences are innate rather than culturally-shaped, but they're probably evident in many consumption situations.
What do men and women have in common in society with regards to roles?
Like women, men receive mixed messages about how they are supposed to feel.
What is true of many products?
Many products acquire a gender identity.
Multiple Selves
Marketers pitch products needed to facilitate active role identities.
What do marketers reinforce in terms of gender?
Marketers tend to reinforce cultural expectations regarding the correct way for boys and girls to look and act.
Why do marketers target body image to consumers?
Markets exploit this because they know consumers have insecurities about appearance. They try to create a gap between the real and the ideal physical selves and consequentially motivate a person to purchase products and services her or she thinks will narrow that gap.
Agentic Roles
Men are expected to be assertive and have certain skills.
What is the gap like between the real and ideal selves of individuals?
Most people experience a discrepancy between their real and ideal selves, but for some consumers this gap is especially large. These people are good targets for marketing communications that employ fantasy appeals.
What do most societies expect in terms of gender roles?
Most societies still expect traditional roles.
How is appraisal defined in the looking-glass self?
Our appraisal of who we are varies depending on whose perspective we consider and how accurately we predict evaluations of us. We negotiate those meanings over time.
Looking-Glass Self
Our desire to define ourself operates as a sort of psychological sonar: we take readings of our own identity when we 'bounce' signals off others and try to protect their impression of us.
What is a main concern with wearable computing?
Our digital interactions become attached and inserted in our bodies, which result in obvious privacy concerns.
What occurs with our physical and online bodies?
Our physical bodies continue to merge with our digital environments. We are moving from 'you are what you wear' to 'you are what you post'. We also take in pieces of our digital identities back with us to the physical world.
Gender Identity
Our sense of being male or female, which is an important component of self-concept because people often conform to their culture's expectations about how those of their gender should act.
Virtual Makeovers
Platforms that allow the shopper to superimpose images on their faces or bodies so that they can quickly and easily see how products would alter appearance, without taking the risk of actually buying the item first.
What can products help us do in terms of our "selves"?
Products can help us reach our ideal self and be consistent with our actual self.
Sex-Typed Products
Products that take on masculine or feminine attributes (Tonka vs. Kitchen Set).
Identity Marketing
Promotional strategy whereby consumers alter some aspects of their selves to advertise for a branded product.
Body Image Distortions
Psychological disorders that cause the patient to believe that his or her body is bigger or smaller than others see it. Common in females and linked often to eating disorders.
Body Image
Refers to a consumer's subjective evaluation of his or her physical self.
Actual Self
Refers to our more realistic appraisal of the qualities we have and do not have.
What is the irony between taking pictures and experiencing reality?
Research shows that although people believe taking pictures during an event enhances their enjoyment, the opposite is true. There is a tendency to become preoccupied with documenting the moment- the more pictures people take, the less they enjoy the actual experiences.
Self-Image Congruence Models
Research that suggests that we choose products when their attributes match some aspect of the self. And when we choose a product that we think is aesthetically pleasing, this choice makes us feel better about ourselves.
Torn Self
Respondents struggle with retaining an authentic culture while still enjoying Western freedom.
Contemporary Young Mainstream Female Achievers (CYMFA)
Roles that different women have in different contexts. Sex role identities are determined, for example, as a mother they should be highly feminine, as a business person they should play a masculine role and with friends they might evoke both roles at once.
Are social identity and consumption related?
Social identity can be seen as individual consumption behaviors.
What are tattoos usually associated with?
Social outcomes
Sex Roles
Societal expectations for men and women among members of a cultural group.
Power Posing
Standing in a confident way even if you don't feel confident is an example of positive body language affecting brain activity.
Gender-role identity is a state of ____ as well as _____.
State of mind as well as body
Symbolic Interactionism
Stresses that a relationship with other people play a large part to form the self.
Masculinism
Study devoted to the male image and the cultural meanings of masculinity.
Self-Concept
Summarizes the beliefs a person holds about his own attributes and how he evaluates the self on these qualities.
Enclothed Cognition
Symbolic meaning of clothing changes how people behave.
Meerkating
The act of someone shooting a live video stream.
Gender Socialization
The learning of gender roles through social factors such as schooling, the media, and family.
Compensatory Consumption
The notion that people might cope with threat through consumption.
Family Level
The part of the extended self includes a customer's residence and the furnishings in it. We can think of the house as a symbolic body for the family, and the place where we live is often a central aspect of who we are.
Social Comparison
The person tries to evaluate her appearance by comparing it to the people depicted in these artificial images.
Self-Esteem
The positivity of a person's self-concept. People with low self-esteem expect that they will not perform very well and they will try to avoid failure.
Androgyny
The possession of both masculine and feminine traits.
Third Gender Movement
The push to expand the definition of gender beyond the traditional categories of male and female.
Where do a consumer's possessions place them?
Their possessions place them into a social role, which helps answer the question: 'Who am I now?'
What do congruence models assume?
These models assume a process of cognitive matching between product attributes and the consumer's self image.
What does it mean to be a terrorist in a market?
This means a marketer may want to ensure that the appropriate role identity is active before pitching products that consumers need to play a particular role.
What does the increasing focus on self-reliance turn into?
This turns into a culture of narcissism, where we are obsessed with what we do and feel the need to constantly record it.
Dramaturgical Perspective
Views people as actors who play different roles. We each play many roles, and each of us has our own script.
What does it mean to be attached to an object?
We are attached to an object to the extent we rely on it to maintain our self-concept. Coping processes may protect the self from being diluted in a strange environment.
Where do we exist and what makes up symbolic interactionism?
We exist in a symbolic environment and as members of a society, individuals learn to agree on shared meanings. Thus we 'know' that the Golden Arches mean 'fast food'.
Group Level
We regard our attachments to certain social groups as a part of the self.
Why is the digital self important?
We strategically modify the profile photos we post on Facebook or the descriptions we share on online dating sites.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
We tend to pattern our behavior on the perceived expectations of others.
What do we use individual consumption behaviors for?
We use individual consumption behaviors to identify the person's social identity. We also make inferences based on choice of leisure activities.
Impression Management
We work hard to 'manage' what others think of us; we strategically choose clothing and other products that will show us off in a good light.
What is important to remember about body image?
Whether the perceptions are accurate, they can weigh us down whether they are right or not because they affect our mood.
Communal Roles
Women are taught to foster harmonious relationships.
What is the underlying message of what we consume?
You are what you consume.
Clearly, the ______ of sex-typed behaviors varies across cultures.
normality
