IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/alu/journl/v2y2008i10p50.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumer Identity And Implications For The Brand

Author

Listed:
  • Raluca Mihalcea
  • Iacob Cătoiu

Abstract

In a consumer culture people no longer consume for merely functional satisfaction, but consumption becomes meaning-based, and brands are often used as symbolic resources for the construction and maintenance of identity. All human behavior is a symbolic action. People are not just choosing the best, the fanciest, or the cheapest brands. They're choosing brands that have the right meaning. Brands are now creating value not just by the products or services they represent, but by the meanings they generate. This meaning is being adopted by consumers to express who they are and what they stand for. Meaning, in fact, may be the most important product a brand creates today.

Suggested Citation

  • Raluca Mihalcea & Iacob Cătoiu, 2008. "Consumer Identity And Implications For The Brand," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 2(10), pages 1-50.
    • Handle: RePEc:alu:journl:v:2:y:2008:i:10:p:50
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://oeconomica.uab.ro/upload/lucrari/1020082/50.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ariely, Dan & Levav, Jonathan, 2000. "Sequential Choice in Group Settings: Taking the Road Less Traveled and Less Enjoyed," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(3), pages 279-290, December.
    2. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2002. "Identity and Schooling: Some Lessons for the Economics of Education," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1167-1201, December.
    3. Belk, Russell W & Bahn, Kenneth D & Mayer, Robert N, 1982. "Developmental Recognition of Consumption Symbolism," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 9(1), pages 4-17, June.
    4. Calder, Bobby J & Burnkrant, Robert E, 1977. "Interpersonal Influence on Consumer Behavior: An Attribution Theory Approach," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 4(1), pages 29-38, June.
    5. Wernerfelt, Birger, 1990. "Advertising Content When Brand Choice Is a Signal," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 91-98, January.
    6. Jennifer Edson Escalas & James R. Bettman, 2005. "Self-Construal, Reference Groups, and Brand Meaning," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(3), pages 378-389, December.
    7. Bearden, William O & Etzel, Michael J, 1982. "Reference Group Influence on Product and Brand Purchase Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 9(2), pages 183-194, September.
    8. Aaker, Jennifer L & Lee, Angela Y, 2001. ""I" Seek Pleasures and "We" Avoid Pains: The Role of Self-Regulatory Goals in Information Processing and Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(1), pages 33-49, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hogg, Margaret K. & Banister, Emma N. & Stephenson, Christopher A., 2009. "Mapping symbolic (anti-) consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 148-159, February.
    2. Matherly, Ted & Arens, Zachary G. & Arnold, Todd J., 2018. "Big brands, big cities: How the population penalty affects common, identity relevant brands in densely populated areas," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 15-33.
    3. Jaeki Song & Fatemeh Mariam Zahedi, 2005. "A Theoretical Approach to Web Design in E-Commerce: A Belief Reinforcement Model," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(8), pages 1219-1235, August.
    4. Chen, Zengxiang & Huang, Yunhui, 2016. "Cause-related marketing is not always less favorable than corporate philanthropy: The moderating role of self-construal," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 868-880.
    5. Claus, Bart & Geyskens, Kelly & Millet, Kobe & Dewitte, Siegfried, 2012. "The referral backfire effect: The identity-threatening nature of referral failure," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 370-379.
    6. Zheyin (Jane) Gu & Yunchuan Liu, 2014. "Consumer Learning on Social Networks and Retailer Digital Platform Strategies Access," Working Papers 14-02, NET Institute.
    7. Gurzki, Hannes & Woisetschläger, David M., 2017. "Mapping the luxury research landscape: A bibliometric citation analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 147-166.
    8. Pescher, Christian & Spann, Martin, 2014. "Relevance of actors in bridging positions for product-related information diffusion," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(8), pages 1630-1637.
    9. Zhang, Mingyue & Zhao, Haichuan & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2022. "How much is a picture worth? Online review picture background and its impact on purchase intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 134-144.
    10. Reed, Americus & Forehand, Mark R. & Puntoni, Stefano & Warlop, Luk, 2012. "Identity-based consumer behavior," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 310-321.
    11. repec:dau:papers:123456789/3624 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Barton, Belinda & Zlatevska, Natalina & Oppewal, Harmen, 2022. "Scarcity tactics in marketing: A meta-analysis of product scarcity effects on consumer purchase intentions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(4), pages 741-758.
    13. Som, Anirban & Lee, Yih Hwai, 2012. "The joint effects of choice assortment and regulatory focus on choice behavior," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 202-209.
    14. Sangeeta Devanathan, 2020. "Indian Consumers’ Assessment of ‘Luxuriousness’: A Comparison of Indian and Western Luxury Brands," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 9(1), pages 84-95, January.
    15. Minji Suh & Hyewon Cho, 2023. "Cultural differences in giving experiential (vs. material) gifts," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 223-236, June.
    16. Fock, Henry & Chan, Allan K.K. & Yan, Dengfeng, 2011. "Member-organization connection impacts in affinity marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 672-679, July.
    17. Wioleta Kucharska, 2017. "Consumer social network brand identification and personal branding. How do social network users choose among brand sites?," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1315879-131, January.
    18. Veloutsou, Cleopatra & Moutinho, Luiz, 2009. "Brand relationships through brand reputation and brand tribalism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 314-322, March.
    19. Yu-Shan Chen & Shu-Tzu Hung & Ting-Yu Wang & A-Fen Huang & Yen-Wen Liao, 2017. "The Influence of Excessive Product Packaging on Green Brand Attachment: The Mediation Roles of Green Brand Attitude and Green Brand Image," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-15, April.
    20. Jifeng Mu & Ellen Thomas & Jiayin Qi & Yong Tan, 2018. "Online group influence and digital product consumption," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 921-947, September.
    21. Kastanakis, Minas N. & Balabanis, George, 2012. "Between the mass and the class: Antecedents of the “bandwagon” luxury consumption behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1399-1407.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    identity; consumer divergence; reference groups; brand image; brand culture;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:alu:journl:v:2:y:2008:i:10:p:50. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dan-Constantin Danuletiu (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.