Identité(s), consommation et adolescence : proposition d’une échelle de mesure de l’identité sociale de l’adolescente consommatrice

Our research addresses an increasing interest of companies in the adolescent target group. This interest can be explained by a combination of three factors: increasing purchase potential by teenagers, strong influence on other family members and the importance of identity construction at this age. As female teenagers as a target group are very promising, companies have to deal with two challenges: first, the volatility in purchase behaviour at this young age, and, second, a high influence of members of the teenager's peer group on the purchase decision. Furthermore, many consumer choices result from the desire to match the consumer's identity with their chosen brands to positively influence their identity through the chosen brand. However, a tension might exist between motives of consumer's consumption for themselves and for members of their peer group as consumers want to match both motives. To derive managerial decisions for this target group it is highly important to gain knowledge on which factors impact the construct of social identity. Against the existing literature on the social identity construct this paper fills a research gap by applying a quantitative approach. Based on the paradigm of Churchill (1979) this paper is first to develop a measurement scale of social identity for female teenagers as an important target group. Finally, we are able to prove the validity and reliability of this new measurement scale based on a sample of 1,028 female teenagers. Furthermore, by applying this new measurement scale to luxury brands we are able to derive highly managerial relevant implications based on the identification of four different profiles of female teenagers.