Theories of Consumer Behaviour, Concept of Extended Self and Its Effect on Purchasing Behaviour - Essay Example

Application of Theories of Consumer Behaviour to Analyse the Concept of the Extended Self and Its Effect on Consumers’ Purchasing Behaviour University Introduction The concept of extended self on consumer behaviour as demonstrated by Belk (1988) was put forward as a theory to explain the consumption association between pet companions and their owners. “A key to understanding what possessions mean is recognizing that, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, we regard our possessions as parts of ourselves.” (139). This concept has been used to signify that consumers have varied ways of assimilating a wide range of personal products and making them part of their definition, which is a way of appreciating the desirable attributes of their personhood. Explain Concept of Extended Self & Four Levels – Individual, Family, Community & Group There are four levels of extended self which are individual, family, community and group levels. Individual level This level implies a situation whereby a consumer’s personal definition is influenced by many personal possessions. Some of the possession include clothing, cars, jewellery and others. In this case, the clothes, cars and jewellery one uses are a reflection of their own identity. Family level This is the second part of the extended self and involves a consumer’s possession which are regarded as belonging to the family and therefore, they are taken as symbolic of the entire family. Such possession include furnishings and the residence. In this case, this extended self-concept holds that the home we live in is a huge indicator of who we are. Community level This level explains the extended self in terms of the large society in which a consumer lives in. As such, consumers in this case identify themselves with the town, locality or neighbourhood they live in. this level if very important to residents who relate closely in a community such as farm families. Group level This level seeks to explain he association of a consumer with a particular social groupings. In this case, a consumer seeks an attachment to a group as it is viewed as part of their social groups. As such, such social aspects as sport teams, church associations or landmarks form part of that consumer’s extended self. CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR THEORIES There are a number of theories that try to explain the link between consumer buying behaviour and the concept of extended self. Such theories concentrate on personality and behaviour of the consumer in order to understand their motivation in making consumption decisions. Some of the theories of consumer behaviour theories include the following. Black box theory This theory forms a framework for explaining why some consumers choose to buy the products they use. The notion is that the consumption behaviour is not a mystery. According to Kotler (2005), this concept can be explained using a Stimulus Response Model whereby the mind is a ‘black-box’ inside the model. The implication of the model is that there are many inputs that are controlled by the general economy and companies offering different products in the market which determines the consumer buying behaviours. Such inputs include the timing of purchase and the buying pattern. While this model can be used to explain the patterns in the buying behaviour for most products, it is still mysterious why some consumers buy certain products. The ‘black box’ is divided into two parts which are the ‘buyer decision making’ and ‘buyer characteristic’. These two sections indicate that the attributes of the buyer with regards to what they consider art of themselves influence their buyer decision process. As such, if a consumer views a brand as part of their identity, this belief will shape their buying behaviour. Behavioural learning theories Behavioural learning theories are based on the notion that consumer’s buying behaviours result from a stimulus in their external environment that triggers the consumers to elicit a response, which is this case is the purchase decisions. There are two types of behavioural learning theories – classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning imply that the behaviour elicited by either humans or animals are achieved through conditioning or repetition (Schiffman et al. 2008a, 187). In this case, there are two stimulus that are associated with the consumer behaviour. The firs stimuli does not elicit he intended behaviour and therefore, the second one is use to reinforce the first stimulus which in turn leads to elicitation of a specific consumer behaviour. The first stimulus relates to stimulus generalisation which is then followed stimulus discrimination where a specific behaviour is targeted. Operant conditioning on the other hand relates to a choice made by a consumer to purchase and use a particular products because of the benefits they derive from the consumption of that product. A consumer can also choose to purchase a particular product in order to avoid negative attributes associated with not making a specific buying decision. As such, the buying decisions is made based on the fact that the choice is goal-directed to achieve something good or avoid something harmful. Behavioural learning theories are applied in the concept of extended self to determine the consumption patterns of consumer based on the benefits they think they will derive from a specific product or the negative attributes they will avoid in the process. As such, consumers will identify with a product that promises to bring positive rewards to a buyer. Decision making process Most of the consumers make their purchase decisions based on the rationality of such a decision. In this case, consumers will not make a decision in a rush as they take time to get all the information they can get about the product they which to purchase, after the information is collected with their pros and cons, an evaluation is made in order to weight which side outweighs the other – either the pros or the cons. Once the most rational choice has been determined, the consumer then makes a decision to buy that particular products. It is therefore imperative to note that the concept of the extended self in this case will relate to the consumer’s identification with the most rational product in the market based on a thorough analysis. The product chosen after the evaluation is the most important one. Motivational theory The theory of motivation plays the part where a consumer has a need that needs to be satisfied by making a certain consumption decisions. Once the need has been activated, the consumer will be in a state of tension which generated the drive to try and reduce or eliminate the tension and consequently, the need. In this case, a consumer will make the consumption decision taking into consideration the benefits the product will have in reducing the need. If a product will benefit by satisfying the need sufficiently, the consumer is likely to identify with such a product thereby buying such a product. On the other hand, consumers will refrain from buying something that does not add value in the process of need reduction, no matter how popular the product will be. Perceptions Perception is defined as the selection, interpretation and organisation of physical sensations. There are physical sensations related to different products that influence the consumption behaviour of consumers. The influential senses include; taste, sound, texture, smell and sight. The choice of the consumer to identify with a specific product and buy it depends on how much the consumer’s perception on that product is strong. If the senses do not catch the attention of the consumers, then they will not identity with the product and therefore, they would not buy such a product. On the other hand, is a stimulus is picked by a senses and the perception is very string, the consumer’s attention will be picked and adopted. The selection process begins when a consumer repeatedly notices the stimulus with time and pays enough attention to determine its value. The process is completed when the consumer decides to attend to the stimulus by buying the product. Attitudes Attitude functional theory relates to the notion that the attitudes of people results from the general assessment of issues, advertisements, objects or people. The theory of attitudes is instrumental in the analysis of consumer behaviour and the concept of the extended self as attitudes influence the social behaviour of people in the society and consequently, their purchase decisions. Attitudes are regulated by the motives of the consumers. If the consumer is motivated by high quality products, coloured products, or scented products, they will likely identify with the products that provide the best products based on their attitudes. Cognitive dissonance Cognitive dissonance relates to the discomfort and dissatisfaction that is experienced by a consumer is using a specific product. As such, there are serious conflicts in the behaviours, beliefs and attitudes of the consumers with regard to making the consumption decisions. When a product produces a feeling of discomfort, there is loss of balance between behaviours, beliefs and attitudes of the consumer thereby triggering the need to restore the balance by avoiding the consumption of such a product. This theory holds that consumers have an inner motivation to harmonise their beliefs and attitudes in order to avoid dissonance. This theory is influential in exploring the concept of the extended self as it explains that consumers will identify with products that give them harmony between their beliefs and attitudes and thereby avoid conflict within themselves. For instance, if consumer with lung problems considers smoking to be harmful to his/her health, then they make the decision to avoid the consumption of the tobacco in order to avoid further conflict between the beliefs and attitudes of that consumer. The role gender and culture play in creation of self-concept It can be recapped that self-concept is made up of self-esteem and self-image. In simple terms, self-concept can be described as the sum total manner that we think about our self. Self-esteem is how highly we think about our self, while self-image is the manner in which we view our selves based on others reactions towards us. In regards to consumer behavior it will be very critical for consumers to possess a positive self-concept towards a particular product or service. A positive self-concept generally has the capability of assisting us in life, which means the manner in which we behave and act towards others. If a positive self-concept is achieved, one will be filled with utmost bliss. There are many factors that influence self-concept, but for this paper only two are focused, gender and culture. After birth gender is used to distinguish whether one is a boy or a girl, there is a great role played by gender in relation to seal-concept. This is because there are different social expectations of men and women. Culture is also a factor since different people have different customs and consequently altered ways of thinking. A particular community can have different beliefs and expectations from another community. Firms are today with the challenge of building a long term consumer-brand relationship, and to understand what attributes can affect this is becoming crucial. There is a dyadic personal relationship between a consumer and a brand (Fournier, 1998). The fact that people will purchase a product or a service based on their self-image, marketers find it necessary not only to use sex to segment a variable but factor gender cues into a brand. Gender identity is a combination of variables such as sex, gender attitudes and psychological gender, which are crucial determinants of brand consumption (Palan, 2001). Gender roles attitude are closely related to self-concept especially self-esteem issues. Gender role identity can be used independently to explain gender related consumer behaviors, because they contain self-images related to an individual’s position and how an individual would act in a social structure (Spence, 1993). Sex differences are also widely used by marketers to influence consumer behavior, a good example is the fact that women are highly associated with household shopping and can easily influence brand choice. Self-image which is part of self-concept as stated earlier has the ability to enhance a strong consumer brand. Culture is also a determinant of consumer behavior, culture has the ability to influence the way we think, an aspect referred to as ‘cultural influences.’ Different cultures have different views of what is wrong and what is right, which is what is regarded to as norms. For instance, most British people won’t eat snails, and therefore it will not be prudent to sell such to British people. Marketer will consider culture to influence consumer behavior, because what a consumer perceives as right or wrong, will be influenced by the norm of the people around that consumer. Self-esteem is highly influenced by cultural beliefs about what is wrong or right, and consequently this will affect a consumer’s self-concept. Select any FOUR adverts and discuss how these adverts have/have not applied the concept effectively 1. Coca-Cola’s ‘share a Coke campaign’ It is reported that ‘share a coke’ campaign grew sales for the first time in ten years thanks to this advertisement (ADWEEK, 2014). This is due to its personalized bottle campaign, the bottle is branded with common names such as Chris, Ruth, Charles, Ahmed and other common names used around the globe. This campaign has infiltrated more than 80 countries, and it has really pushed the company’s sales to great levels. Name of a person is the most personal thing that one has, it’s the identity of that person. The principle of self-concept has been used in this advertisement to influence consumer behavior, personalizing the bottle a particular name makes a consumer whose name is on the bottle identify him/herself with the product. Since extended self consists of the self plus possessions, and people will try to define themselves with in part by their possessions, a bottle personalized with one’s name become an extended self. According to symbolic self-completion theory: a person with an incomplete self-definition finds way to complete the identity by acquiring and displaying symbols associated with it. This theory is put into plat as one will try to acquire the bottle with his name in a quest to complete his identity. 2. BMW promoting its plug-in car at the super bowl Sport is another important aspect that influences self-concept of a person, this prompted BMW to create a 60 second ad promoting one of its brand, BMW i3. Super bowl is one of the fancied sport around the globe with many viewers and spectators who associated themselves with the sport. It is reported that super-bowl is the most-watched TV show in America’s history, which explains the fact that a lot of viewers identifies themselves with the show. BMW takes this opportunity to influence the consumer behavior who are estimated to be about 111.5. The idea of self-concept especially in the part of social self, how one would like to be viewed by others. 3. Samsung and Chelsea Football Club Samsung use of one of the largest club in London, Chelsea FC to advertise its brand is way that the company has contemplated very careful in regards to creation of self-concept. There are many football fans around the club, a sport that is estimated to be the most watched and loved around the globe. Many football fans will associate themselves with a particular football club, and this can influence their consumer behavior in that they can purchase Samsung’s product. Identity is created by associating the football fans with Chelsea football club. Group identity is created in such a scenario, a group of people identifies themselves with a particular subject. In this case group identity is created and expressed through the extended self, where the football fans will purchase Samsung products and football shirts with Samsung logo in the name of supporting the club. 4. Nivea use of gender roles in advertisement: identity transformation It is a common phenomenon that men will be described through masculine, while females will be described through feminism. The masculine nature of men is used in advertising never products for men, where the men’s product are advertised with men with biceps and muscular. Nivea products are advertised by beautiful and young women. The advertisement of Nivea in this case try to influence consumer behavior by creating a notion that when one uses the product, he or she is likely to emulate the models used in the advertisement. Many women would like to look younger and beautiful and would consume any product that is likely to influence their identity transformation, men would also like to consume products that would transform them to look masculine with biceps. There is a huge significance in of body image to self-concept in terms of perception and evaluation of size effectiveness (Schouten, 1991, p.413). This identity transformation is capable of raising the self-esteem of a person, by providing high level of confidence and under control. Conclusion The concept of the extended self relates to the association of people in terms of their identity and the passion they hold. This concept was introduced to relate to pet owners and their animal pets. The relationship was viewed as that of parenthood as the pet owners vowed the parts a part of their own identify. This theory is very important in analysis consumer behaviour. This is because consumer behaviour theories can be used to explain why consumers make the specific consumption decisions they make. The concept of extended self is related is determined by self-concept. Self-concept is related to how individuals perceive themselves. That concept is determined by several factors such as gender and culture. The different advertisements analysed in this paper seek to demonstrate how the concept of the extended-self works to influence consumer purchase decisions. References Fournier, Susan (1998), “Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research,” Journal of Consumer Research, 24(4), 343-73. Palan, Kay M. (2001), “Gender Identity in Consumer Behavior Research: A literature Review and Research Agenda,” Academy of Marketing Science Review, 2001(01),1-25. Schouten, J. W. 1991. Selves in transition: symbolic consumption in personal rites of passage and identity reconstruction. Journal of consumer research, 17th March: 412-425 Spence, Janet T. and Robert L. Helmreich (1978), Masculinity & Femininity, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press Schiffman, L., Bednall, D., O‟Cass, A., Paladino, A., Ward, S., Kanuk, L. (2008a). Consumer Behaviour. 4th Edition. Pearson Education Australia. 64 p. Schiffman, L., Lazar, L., Hansen, H. (2008b). Consumer Behaviour, a European Outlook. First edition in the UK. Harlow, Pearson Education Limited. 493 p. Solomon, M.R. , Bamossy, G., Askegaard S., Hogg, M.K. ed (2010), Consumer Behaviour –  a European Perspective, New Jersey, Pearson Prentice Hall. Read More