The study into why people buy things, what drives them towards it, how they respond and their needs. The research into the activities associated with purchasing items such as the historical, the political, economical and emotional context.
An issue with studying and focusing in on psychology is it's difficult to indefinitely understand the human mind.
What is identity?
What is consumption?
The process of which goods and services are used by people. End of line economic activity. The negative effect of consumption includes depletion of resources, generation of waste, issues with esteem.
How are they related?
Do the goods you own = identity?
Task
To make a list of 10 key brands that you buy into.
- Nike
- Apple
- Urban Outfitters
- Morrisons
- Tesco
- Yankee Candle
- Walkers
- Chatime
- Grumpy Mule
- Uniqlo
Choose one of the brands and write about why does it specifically appeal to me - language/look/function. What is it about that brand that sways you to pick it over another brand that offers the same thing?
Nike - I actively choose this brand over other sports brands because of its connotations in fashion and design. In my opinion, I find Nike's designs more innovative and more fitting to my personal style over brands such as Adidas and Puma and wearing Nike communicates this idea to others due to its large profile in fashion trends.
This is considered an aesthetic choice.
Goods: Values - lifestyles - culture - status
Wearing properly designed objects allows the person to feel the presence of an artist who has worked for them - Bruno Munari
People who choose to not wear brands also actively says something about consumer culture.
Brand Values
Levi's commercial 1985 and Levi's commercial 2017.
The difference between social context - in 1985 they used sex appeal to sell whereas in 2017 they used inclusivity and community. Have to think about what their agenda is? Is the very purposeful use of inclusivity and diversity bad if it's done just for profit? Gray area.
Can consumerism sustain that relationship equally?
The relationship between Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and advertising.
Where would the Levi's commercials fit in on the hierarchy?
The 1985 commercial would fit around love and belonging and esteem as it's to do with selling sex appeal and selling the idea of being sexy whereas the 2017 commercial would be in love and belonging as it's relatable and about relationships.
Nike's brand identity is based on a Soulful Branding Pyramid. They've recreated their own hierarchy of needs pyramid.
Could explore brand identity and values.
Catherine Johson
Multiple Identities - People have different identities depending on what social circumstances they're in and advertisements try to play into those different identities.
Social categorisation - Categorising the world based on self - it is thought to be easier to categorise difference between self and those objects/people.
Social comparison - people may buy into consumer items to be more similar to a group or to be different.
Social identity theory
Symbolic interactionism - a brand can transform itself into a symbol e.g a brand can be a sex symbol and then they can retransform themselves.
Avoiding products with undesired meanings - there is an ideal desired sense of self we have of ourselves and we avoid the brands that represent the opposite to our desired self. It could even just be getting rid of old clothes because it doesn't feel like "you" anymore.
Brand identity and minority influence - Strong social bond and deep rooted loyalty - those around us influence our decisions e.g Apple vs Android
Identifying strongly - making sense of those around us - signalling to others that we have the same identity.
What are negative effects on body image?
Ideal identities, images, body shapes, lives. The plastic surgery filter on instagram is the idea of perception of self identity.
What is self-discrepancy theory? (Higgins 1997)
A theory suggesting why we become unhappy with ourselves.
Actual self - the way we are at the present time
Ideal self - the way we aspire to be - what we think is perfect.
Ought self - the way we think we should be which prevents us from doing things that are not in line with that.
Discrepancies between these selves can lead to lower self esteem and dissatisfaction with life.
The question is "whether a consumer culture encourages individual freedom and expression or whether it actually serves painstakingly to construct the parameters within which people consume. In effect, do we consumers design our own lifestyles or are those lifestyles designed for us?" Steven Miles - Consumerism as a way of life.
Commodity fetishism - a critique of how we commodate items and how when the value of something exceeds the value of the labour and resources it becomes fetishised as it transcends the function. Marx explains that the commodity remains simple as long as it is tied to its use-value.
For the tutorials next week:
Catherine Johson
Multiple Identities - People have different identities depending on what social circumstances they're in and advertisements try to play into those different identities.
Social categorisation - Categorising the world based on self - it is thought to be easier to categorise difference between self and those objects/people.
Social comparison - people may buy into consumer items to be more similar to a group or to be different.
Social identity theory
Symbolic interactionism - a brand can transform itself into a symbol e.g a brand can be a sex symbol and then they can retransform themselves.
Avoiding products with undesired meanings - there is an ideal desired sense of self we have of ourselves and we avoid the brands that represent the opposite to our desired self. It could even just be getting rid of old clothes because it doesn't feel like "you" anymore.
Brand identity and minority influence - Strong social bond and deep rooted loyalty - those around us influence our decisions e.g Apple vs Android
Identifying strongly - making sense of those around us - signalling to others that we have the same identity.
What are negative effects on body image?
Ideal identities, images, body shapes, lives. The plastic surgery filter on instagram is the idea of perception of self identity.
What is self-discrepancy theory? (Higgins 1997)
A theory suggesting why we become unhappy with ourselves.
Actual self - the way we are at the present time
Ideal self - the way we aspire to be - what we think is perfect.
Ought self - the way we think we should be which prevents us from doing things that are not in line with that.
Discrepancies between these selves can lead to lower self esteem and dissatisfaction with life.
The question is "whether a consumer culture encourages individual freedom and expression or whether it actually serves painstakingly to construct the parameters within which people consume. In effect, do we consumers design our own lifestyles or are those lifestyles designed for us?" Steven Miles - Consumerism as a way of life.
Commodity fetishism - a critique of how we commodate items and how when the value of something exceeds the value of the labour and resources it becomes fetishised as it transcends the function. Marx explains that the commodity remains simple as long as it is tied to its use-value.
For the tutorials next week:
- bring your proposal
- 3 ideas and some images possibly
- 3 case studies or examples of your project/theme
- 3 questions or points of discussion for the tutorial - what do you want to talk about?
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