OUGD501 - Study Task 6 - Consumer Identities Notes

Identities & Consumption

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

Self representation can be resinated within products (Goffman)

Renforce or establish social roles which gives solidity to a persons 

You exist in a certain counter culture which embodies a certain sort of attitude

Consume to protect a social position within the world

Institution establishing a certain role within society, an expectation of behaviours fitting to a certain class

Belonging

Triadic structure, people use commodities or products to negotiate between actual self, the ideal self and the ought self.

Ideal self would persuade someone to buy a weight loss product which is reenforced by their perception of their actual self

Or you buy something to reassure yourself that you are still the person you once was

Buying charity shop clothes to measure that you are outside of capitalism

symbolic interactionism
belongingness
membership

• How do consumers use products/services within social interaction?

Belong to a certain group, identity, community. This is seen within the macintosh computer and the close nit community that the owner then belongs to. Forming connections with the same type of person to bond themselves together. Cohesion together by the use of music, brand, product, service
Consume to create a community or maintain a community, what these products symbolise instead of what they actually do for us.
Apple associate personality types, which speak to a specific demographic. Associate a brand with a lifestyle.
Body image within perfume adverts, the ideal self.
Upwards comparison / Downwards comparison
We compare ourselves to people we deem more successful or desirable than ourselves, this is harmful to self esteem and ego ideal
Celebrity endorsement within upward comparison
Dove advertisement shows how you could market a product without associating with ideal beauty.
Downward comparison presents one product as inferior which in turn portrays the other as superior

• Using the theories discussed: suggest some visual communication strategies that effectively promote a product to its target consumer

• Are there any ethical issues?

Certain people who drive certain cars get stereotyped into categories. People who own mercades are rich and famous when actually they just admire the car.
Self fulfilling prophecy, the more that you tell somebody that they are something, the more they are reenforced that they are that. Children in a classroom.
People are unaware that this process of ego identification and ego formation and group identity formation through consumption is happening within the subconscious. 

Perpetuating negative body images.