Abstract

There are multiple reasons why the creation of brand personality has turned into a
main concept for a lot of marketers, but one of the main ones is that buying something
only because of the core products qualities or even the brand atmosphere is no longer
enough. In order to stay on the market in popular among the population marketers and
brand managers are now creating personalities and assign them to brands. Playing
different roles in life and having multiple self images that each has needs and wants,
consumers tend to purchase brands that they find as a reflection of their inner
personality. This essay will explore the main points of the self image concept, brand
image and personality on todays market and the phenomenon of self-congruence.

Introduction
Todays world offers such a great diversity of not only products and brands, but as
well as informational channels that serve as a great tool for consumers to search for
the desired objects and purchase smartly. Consumers have a higher ability to spend
than ever before, but they are also much more curious, better educated and
demanding, which appears as a challenge for brands. Consumers want to be satisfied
in every way possible when they choose to buy something and if they are not well,
competitors are waiting right next door! To become closer and remain that way to
their clients, only traditional communication channels such as advertising, events, PR
and even word-of-mouth are no longer enough that is the ugly truth about markets
today. So here comes the question: how can, despite all the difficulties, some brands
still become and remain successful, profitable and in demand? Many marketers find
the answer in creating and delivering not simply value and atmosphere to their
clientele, but make them believe that what the brand is offering has been created

specifically for them, it is what they need not only to satisfy simple basic human
needs, but their inner-selves, their personalitys needs. One of the central practices has
become establishing images of their products or services consumers minds, symbols
and signs, associations with not only the quality that the brand will provide, but with a
personality, very similar to the one of the consumer.
To start with, it is essential that some theoretical basis related to the definitions of
consumer self concept, brand image and personality is first provided.

Self image concept

William Shakespeare has once said: All the world's a stage, And all the men and
women merely players. That is a beautiful thought indeed, but who knew that it can
actually be applied and studied not only in literature circles, but in Consumer behavior
sciences as well. We all do play roles, every day, every moment. Depending on the
time, place, the people around us; aspirations, our dreams, hopes we do appear or at
least try to appear in different colors. We play roles of sons, daughters, parents,
siblings, relatives, subordinates, bosses, doctors, lovers, wives, gym-addicted,
travellers or coach potatoes and each one of these roles has a distinguish identity, it
has different needs and wants, thus giving us motives for searching and buying
different products. Seeing and understanding these different identities of a customer,
or the self-concept theory, is playing now a big role in predicting consumer behavior.
Being aware of who your customer is, what he needs and cherishes helps provide that.
Role identities do have a huge impact on the market behavior, however, it is
incomplete as does not only gives one point of view- the consumers one. We need to
understand the self-concept, that is more complete since it does not only observe how
consumers see themselves, but as well how they are seen by others. After all, we do

live in a society and every purchase we make does affect the way we are perceived by
others.
A self-image is a configuration of beliefs related to the self. It is believed that there
are 4 major selves that are related to consumer behavior that are actual self, ideal self,
social self and ideal social self.
Actual Self
The Actual self image is what psychologists also refer to as the private self. It is what
one really thinks he is like, his real nature and personality. In that case we do not take
into account any foreign opinions. All that matters is what and how he feels like.
Ideal Self

The ideal self-image is also a part of the private self, but it refers to the way a person
would like to be, an aspiration that he wants to achieve. Usually the actual self is not
good enough, so consumers always are trying to better ourselves, get higher, and
become the ideal self. When talking about products and brands in that case,
consumers are usually willing to purchase products that they associate with the ideal
self, that way getting closer to the image in their head.

Social Self

The social self is already linked to external factors, such as views, perceptions and
opinions of others. Social self does not reflect anymore the initial feelings a person
has about himself, but feelings he thinks others have of him. This image of the society
may or may not be consistent with the actual self, but it does drive a certain buying

behavior. It is often that when we want to purchase something we stop for a second
and think what would others say about it and how would we look in their eyes. That
might be the case of a girl purchasing a more masculine outfit, for example, and being
seen by the many as a tomboy, even though that might not be the way she actually
feels about herself.

Ideal Social Self

Ideal social self-image is about how customers would like to be seen by others. It does
affect buying motivations, as we are looking for social approval and are often ready to
do, buy or use things that would make us look the way we wish to be seen. Similar to
the ideal self image, purchasing products or brands that we associate with customers
ideal social self gets him closer to actually having this image in the eyes of the
society. If we think about the same case of a tomboy girl, she might be dressing that
way on purpose, since she wants to be perceived as one. If so, then the goal is
achieved.
As we mentioned earlier, each one of the four self images has their own needs, wants
and demands and each one of them can create a motivation for a purchase. Products
that consumers choose are no longer bought only for their direct consumption and
usage, but in a lot of cases are chosen for image of the brand that they come with.
Taken that into account, brands are now forced to dig deeper and understand their
customers the best way possible in order to create an image the consumer is looking
for.

The Brand Image & Personality

The formation of a brand image for a consumer starts when a product is bought, used
or sometimes simply observed and a certain feeling towards it has developed. As a
Russian

proverb

says,

however,

It is only when we compare things, that

we can appraise them, so in order to have a relatively real and clear opinion about a
brand, it has to be evaluated by comparing it to others similar to it across functional
and non-functional criteria. (Peterson, 1999) Consumers come up with personal
associations and symbols that best describe the brand and often they try to link those
images to one of the selves mentioned above.
In order to develop an individual perception about a brand, consumers usually
consider two different sides: attributes and benefits. As attributes are considered
features that the consumer thinks a product possesses or performs and they can be
product-related as well as non-product related (Aaker, 1996). Benefits, however, are
the values that a consumer believes he receives in exchange for his money. The values
that are received might be connected to three main buying motivations: functional (a
problem solution), experiential (the feelings a product provides) and symbolic (self
expression and social approval, what we were talking about previously) (Aaker,
1996). We can relate functional and experimental benefits to the physical features of a
product. Such would be considered buying Vans sneakers because of their flat rubber
sole that does not allow the skateboard to slip away and allows the rider to stay stable
on the board. If not from the fashion world, such would be an example of buying a
Gibson or Dean guitars for the quality of sound they produce or an Indian cruiser
motorbike because of the comfortable and safe travel it will provide. Symbolic
benefits, however, are the ones that are related to the intangible, imaginative side of
the product. That is where consumers accept, if it matches with their own identity and

ideas or reject certain idiosyncrasies of the brand. That would be the reason of buying
a Harley Davidson Motorbike, for example, because of its perceived image as a truly
adventurous brand. Everyone knows that if you are driving not just any bike, but a
Harley Davidson you are a cool guy. In that case even some downfalls of the actual
product performance might be forgiven, for the sake of the overall image and are
excused with the soul of the bike, rather than some technical issues.
So what we call Brand image is the way consumers perceive brands personality.
Same way a consumer creates has an image of himself from in and out, brands create
a personality that gives, transfer the same image that the consumer has. In order to
appeal to customers, to make them see a reflection of one of their selves in the
products offered, brands study the psychology and behavior of their clientele. Their
target market does not consist of people that only want to buy a pair of jeans or shoes,
but people that want to feel something themselves or project something to the world
and do it with the help of exactly this companys products.

Self-image congruence
With the huge choice that we are standing before now, we automatically tend to buy
something that we feel a bound with, something that we associate ourselves with.
That is what is called self-image congruence, when consumers self-images matches
with the brand-user image. That is the main reason brands create personalities, to
reflect what a consumer is trying to show to the world. We, as humans, are used to
breathing life in lifeless objects, that way we feel connected to them. We have all
seen it and most probably even do it ourselves: treat inanimate subjects as living
creatures. I by experience know how my dad, for example, talks to his Yamaha

motorbike when going on a trip, telling her what a wonderful time and beautiful
places are ahead of them. A similar situation is when a sneaker-addicted is talking to
his new Air Jordan 1997 re-edition. Same way like we treat products as they were
alive, we like to think of brands as if they were a human: a Mercedes is mature,
reliable; Apple is advanced, perfectionistic; Nike is athletic, innovative,
competitive; Hollister is Californian, hip.
Lets take an example of a teenage girl that considers herself a fashionista. She likes to
flip all the latest fashion magazines, follow beauty advices and spend time shopping.
She however is limited in finances, thus she chooses brands such as H&M, Zara,
Forever21, Asos that are affordable, but still give her the feeling of being in the trend.
That is considered as Actual self-congruity. The girl, however, dreams of being able
one day to buy high-end brands and bring her fashionable appearance to a new level.
The Ideal self-congruence would be, if she is able to purchase brands such as
Givenchy, Balmain, Chanel. The girl is also good at sports and her dad, a professional
basketball coach sees her as one. He wants her to pursue a career in sports and her
fashion aspirations dont matter. Ideally, he would want her to wear only brands that
are innovative and high quality, but strictly sportive, Nike, Adidas, Under Armour.
That is an example of how the self-congruence is achieved by following different
purchase motivations and thus satisfying different needs and wants of a customer.

In conclusion, because of the created personality of a brand, we can see in a it what

we are, we want to be, what others think we are or what they want us to be and
according to the matches we find and we buy products. Brands learned to give us

skins, that fit each one our selves, all we need to do is decide for ourselves which one
we want to be.

References

1. Aaker, D.A. (1996). Building strong brands. New York, NY: The Free Press.
2. Patterson, M. (1999). Re-appraising the concept of brand image. Journal of
Brand Management, 6, 409426.
3. Sirgy, M. J. (1986), Self-Congruity: Towards a Theory of Personality and
Cybernetics. Praeger Publishers: New York; Ibrahim, H. and Najjar, F. (2008),
Assessing the Effects of Self-congruity, Attitudes and Customer Satisfaction
on Customer Behavioural Intentions in a Retail Environment, Marketing
Intelligence & Planning, 26(2), 20725.
4. M. Joseph Sirgy, Don R. Rahtz and Laura Portolese Dias (2014). Consumer
Behavior Today, v. 1.0