Self-Symbolic consumption

We have four principles that provide the bases for our insights here:

1. Things can be symbols…
2. We can see these symbols as matching (or clashing) with pictures of ourselves that we have in our heads…
3. Which makes those pictures feel more (or less) real…
4. Which can give us strong feelings (about ourselves and those symbolic things)

We spent a good while explaining how ‘symbolism’ is not just clever academic wordplay, but an actual thing that matters to people’s lives, as this is an important intuition to wrap our heads around.

We then discussed two big theories:

1. Self-Congruency Theory

• We have multiple visions of who we are in different situations
• Some reflect who we feel we ‘actually’ are. We are motivated to ‘verify’ these: liking brands that reinforce them, and disliking brands that undercut them
• Some reflect an ‘ideal’ of who we would like to be. We are motivated to ‘enhance’ our selves by liking products that help these ideal selves feel more real.

2. the Identity Construction Framework

• A more interpretivist tradition that favours deep insightful descriptions over tidy theory and precise measurement.
• It turbo-charges our four principles
• the basic insight is that we can creatively manipulate our own self-concpet by using consumption to make different self-images feel more real at one time or another.
• We talked about many examples of the ways this can be done, and some of the principles that people use to get these changes to stick
• Ways it can be done: enacting different self-concepts, using narratives to weave brands and possessions into the story of who we are, using rituals (more on this in our chapter on culture and consumers)