Consumer Behavior

Week 07

The Self: Mind,

Gender, and Body

6-1
Learning Objectives
1. The self-concept strongly influences consumer behavior.
2. Products often define a person’s self-concept.
3. Gender identity is an important component of a consumer’s self
concept.

6-2
 Learning Objectives (Cont.)
4. The way we think about our bodies (and the way our culture tells
us we should think) is a key component of self-esteem.
5. Every culture dictates certain types of body decoration or
mutilation.

6-3
 Self-Concept
• Self-concept: the beliefs a person holds about his/her own attributes, and how he/she
evaluates these qualities Attribute dimensions: content, positivity, intensity, stability
over time, and accuracy

• The Self-concept represents the “totality of the individual's thoughts and feelings
having reference to himself as an object.”

• Self-concept: the beliefs a person holds about his/her own attributes, and how he/she
evaluates these qualities

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Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 2-5
 Perspectives on Self
• We buy products to highlight/hide aspects of self
• Eastern culture focus on:
• The collective self (person’s identity comes from
group)
• The independent self (person’s identity defined from
relationships with others)
• Western cultures focus on:
• Individuality

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 2-6

 Self Esteem
• Refers to the positivity of a person’s self-concept
• Those with low self-esteem do not think they will perform well and will try to avoid embarrassment
or failure/rejection.
• Those with high self-esteem expect to be successful, will take more risks, and are more willing to be
the center of attention
• Marketing communications can influence a consumer’s level of self-esteem.
• Social comparison is the process where a person tries to evaluate his or her self by comparing it to the
people depicted in artificial images (such as ads in a magazine).

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Different Self-Images
• Ideal Self is a person's conception of how they would like to
be; partially based on elements of one's culture
Example: I want to be different, Apple
• Actual Self A person's realistic appraisal of his/her qualities

7-8
 Fantasy Appeals

• Although most people experience a

discrepancy between their real and ideal
selves, for some consumers this gap is
larger than for others.
• These people are good targets for fantasy
appeals.
• In this German ad for shampoo, the
target audience is encouraged to
fantasize about leading a glamorous
 Fantasy Appeals

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 Multiple Selves
• Marketers pitch products needed to facilitate active role identities
• Each of us has many selves and roles
• Marketers pitch products needed to facilitate active role identities

Sister
Woman Friend

Wife
Spokesperson

Pro athlete
Mother
American citizen
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 Multiple Selves
We all have multiple roles in our life
We may have as many selves as we could
This causes us to prefer different product/services
The self can be thought of as having different
components or role identities.
Some of the identities are more central than others
(e.g., husband, boss, mother, student).

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 The Extended Self
• Individual: personal possessions (cars,
clothing)
• Family: residence and furnishings
• Community: neighborhood or town where you
live
• Group: social or other groups

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 Self/Product Congruence
• Consumers demonstrate their values through their purchase behavior
• Self-image congruence models: we choose products when attributes matches the self

• People choose products based on ‘real self’ when choosing luxury items and ‘ideal self’
for functional items

Product Usage Self-Image

=
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWcGhuX6N7w
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TZmQPdhpak

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 Sex Roles
• A society’s assumptions about the proper roles of men and women are
communicated in terms of the ideal behaviors that are stressed for each
gender.
• In many societies, male are controlled by agentic goals that stress self-
assertion and mastery.
• Female are taught to value communal goals, such as affiliation and the
fostering of harmonious relations.

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 Gender versus sexual identity
• Gender role identity is a state of mind as well as body.
• A person’s biological gender does not totally determine whether he/she will exhibit sex-typed
traits (characteristics that are stereotypically associated with one sex or the other).
• A consumer’s subjective feelings about his or her sexuality are crucial as well
• A behavior considered masculine in one culture might not be viewed as such in other
• The norm that male should be strong and repress tender feelings, male friends avoid touching
each other is not universal

• Many products are sex typed; they take on masculine or feminine attributes.

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 Sex-Typed Products

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Gender Roles
• Female Sex Roles and Male Sex Roles
• One study examined how American men pursue masculine
identities through their everyday consumption. The researchers
suggest that men are trying to make sense out of three different
models of masculinity that they call breadwinner, rebel, and man-
of-action hero, as they figure out just who they are supposed to
be.
• Society’s expectations of masculinity and femininity help to
determine the products we buy to meet these expectations.

5-18
 Androgyny and Gender-bending
• Androgyny: possession of both
masculine and feminine trait
• Androgynous people function
well in social situations
• Sex-typed people:
stereotypically masculine or
feminine
• Females more sensitive to pieces
of information
• Men consider overall themes

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Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 2-20
Female Sex Roles
Female sex roles have evolved in many cultures, but they
certainly still exist. This ad cleverly gets to the heart of the
female sex role.
 Male Sex Roles
• Masculinism: study of male image
and the complex cultural
meanings of masculinity

• Metro-sexual: straight, urban

male who exhibits strong interests
and knowledge that run counter
to traditional male sex role
 Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Consumers

• The proportion of the population

that is GLBT is difficult to
determine and efforts to measure
this group have been controversial
• In other cases, many major
marketers are using openly gay
and lesbian celebrities in
campaigns aimed at the wider
audience
 Ideals of Beauty
• The way we think about our bodies (and the way our
culture tells us we should think) is a key component of
self-esteem.

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 Ideals of Beauty
• Exemplar of appearance
• “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

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 Body Image

• A persons physical
appearance is a large part
of his/her self-concept
• Body Image refers to
consumer’s subjective
evaluation of his/her
physical self
• A woman may think she
appears more fat (60Kg)
27
 Working on the Body
• Fattism
• Cosmetic surgery
• Body decoration and mutilation
• Body piercing

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 Working on the Body

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 Chapter Summary
• Self-concept as an influence on behavior
• The role of products in defining self-concept
• The influence of sex-role identity on purchases
• Self-esteem and our body image
• Cultural expectations of appearance

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 5-30

Disclaimer:
The contents of these slides are adapted from book Consumer Behavior
by  Michael R. Solomon. It is solely for the purpose of teaching marketing
concepts and assessing consumer behavior insight for students studying at Iqra
University.

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