Consumer Identities

From reading the Identity and consumption text, I have answered the following questions through the use of the text and my own knowledge. 

In what ways can products/services relate to consumers identities?

- Reinforce or establish social roles - you consume to protect a certain social role. You're not the person you want to be so you purchase/consume to establish this role - this may relate to a job role

- Actual self, Ideal self, Ought self - people suse products to negotiate this triad.
- Actual self - drives a Corsa, Ideal self - drives a Porsche, Ideal self - Drives an electric car

- the products/services that we use relate to the way we perceive ourselves and others, they're a representation of our self


How do consumers use products/services within social interactions?

- Upward comparison - for example, celebrity endorsement. This relates to the ideal self and can lead to physical/mental harm

- Downward comparison - for example: you feel better about driving your car when you see a person riding a bike in the rain

- Comparison of a product

- Presenting one product (personality) as superior to another

- Community/group identity - for example: those who are Mac users are part of a particular community and on the other hand those who use PC's are part of a community


Suggest some visual communication strategies that effectively promote or product to its target audience.

- Apple - associate personality of an individual that typically likes to do things with ease and style

- Nespresso - upward comparison (lifestyle)
- George Clooney (celebrity endorsement)

- Dove - actual self
- demonstrated how you don't have to play around the idea of self to have a successful advertisement. Displaying the actual self is also effective


Are there any ethical issues?

- Stereotypes: puts people into categories. The more that this is produced through advertising and branding then the stronger that this image becomes

- Othering: defining yourself against other people. For example - 'I'm good looking because you're ugly'

- Self fulfilling prophecy: the more you tell someone they're something, the more towards this they will be. This was evidenced in the Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) study. The children who were deemed 'non bloomers' then had a lower IQ score one year later compared to those who had been categorised as 'bloomers'. However, the individuals in these categories were chosen at random.