Consumer Behavior - Chapter 6 Exam 2

Selfie

(whether or not it's attached to a "selfie stick") is a common form of communication, especially for Millennials.

Learning Objectives

- The self-concept strongly influences consumer behavior. - Products often define a person's self-concept. - Gender identity is an important component of a consumer's self concept. - The way we think about our bodies (and the way our culture tells us we should think) is a key component of self-esteem. - Every culture dictates certain types of body decoration or mutilation.

Products can:

- help us reach ideal self/standard - be consistent with actual self ex: 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.

Many societies still expect traditional roles:

Agentic roles Communal roles

Working on the Body

Body anxiety Cosmetic surgery Body decoration and mutilation Body piercing

Vanity Sizing

Clothing manufacturers often offer vanity sizing, where they deliberately assign smaller sizes to garments.

Decorating the self can serve several purposes. Some of these are to:

Distinguish group members from nonmembers Place the individual in the social organization Place the person in a gender category Enhance sex-role identification Indicate desired social conduct Indicate high status or rank Provide a sense of security

Cultural Differences

Every culture dictates certain types of body decoration or mutilation.

"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

Identity Marketing Example

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.

Multiple Selves

Marketers pitch products needed to facilitate active role identities or selves. Our role as marketers is to pitch.

Digital Self

People can construct digital versions of their selves online. We use digital footprints, lifestreams, and profiles to do this.

Social Identity

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.

Symbolic Self Completion Theory

People who have an incomplete self-definition complete the identity by acquisition

Third Gender Movement

People who identify with neither gender We are learning that gender traits doesn't necessarily respond with physical gender

You Are What You Consume

Question: Who am I now? Answer: To some extent, your possessions!

Self/Product Congruence Research

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

Self Concept 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.

Self Concept

The beliefs & evaluations a person holds about his/her own attributes. Although your overall self-concept may be positive, there certainly are parts of it you evaluate more positively than others. The self-concept is a very complex structure. We describe attributes of self-concept along such dimensions as: content, positivity, intensity, stability, accuracy, identity

Extended Self

The external objects that we consider a part of us make up our extended selves. Many material objects can help to form a person's identity. The extended self is defined by what you buy, where you're from, what activities you're involved with, who your friends are, etc.

Exemplar of Appearance

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.

Looking-Glass Self

What you believe others think about you Sociologists call the process of imagining others' reactions "taking the role of the other"

Sara Lee Self-Esteem Example

When it developed a new line of snack cakes, Sara Lee found that consumers low in self-esteem preferred portion-controlled snack items because they felt they lacked self-control. In contrast, a more recent study found that individuals who are made to feel powerful spend more money on themselves ("because I'm worth it!"), whereas those who experience a feeling of powerlessness spend more on others than on themselves.

Body Image Distortions

Women in particular tend to pick up messages from the media that the quality of their bodies reflects their self-worth, so it is not surprising that most (though certainly not all) major body image distortions occur among females. These psychological disorders cause the patient to believe that his or her body literally is bigger or smaller than others see it.

Does being self conscious effect your buying habits?

Yes Ex: when you buy clothes if you don't care about the image you're portraying then you'll buy whatever you want

Identity Marketing

a promotional strategy where consumers alter some aspects of their selves to advertise for a branded product.

Bromance

affection between straight male friends

Gender Identity

an important component of a consumer's self-concept. People often conform to their culture's expectations about how those of their gender should act, dress, or speak; we refer to these sets of expectations as sex roles.

The Western Ideal of Beauty

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.

Breadwinner Model

based on the American view of success.

Sex Typed Traits

characteristics we stereotypically associate with one gender or the other.

Fattism

deeply ingrained in our culture: As early as nursery school age, children prefer drawings of peers in wheelchairs, on crutches, or with facial disfigurements to those of fat children. Society is obsessed with weight. Though it began as America's obsession, the cultural priority on thinness is spreading to other countries. Still, even with the ideal of thin, the U.S. consumer today is larger than 60 years ago. The typical woman's body is not as petite as it used to be.

Meerkating

describes the act of someone shooting a live video stream, has become a verb as thousands of people create their own running self-documentaries. ex: video selfie's, Facebook live

Rebel Model

emphasizes rebellion, independence, adventure, and potency

Content

facial attractiveness versus mental aptitude

Neuroendocrinological Science

focuses on the potential role of hormonal influences on preferences for different kinds of products or people.

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?"

Man of Action Model

hero draws from the better of the other two models. Men and women receive mixed messages about how they are supposed to behave and feel.

Ideal Self

how we would like to be

Identity

is 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, thinks, feels and does.

Impression Management

means that we work to "manage" what others think of us

Agentic Roles

men are expected to be assertive and have certain skills (mastery)

High Self-Monitors

more attuned to how they present themselves in their social environments, and their estimates of how others will perceive their product choices influence what they choose to buy.

Community Level of the Extended Self

neighborhood or town where you live

Looking-Glass Self View

our desire to define ourselves operates as a sort of psychological sonar: We take readings of our own identity when we "bounce" signals off others and try to project their impression of us. Like the distorted mirrors in a funhouse, our appraisal of who we are varies depending on whose perspective we consider and how accurately we predict their evaluations of us. A confident career woman may sit morosely at a nightclub, imagining that others see her as a dowdy, unattractive woman with little sex appeal (regardless of whether these perceptions are true)

Individual Level of the Extended Self

personal possessions (cars, clothing)

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.

Androgyny

possession of both masculine and feminine traits.

Actual Self

realistic appraisal of the qualities we have

Body Image

refers to a consumer's subjective evaluation of his physical self. As with a person's overall self-concept, this image is not necessarily accurate. The way we think about our bodies (and the way our culture tells us we should think) is a key component of self-esteem.

Self-Esteem

refers to 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 embarrassment, failure, and rejection.

Public Self-Consciousness

relates to the extent in which a person expresses interest in clothing and the use of cosmetics.

Embodied Cognition

relates to the state of the body modifying states of the mind.

Family Level of the Extended Self

residence and furnishings

Positivity

self-esteem

Enclothed Cognition

shows how the symbolic meaning of clothing changes how people behave.

Group Level of the Extended Self

social or other groups

Power Posing

standing in a confident way even if you don't feel confident, which affects brain activity.

Symbolic Interactionism

stresses that relationships with other people play a large part in forming the self.

Symbolic Self-Completion Theory

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.

Sex Typed Products

take on masculine or feminine attributes Example: Princess telephones Thor's Hammer vodka - comes in a short, squat bottle and it is described as "bold, broad, and solid - this is a man's vodka."

Accuracy

the degree to which one's self-assessment corresponds to reality

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

the one we described comes into play here because these "signals" influence the woman's actual behavior.

Masculinism

the study of male image and its complex cultural meanings. There are three traditional models of masculinity: 1) breadwinner, 2) rebel, and 3) man of action hero.

Consumers demonstrate their values through

their purchase behavior

Intersex Children

those born with both genitals, or ambiguous sex characteristics.

Gender Roles

vary by culture and they shift as culture shifts. Many of our gender roles are socialized by marketing. For instance, the Bratz line of dolls licenses its name to a cosmetics line targeted to girls ages 6 to 9.

Self Image Congruence Models

we choose products when attributes matches the self

Social Comparison

when a person tries to evaluate her appearance by comparing it to the people depicted in these artificial images.

Wearable Computing

when we wear devices on our wrist like the Apple Watch.

Collective Self

where a person derives his or her identity in large measure from a social group.

Communal Roles

women are taught to foster harmonious relationships and affiliation.