To what extent is brand meaning socially constructed amongst customers
Part 5 Assignment: To what extent is brand meaning socially constructed amongst customers?
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.
Brands become linked to the self when a brand is able to help consumers achieve goals that are motivated by the self. For example, brands can be used to meet self-expression needs, publicly or privately; can serve as tools for social integration or to connect us to the past; and may act as symbols of personal accomplishment, provide self-esteem, allow one to differentiate oneself and express individuality, and help people through life transitions
The basic premise is that consumers appropriate the meaning of brands as they construct their self-identities, particularly brand meaning that arises from reference group use and non-use of brands. However, some brands are better able than others to communicate something about the person using them. For example, prior consumer research proposes that publicly consumed (vs. privately consumed) and luxury (vs. necessity) products are better able to convey symbolic meaning about an individual (Bearden and Etzel 1982). Additionally, a brand that is very popular and used by many different types of people (e.g., a Honda Accord automobile) may not communicate specific associations about the person who uses it. Consumers will be
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.
Brands become linked to the self when a brand is able to help consumers achieve goals that are motivated by the self. For example, brands can be used to meet self-expression needs, publicly or privately; can serve as tools for social integration or to connect us to the past; and may act as symbols of personal accomplishment, provide self-esteem, allow one to differentiate oneself and express individuality, and help people through life transitions
The basic premise is that consumers appropriate the meaning of brands as they construct their self-identities, particularly brand meaning that arises from reference group use and non-use of brands. However, some brands are better able than others to communicate something about the person using them. For example, prior consumer research proposes that publicly consumed (vs. privately consumed) and luxury (vs. necessity) products are better able to convey symbolic meaning about an individual (Bearden and Etzel 1982). Additionally, a brand that is very popular and used by many different types of people (e.g., a Honda Accord automobile) may not communicate specific associations about the person who uses it. Consumers will be