Self-Expressive Value And Product Purchase: Which Self Really Dominate?

Abstract

People select products, brands and groups of people to express themselves and enhance themselves. A brand is perceived as attractive when it is helpful to a person to express himself or herself. Previous researches have covered some aspects of this topic, still much research is needed in the area of Marketing applications. The problem addressed in this research was that which variants of the self concept really affects the self expressive value and thereby, brand attractiveness. So this research mainly aimed to identify, and evaluate in isolation, the varients of the self concept on the self expressive value. For this research primary data were collected by a survey using a structured questionnaire. A convenience sample of 100 was selected for the study. Data were analyzed using Minitab 14. The finding shows that a strong ideal self of a person can have a greater impact on the self expressive value. When carefully looked at, there is a possibility to create a new ideal self and hinder the influence of the existing ideal self. Futher, it can stimulate the influence of the ideal social self and hinder the influence of the existing actual social self. The empirical data strongly supported the theory that consumers of different brands of a product class would perceive themselves to have significantly different self-concepts. It is also found that majority who accompanied an important person may change their purchasing decision because of such significant person’s disagreement or opinion.