Study Task 04 - Summarising and Paraphrashing 04

This study examines how the congruence between brand personality and self-image influences brand loyalty through such mediating variables as consumer-brand relationship and consumer satisfaction. In addition, this study compares the proposed model under high/low involvement situations to examine the moderating influence of involvement.

Park, S & Lee, E. (2005) Congruence Between Brand Personality and Self-Image, and the Mediating Roles of Satisfaction and Consumer-Brand Relationship on Brand Loyalty. Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research. [Online] Volume 6. p. 39-45. Available from http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=11859.

Sirgy (1982, 1986) outlines the importance of self-concept theory in consumer behavior research by explaining that consumers who perceive the product image to be consistent with their actual self-concept are likely to feel motivated to purchase and consume that product.

Graeff (1996) analyzes the influence of the congruence between brand-image and self-image on brand evaluation relating to promotion message. It suggests that under the promotion message that reminds consumers of their own self-image, consumers give more positive evaluations of brands congruent with their own self-image.

Aaker (1999) suggests when self-schema is congruent with brand personality, the brand attitude of a low self-monitor is more favorable, and when the situation is congruent with self-schema, the brand attitude of a high self-monitor is more favorable.

In general, the brand offers opportunities to build relationships with consumers (Wester 2000). That is, consumers want to build a relationship with a certain brand when they regard the brand as beneficial or valuable to them. Thus, if consumers feel that they are getting a good value and are satisfied after initially using the brand, they want to build a relationship with it.

Oliver and Bearden (1983) suggest that consumer satisfaction affects attitude after purchase and this attitude continuously influences the repurchase intention. 

Fournier (1998) suggests that consumers build an individual relationship with product/brand they purchase in much the same way that people initiate and nurture relationships with other people. Hence, consumer-brand relationship indicates that consumers and brands contribute to each other in a win-win partnership.
This relationship construct is multi-dimensional and encompasses cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects. Fournier (1998) introduces six dimensions of brand relationship quality: love/passion, self-connection, interdependence, commitment, intimacy and brand partner quality.

Aaker (1997) suggests that the ultimate objective of the brand identity system is the development of a strong brand relationship between consumers and bands, and consumer-brand relationship builds up brand loyalty.  

Further reading 

- Sirgy, M. Joseph (1980), "The Self-Concept in Relation to Product Preference and Purchase Intention," in Development in Marketing Science, 3, ed. V. V. Bellur, Marquett, MI: Academy of Marketing Science, 350-354.

- Sirgy, M. Joseph (1982), "Self-Concept in Consumer Behavior: A Critical Review," Journal of Consumer Research, 9 (December), 287-300.

- Sirgy, M. Joseph (1986), Self-Congruity, New York: Praeger.

- Graeff, Timothy R. (1996), "Using Promotional Message to Manage the Effects of Brand and Self-Image on Brand Evaluation," Journal of Consumer Marketing, 13 (3), 4-18.

- Graeff, Timothy R. (1997), "Consumption Situations and the Effects of brand image on Consumers’ Brand Evaluations," Psychology and Marketing, 14 (1), 49-70. 

- Aaker, David (1991), Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the value of a brand name, New York: The Free Press.

- Aaker, David (1996), Building Strong Brands, New York: The Free Press.

- Aaker, Jennifer (1997), "Dimensions of Brand Personality," Journal of Marketing Research, 34 (August), 347-357.

- Aaker, Jennifer (1999), "The Malleable Self: The Role of Self-expression in Persuasion," Journal of Marketing Research, February, 45-50.

- Aaker, Jennifer (2000), "Accessibility or Diagnostic? Disentangling the Influence of Culture on Persuasion Processes and Attitudes," Journal of Consumer Research, 26 (March), 340-357.

- Oliver, Richard L. and William O. Bearden (1983), "The Role of Involvement in Satisfaction Process, " Advances in Consumer Research, 10 (1), 250-255.

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Study Task 04 - Summarising and Paraphrasing 03

Achouri, A. & Bouslama, N. (2010) The Effect of the Congruence between Brand Personality and Self-Image on Consumer’s Satisfaction and Loyalty: A Conceptual Framework IBIMA Business Review. Vol. 2010 p. 1-16
 
 Key points
Consumers rely on the brand image as it is developed in their mind rather than on the inherent attributes and characteristics of the product (Dich et al, 1990). This turns customer loyalty into a major primary marketing objective (Benavant,1995; Trinquescoste, 1996)

Associating the specific personality features to the brands allows the consumer to express a certain conception of himself, so as to acquire some value-enhancing, symbolic benefits from a given consumption (Vernette , 2003)

The description of the personality features will proceed from the five fundemental factors, known as the abbreviation OCEAN:

O -  Open mindedness vs narrow-mindedness 
C - Conscientious trait, i.e. orientation, lasting behaviour and mastering impulsion.
E - Extraversion vs intraversion
A - Friendliness and pleasantness: concerning the relation with others.
N - Neuroticism or emotional stability

Kapferer (2003), Aaker defines brand personality, not uniquely as a faucet of identity, but as much more global construct. "the set of traits of human personality which are pertinent and applicable to brands". Ambroise et al., (2003) finds this definition too global as it can comprise some brand personality traits which have no equivalents at the human level; and also because it can present some personality features which rather correspond to social judgements. Thus the authors think its fairer to define brand personality as being "the set of traits of human personality associated to a brand".

Measuring Brand personality is difficult because of the abstract nature of the concept and the difficulty of validating the obtained scales at an intercultural level. Kapferer identifies five dimensions according to which a brand can be described, sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness. This primarily North American scale has proven to be a flexible measuring tool according to the product categories (Smaoui, 2006). Ambroise et al,. (2003) have synthesized the different transpositions of Aakers scale in different cultural contexts. Aakers scale is widely recognized but its structural and semantic validity is questioned, notably when it comes to the generalization of the scale in culturally different contexts (Ambroise et al., 2003).

The notion of self-image started to emerge in the marketing field in the mid 1960's and flourished in the mid 1970's. 

According to L’Ecuyer (1994), the theory of self-image refers to « the way a person perceives himself, to a set of characteristics, personal features, roles and values, etc. that the person attributes to himself, evaluates –positively or negatively- and recognizes as being part of himself, to the intimate experience of being and recognizing oneself despite changes.

According to Brunel (1990), the definition of self-image requires a certain degree of self-knowledge. In order to be able to describe oneself, one needs to know oneself and that conscience and knowledge cannot be dissociated. He also considered the concept of self-image as a multidimensional variable which comprises of 
- a cognitive dimension, the ideas, images and opinions an individual has of himself
- an emotional dimension, the impressions and feelings he has towards himself. 
- a social dimension, the concept of self-image is a setting of projection of the others' perceptions of the individual.

Resermberg (1979) considers self-image as being the total sum of thoughts and feelings through which an individual can describe himself as an object.

Aaker (1997) defines brand personality as being " a set of human characteristics associated to a brand".

In the field of marketing, and more specifically in the field of research on the consumer’s behavior, the concept of self is assimilated to the image of self in a rather diminishing way (Vernette, 2003). 

The concept of self is conceived of as a multidimensional notion involving different facets (Zouaghi and Darpey, 2003). Researchers have enriched this definition by identifying four dimensions of self-image (Sirgyet al., 1997; Jamal and Goode, 2001).
-The real self: the way an individual sees himself (“what I think I am”). 
-The dreamed self or the ideal self: the way I would like to be (“What I would dream to be”).
-The real social self: the way others consider me (“what others think of me”).
-The dreamed social self or the ideal social self: the way I would like others to consider me (“what I would like others to think of me”) 

The advantage of this approach is that it makes it possible to figure out the interactions between the different dimensions of the self, and to look for congruence between the brand personality and the consumer’s personality.

Sirgy (1982) explains that the concept of self-image is used as a cognitive referent in the evaluation of symbolic elements. The consumer seeks certain congruence between the features of a brand’s image and the way his personality is presented (Belk, 1988; Sirgy, 1982). In other words, the consumer would express his self-image by choosing brands the personality of which appears to him close to his own personality (Vernette, 2008).

As a matter of fact, brands have an impact on the consumer’s behavior, for the consumer compares his image to that of the brand, whether implicitly or explicitly. He often sets some imaginary relationships with it. He can situate himself in relation to a given brand through congruence, or lack of it, between his own personality and that which he attributes to a given brand (Plummer, 1985; Biel, 1993). 

Congruence with self-image is perceived as the similitude between the brand’s symbolic attributes and the consumer’s self-image Munson and Spivey, 1981; Sirgy, 1982).

Page 6 of article. Points on the four dimensional concept of self.

Publicizing celebrities as spokespersons: Advertizing executives use a celebrity to benefit from his or her fame and gain a better memorization of the advertisement, which entails a better recognition of the associated brand. In this context, the authors often refer to congruence as a tool of persuasion (Kamins and Gupta, 1994) or to a “match up effect” (Lynch and Schuler, 1994). 

According to the theory of congruence with self-image, part of the individual’s behavior is accounted for by the comparison between his own self-image and the brand’s image as reflected by the stereotype user of the brand (Sirgy, 1986; Sirgy et al., 1997).

Loyalty to a brand is conceptualized as being the intention to purchase a brand or a product and to encourage others to do so (Lau and Lee, 1999). For Walters et al., (1989), loyalty is “the consumer’s propensity to buy the same product (brand) or to frequent the same shop whenever he needs this product”. Others suggest that the concept of loyalty can be described as the attachment of some customers to a brand (Roux, 1986). However, according to Achour (2006), loyalty and attachment to a brand are not always synonyms. The author adds that “some consumers who are loyal to a brand are not necessarily attached to it: it is the case of those customers who are loyal to a brand because they have no other alternative (limited financial resources, availability of the brand, appropriateness of the shop where they go shopping, etc.)”.

The consumer’s satisfaction towards a brand has a positive effect on his attitude towards this brand. The consumer’s satisfaction towards a brand has a positive effect on the level of his preference of this brand. The consumer’s satisfaction towards a brand has a positive effect on his intention of future behavior towards this brand.

The consumer prefers the product the image of which is congruent with his self-image. In other words, consumers only have a favorable attitude towards a specific brand after applying a set of personality attributes and linking them to their self-images. According to the image congruence theory by Sirgy (1985), when the image of the brand is perceived as similar to the consumer’s self-image in terms of personality attribute types, the consumer tends to develop a favorable attitude towards the brand when deciding about a purchase act, or about buying a product again. 

Congruence between brand personality and the consumer’s self-image has a positive effect on his attitude towards this brand. congruence between brand personality and the consumer’s self-image has a positive impact on his level of preference towards this brand. Congruence between brand personality and the consumer’s self-image has a positive effect on his intention of future behavior towards this brand. 

Study Task 04 - Summarising and Paraphrasing 02

Here are some of the key points I took out from Daniel Miller's Material Culture and Mass Consumption.

The book sets out to investigate the relationship between society and material culture, and to assess the consequences of the enormous increase in industrial production over the last century. Miller talks in a point of view of the British society, commenting that the average inhabitant of Britain is exposed to a large range of material goods such as clothing, furnishing, technology, buildings, etc.

• It is argued that contemporary society consists of a series of extremely abstract arenas of social and material order, including commerce, academia, the state and other major institutions. pg16
• Simmel's essential argument is that money is the prerequisite for, and major instrument in, the accomplishment of freedom and potential equality. pg73
• In a close knit society, the sense of personal obligation is overwhelming. Such obligations, usually based upon kinship relations, are highly specific as regards both the actions demanded and the identity of the individual subject to them. That is to say that every individual lives according to highly structured set of personal obligations which he or she must continually fulfil. This condition is characteristic of societies dominated not only by kinship but also by feudalism or slavery; it is also characteristic of the peasant village. pg73
• Money as abstraction is understood by Simmel to be the root of impersonal relations between people. In a monetarized regime, the individual may be under obligation to a far larger range of poeple than was hitherto possible, through mortgages, tax systems and so on. Money extends a concept of equality, in so far as the perception of inequality becomes based upon differences in the possession of money, rather than on an essentialist  notion of the intrinsic differences in persons. pg73
• Culture is derived as a historical force prior to the existence of any individual subject, but is only realizable through agency. It is therefore the means by which the individual is socialized as a member of a given society, and is, in turn the form of all individual and social creativity. pg81
• The phenomenon of certain mundane objects becoming so firmly associated with an individual that they are understood as literal extensions of that individual's being was discussed in some detail by Levy-Bruhl (1966: 100-27). In many societies, the clothing, ornaments and tools belonging to an individual may be considered so intergral to him or her that to touch or do harm to these inanimate objects is considered indistinguishable from taking the same action against the person. Such property is identical to the person may stand for that person in his or her absence. pg119
• What makes an object fashionable it is ability to signify the present; it is thus always doomed to become unfashionable with the movement of time. Fashion usually operates within a system of emulation and differentiation in knowledge, such that it uses the dynamic force of object change as a means of reinforcing the stability of the social system within which it is operating (Miller 1985: 184-96; Simmel 1957). pg126
• Most artefacts are either the product of mass production, in which case they are identical to all other items produced by the same process, or else are intended as equal copies of a normative cultural notion. pg127
• Emulation is increasingly significant as a strategy by means of which people lower in social hierarchy attempt to realise their aspirations towards higher status by modifying their behaviour, their dress and the kinds of goods they purchase, since it now becomes possible to mistake a poor nobleman for a wealthy trader. Emulation in turn simulates the desire to retain differentials, which often becomes based upon access to knowledge about goods and their prestige connotations. Fashion emerges as the means for continuing those forms of social discrimination previously regulated by sumptuary rulings. pg136
• In Simmels analysis (1957: 308-15), Simmel argues that fashion plays a major part in many peoples attempt to live out contradictory pulls of this perceived duality. Fashion demands an individual conception of a conventional style, thereby allowing the preservation of a private world, a self-conception which is saved from exposure by the expediency of convention. Fashion then provides a surface which is partly expressive but which also in part protects individuals from having to expose their taste in public. pg174

Further reading

Abercrombie, N., Hill, S. and Turner, B. 1980 The Dominant Ideology Thesis. London: Allen and Unwin. 1986 Sovereign Individuals of Capitalism. London: Allen and Unwin.
Works by Levi-Strauss
Simmel, G. 1957 'Fashion'. American Journal of Sociology, 62, 541-58.
and other works by Simmel.

Study Task 05 - Planning and Structuring an Essay

 Sources

•  Maurya, U (2012). What is a brand? A perspective on brand meaning.
  European Journal of Business and Management. [Online]. ISSN 2222-2839 Vol 4, No.3. p. 122-133. Available from: http://pakacademicsearch.com/pdf-files/ech/517/122-133%20Vol%204,%20No%203%20%282012%29.pdf
• Quart, A. (2003) Branded. London: Arrow books. Chapter 12 and 13
• Miller, D. (1998) A theory of shopping. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Poynor, R. (2001) Obey The Giant: Life in the image world. Basel: Birkhauser. p.111.114; p.55-61; p81-87
• Keller, K. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. [Online]. p. 1-22. Available from: http://www.iseg.ulisboa.pt/aula/cad1849/conceptualizing_measuring_managing_cbbe.pdf

Graphic Design

I will analyse the graphic design used in fashion and consumer electronics branding, as it is the most common way in which humans express their "individuality".

Essay Structure

These are the key points I aim to discuss in my body of essay.

• I will be establishing the meaning of branding and its role in society. Analysing the different definitions and its purpose in society. I will answer this discussion by choosing a definition that covers the breadth of which branding affects and identifying the key areas of society of which branding affects the most.
• How does design affect branding? I will analyse the different design practices used in creating advertising campaigns. What motifs designers use to entice the consumer and the effects of typeface on selling the brand image
• What effect does branding have on the consumer self? Initially I will establish what my definition of the consumer self is, what it means to be a consumer. Analysing what branding does to the consumer, then to analyse how brand design changes the consumers perception of a brand.
• Why branding is important in creating the consumer self