Self Concept

One man's rags is another man's riches...

Solomon (2010) describes how 'props' are important to the [gender] role which we play, props that vary across 'constellations' of products and services. He defines self-concept by "people see themselves as they imagine others see them", and also that, as part of that image, jewelery, shoes and clothes also have an impact. By creating these roles for men and women, marketers can launch their products at the category of people that they think the product will have greatest impact in an environment where people are becoming less satisfied with what they already have.


Research conducted by K. Hamilton and L. Hassan (2008) has shown that there is a strong link between the 'social role' and the 'self' and that other consumers influence the construction of personalities. This could be interpreted as peer pressure, when the circles that we travel in are affected by everyone in it, also other groups around it, and we are influenced into buying things our 'self' wouldn't normally consider. An example of this would be celebrity fitness DVDs, showing the 'before' and 'after' footage, almost what 'we' do and could look like, to fit in, if we bought this DVD.

Consumers can also strive to achieve their desired social role and so, through the acquisition of possessions, they can symbolize their personality through what is expected, a theory known as symbolic self-completion (Gollwitzer et al., 1982). This theory links to Solomons theory of having props to create an image, and the 'constellation' of products is effectively the the symbolic personality for the consumer.