Fashion Marketing: Contemporary Issues, Second edition - Pr School

Consumers and their negative selves, and the implications for fashion marketing 221
brands are used as instruments to improve individuals’ self-image, and the
socially attributed meanings of the product are then transferred to individuals
through consumption.
An important assumption of the image congruency hypothesis is that the
self-concept is valuable to consumers and that individuals therefore will seek
to protect and enhance it (Sirgy, 1982, p. 289). This means that if, for example,
you are purchasing an item of clothing, you are likely to select a brand
name or retailer that conjures up a positive image for you. Often, this positive
imagery will be formed on the basis of the typical user stereotypes that
you associate with that brand. So, for example, you may have a certain set
of brands – termed the evoked set – that you would consider acceptable. You
would hope (consciously or subconsciously) that by purchasing and wearing
an item of clothing identifiable to others as being one of these brands, that the
qualities associated with the brand will then be identified with you and effectively
communicated to the potential audience.
In essence, the relationship between products and brands (including fashion
items) and consumers’ identities functions in two directions. On the one
hand, the products purchased help consumers to define who they are. On the
other, individuals will seek to maintain their self-concepts by purchasing items
perceived to be congruent with their identity. Therefore, we can see that both
the actual self and the ideal self are important players in this relationship.
Self-congruency theory supports the existence of a system of appearance
management, whereby individuals use clothing as a flexible means to negotiate
their identity (Kaiser et al., 1991). We can see from Figure 11.1 that the
‘chosen’ identity could vary depending on the potential audience (and the
situation). Therefore, different sets of brands or fashion retailers would be
deemed appropriate in different situations.
Negative symbolic consumption
So far, we have considered how individuals use their identities and the positive
images of products and brands to influence their consumption decisions.
However, it is also important for fashion marketers and manufacturers and
those studying consumer trends to form an understanding of those items,
brands and trends which are not attractive to consumers, and more importantly
to appreciate why items acquire the images that they do. It is suggested
that what we choose not to consume is an important aspect of both individual
and group identity (or identities). Consumers’ rejection of fashion items and
brands often says as much about them personally and socially as that which
they opt to consume. A framework has been developed that incorporates the
negative aspects of symbolic consumption, along with congruency theory, in
an attempt to understand consumers’ rejection of fashion items for symbolic
reasons (see also Banister and Hogg 2004; Hogg and Banister 2001).
Possible selves were presented in the self-concept section as a set of
imagined roles or states of being that can be either positive or negative
(Markus and Nurius, 1986). Negative selves work in a conflicting manner