Utilizing Self Identity in Marketing What do you commonly think of when you are asked to describe your “self-identity”? Do words such as creative, organized, sister, tall, athletic, friend, or adventurer come to mind? Based on that definition of yourself, how do you exhibit those characteristics? Through the experiences you choose to have, through your education, through your familial relationships, through the products you buy? Classic consumer behavior theory seeks to understand the needs of consumers – that is, what they need, why they need it, how they perceive that need and what they are willing to do to fulfill that need. Not surprisingly, consumer self-identity plays a huge role in this process. Within the theory of Possessions and Extended Self comes the idea that humans view their physical possessions, their intangible characteristics, their family ties, and their physical environment as all extensions of their individual identity. The closer the object or characteristic is to the corporeal body of the individual, the more tightly they construct that object as a part of their identity – for example, people view their manner of speech as more reflective of their personal identity than the city in which they live. Interestingly though, people are not constrained by having objects (tangible or intangible) as reflections of themselves. Instead, they embrace possessions as extensions of themselves and use those objects to send messages to others.
Meaningful Products What then, does this mean for you as a marketer – especially in online marketing? Perhaps an example will be helpful. Suppose that a recent and proud alumnus from the University of Miami who acquired a job through the university’s recruiting database – will the previous student have bought some form of University of Miami clothing at the bookstore? You bet. In making this purchase, would the alumnus deliberate very much over the price of the object and compare it to competing university clothing? No – University of Miami clothing helps to represent an integral component of who the alumnus is. Granted, this is a niche market that cannot be entered into easily, but the core marketing principles imbedded in this example are the same for any market. Companies must find a way to not only fulfill a customer’s need
but also help their product become a part of the consumer’s self-identity, and an increasingly important part of that strategy is online marketing. As a note of caution, it must first be agreed that all marketing strategies are useless unless there is a good product. Consumers will never embrace a worthless product even if it has the best marketing in the world.
Online Marketing So given that the product you are selling is a good one, what are some online marketing strategies that you can employ to help your consumers include your product as a possession that exhibits their selfidentity? Two potential strategizes are to allow for personalization and leverage social media. The first strategy is to allow for personalization in the creation process on the company’s website. If a customer can go online and specify the color, pattern, wording, embellishments, etc. of your product then that customer is much more likely to consider that product as a reflection of themselves. The second strategy may sound cliché, but companies who can effectively utilize social media do not only connect with their customers but also to have their customers connect with their product can see a return on that investment of time and resources. It’s just the reality that in our society today people use social media as a platform to share ideas via word-of-mouth, but they are exceptionally careful in what they share because that sharing is a reflection of their personal identity. These two strategies are good starting point for any company, but with effort you can create other strategies that will be beneficial for your particular product. Just keep in mind the basic idea –consumers want their possessions to be reflections of themselves and so the company’s job is to fulfill that need. Photo Credit: Monica Semergiu, Xiaobo Song, Chris Wilson