Study Task 06 - Consumer identities

Discussion
                                                             

What ways do products/services relate to consumer identities?

When we understand who we are there are questions we're able to answer where we fit in and what roles we take on. 

Sharing ideal lifestyle - wanting attractiveness, wealth ect. 

"we consume in the hopes of reinforcing or establishing roles"

Understating who we are, expressing our individuality within consumer choices - becomes who you are

Group identity - when we have a clear sense of how our identities individually fit into society, this has importance in that it creates a feel of well being and belongingness. 


How do consumers use products/services within social interaction?

Theres also the idea that consumers judge others on their material possessions. Theres an obvious connection to the idea of consumption and identity and the maintenance of it. 

Social categorization, and how that allows consumers to categorize the world around them, accentuating their perception of others

Some personalities identify more strongly identify with products and are likely to make 

Who are a bit more likely to make consumer choices based on how they want to be perceived by others (narcissistic) wanting to be seen as superior. 


Using the theories discussed suggest what are some visual communication 
strategies that objectively promote a product to its target consumer? 

Categorizing an audience - such as gender and age, gives us a better understanding of like likes/dislikes, making it easier to market to. 

The ideal self - what you want to be and how it can be achieved by market strategies, showing an outcome that has been made to seem attainable. 

Are they ethical issues?

Social comparison instances where it can be detrimental to who we are. 

Possessions are simply used as extensions of self but they can be used by individuals to compensate for what is perceived as flaws in their self-concept. 

Men and women's negative perceptions of themselves and how the 'ideal image' impacts that. Companies have an acknowledge of this insecurity and are then are able to play into this idea and market products around this, which is profitable and ever ongoing.

Consider 
                                                             

Use this for practical outcome in terms of theme

How this can this idea inform a response?

Punk is the idea of going against societies social expectations and creating an alternative way of identifying. But in this, it has become its own group, which increase in popularity provides more exposure which eventually becomes part of the mainstream.

The attitude and general idea of punk are idea has been taken into many contexts and been exploited within consumerism as being 'rebellious' and 'standing out from the rest' becoming in itself a mainstream group, which contradicts the original ideals.
                                                             

In terms of a graphic outcome creating something that personifies punk in both type and image, stepping away from digital outcomes and looking at the aesthetics of what makes punk.

                                                             

300 word summary exploring the text "identity and consumption" 

This text explores the positives and negatives of consumerism in relation to identity. By identifying attitudes within consumerism there is the fact that there are other motivations in buying items other than solely their function. There is a sense of identity within certain products and can be representative of “somehow represent who they are” its also apparent that there is judgment within what we own and buy and that there is a clarity created in our identity by consumerist behaviour and how it is a a large part of how we perceive ourselves and how we “fit into society”.

The idea of identity is complicated in that there is no one idea or concept of what it is and how we view of our own identities which are formed by individual experiences and who we interact with. It is in knowing who we are there is then the allowance of finding our place. Social situations and experiences give us the ability to have more than one identity, these situations call for us to be certain people, in an education environment you’re perceived as the student while in other situations you’re seen as a friend or son/daughter depending on who we interact with.

How we identify others with their consumer choices may rely on stereotypes that we have from society in which we use to ‘accurately’ categorize individuals in our own perceptions.  There is a question of why we do this as individuals, we can conclude that there is a need in identifying people’s character in order to “increase our self-esteem” and how that is linked to our sense of where we belong in society.

The constant way to which we have exposed to certain images of consumerism effects the way in which we think and act both positively and negatively in how we behave and perceive others.