Consumer Behavior: Self-Image Congruence Affects Luxury Goods

Consumer Behavior: Self-Image Congruence Affects Luxury Goods Retail

The concept of luxury has been present in the society in various forms since the beginning of civilization. With very clear differences between the social classes back in the day, the consumption of goods categorized as luxury items were restricted to the elite classes. This also defines the underlying thought behind luxury goods; whatever the poor couldn't afford to have while the elite could, came to be identified as luxury. The word luxury is derived from the Latin term "luxus" meaning, "soft or extravagant living, indulgence, sumptuousness or opulence" (Anon., n.d.). Nevertheless, luxury is quite a slippery term to define because of the strong involvement of human element and the value recognition from others.

A luxury good, is basically any good that is expensive and pleasant to own, but not necessarily required for daily routine and can be lived without (Anon., n.d.). They are mainly purchased by people with more wealth and income than the ordinary. While the word 'luxury' is used in daily lives to refer to certain lifestyle, the underlying construct's definition is consumer and situation specific. If you earn less than a dollar a day, an ice-cream would be a really big luxury item for you. But on the other hand, if you are attending a party with some wealthy hotshots then a $100,000 car even may not be classed as a luxury. In Economics, a Luxury Good is defined as such a good whose demand increases, however proportionally more, as income rises. The income elasticity of demand is positive and greater than one for a luxury good (Anon., n.d.). Demand for luxury goods can be seen as a bellwether of burgeoning economies, as wealthy population segments consume more leather goods, clothes, watches, liquor and other high-end goods during boom times. The epicenter of this industry is in Europe, where companies such as LVMH, Swatch and Hermes have established dominant portfolios of luxury goods in a largely consolidated market.

Whenever a consumer sets out to purchase a good, initially, he tries to purchase those commodities of choice that promise greater utility. He also gives consideration to substitute commodities that are available in the same or "give or take" a few price ranges, and then chooses that which offers more utility for the given price. Some of the factors that affect the consumer behavior that lead to the repeated purchases of luxury goods, despite of them being expensive and expendable, are the social and psychological factors of living in a society. Other factors that affect consumer behavior are cultural, economical, personal (such as age, occupation etc.) etc.

However, for the purpose of this paper, the relevant factors are psychological and social. Every society possesses some form of a social class. Each class has a certain similar buying behavior. The social class can be determined not only through income, but also through education, occupation, family wealth etc. Persons in each social class exhibit behavior, as such to ensure or to pose to other members of the class as well as the society that they belong there. Such behavior is common in each particular classes as its considered the norm of that class and any member that is to deviate from that norm is said (or perceived) to have shifted in between the different classes. A person's role or status in the given society also affects their consumption patterns. Each person possesses a different role and status in the society depending upon the groups, family, organizations, clubs etc. To which he belongs. For example, the buying decisions of the president of a bank shall be influenced by his status in the society and the organization that he runs, and also how the society expects him to behave and comport.

Lifestyle is another factor that impacts one's choice of goods to purchase. Lifestyle is essentially how a person lives in a society and is expressed by things that surround him/her. Usually, determinants of a certain lifestyle are the interests, opinions, activities etc. that shapes that part of society that person interacts with. Along with these social factors, there are other psychological factors that must be taken into account when considering what makes the buying decisions of an individual tick.

Fundamentally, there are four important psychological factors that affect the consumer buying behavior. These are, motivation, learning, perception and beliefs and attitude. Motivation basically, comes from the different needs of a person that he has to satisfy. A need becomes a motive when one need is more pressing than the other. It presses the person to seek satisfaction of purchasing a good. Another very strong factor, when considering the drive behind consumer choices is perception. Perception can be that of the individual himself with regard to the good and it can also be that of the society with regard to it. Perception means selecting, organizing, and interpreting information in such a way that to make it mean something specific to the world. There are three different perceptual processes which are selective attention, selective distortion and selective retention. In case of selective attention, marketers try to attract the customer attention. Whereas, in case of selective distortion, customers try to interpret the information in a way that will support what the customers already believe. Similarly, in case of selective retention, marketers try to retain information that supports their beliefs. It has already been established that customers possess certain beliefs with regard to various goods and products. These are the beliefs that and attitudes that make up the brand image of a product and heavily affect the consumer buying habits (Shah, 2010).

A belief can be described as a thought or idea in the consumer's mind relating to a product, a brand or a service (Kotler, 2005). Such a thought can arise due to various reasons similar to the real knowledge of the brand, an opinion about it or the faith the customer has in that specific brand. A belief can be varied, given that the knowledge, opinion or faith in a brand changes considerably. An attitude, on the other hand, is the description of a person's feelings, his/her evaluations and tendencies towards an idea or an object. This inter-relates the two concepts of attitudes and beliefs. But unlike beliefs, the attitude of a person towards a brand or a service is very difficult to change. It all depends on the impression a brand or a service leaves on a consumer and how effectively it impacts upon the consumer's beliefs. To make decisions while opting for a product or a brand, the attitudes and beliefs of a consumer play a vital role when applied together.

There have been many evidences presented that suggest that the process of consumer decision and judgement making is best portrayed as an effort of belief harmonization. In the past, several approaches in relation to attitude and persuasion literature based upon consistency theories. These theories mainly proposed that it is considered more preferential by people to have beliefs that are consistent with each other and do not show contradiction. For example, a person arrives at an electronic store with the motive to purchase a computer system for his home. Now, this person believes that since he is a gamer, he should go for a computer that that has the latest video graphics card and huge storage memory. Now, for say, two brands such as Dell and HP are available to choose from. Dell is cheaper for him, while HP has a better brand image. His brother has an HP for gaming purposes, while a Dell system is available at his office that tends to be slow. But HP is high maintenance comparatively and Dell has a longer life. Considering these substantive factors and aligning them together in harmony, bringing about a balance by eliminating contradicting beliefs will help him decide which computer system to purchase.

Successful decisions for issues like this example were considered to be achieved through belief harmonization. Theories such as the Balance Theory (Heider, 1946) and Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger, 1957) were two such approaches in the early 1960s. These were built upon the notion that people deemed any considerable contradiction to be aversive and thus, they worked towards eradicating those contradictions to bring a balance to their beliefs to come upon a decision. But only recently, with approaches such as the Connectionist Modeling (Smith & DeCoster, 1998)and Parallel-Constraint Satisfaction (Shultz & Lepper, 1996), it has been proven the existence of complex webs of beliefs. With this, these approaches have come up with algorithms that aim to create coherent bonds amongst many beliefs, removing contradictions and also explaining various social phenomena, such as stereotyping (Kunda & Thagard, 1996), legal decision making (Holyoak & Simon, 1999) and cognitive dissonance (Shultz & Lepper, 1996). All such approaches can be witnessed with ease in the decision making process of a consumer, where eradication of contradictions and brining coherence within numerous beliefs are two main steps.

Most of the literature regarding consumer behavior supports the idea that the specific patterns in behavior while purchasing a product of a specific brand, for example choosing a Hermes bag or a pair of Giorgio Armani shoes, are dictated by the persons self-image (Onkvisit & Shaw, 1987). Products and brands that the consumers consider to hold any symbolic images that are similar or complement their self-image are purchased by them to attain image congruence. The concept self-image congruence mainly refers to the psychical match amongst the consumer's self-concept (e.g. actual, social and ideal self) and a product, brand image, store image, destination image or user image of product, brand or service in consideration (Sirgy & Su, 2000). This idea plays a huge hand in the decision to purchase luxury items for ones' self. Individuals tend to go for products or brands that they consider will match their image they have built for them in the society. A CEO of a multinational enterprise will opt to purchase a Rolls Royce, a luxurious and expensive ride, as his first choice of vehicle to match his self-image within the society. On the other hand, a man who is in the racing business would opt for a vehicle such as a Ford Mustang Shelby, a fast and economical ride, to match his self-image. Therefore, different levels of statuses that are held by individuals in the society also tend to have a major impact upon consumer behavior while opting for luxury items.

One of the most important factors that have an impact upon the consumer's behavior while purchasing a luxury item, which is congruent to his or her self-image, is the consideration of brand loyalty. The concept of brand loyalty entails the idea that what kind of attitude the consumer has towards a brand and how much loyalty the customer is willing to show to a brand over the same product of a different brand. Various literatures suggest that brand loyalty is directly affected by the idea of self-congruity in a positive manner, and indirectly through the involvement of the product, quality of the brand relationship and functional congruity. Brands are considered to hold a 'personality' of their selves that reflects the image of the consumer of that brand, creating a brand-user image. In this relationship, the brand tends to act as a vehicle that expresses the identity of the consumer (Aaker, 1996). Consumers try to match their self- concept with the brand-user image to evaluate a brand and to create an attitude towards it.

When an attitude is built towards a brand, similar to any kind of attitude, it becomes highly difficult to change it and give up loyalty to a different brand. Various influential factors have to rise up to put a change as such to take effect. Consider a soccer player who uses his football boots that are manufactured by the brand Nike. He has been using this brand over many years, finds it highly comfortable and good looking and considers it effectively matching his self-image. Now when he will be presented with a different boot, from the manufacturer Adidas, with some additional features for a lower price and a longer life but is a bit less matching to his self-concept, it will be highly unlikely for that player to change his brand, unless he feels that Adidas might present a more stronger brand-user relationship. So, it can be said that the greater the self-congruity with a brand, the higher the quality of relationship with that brand. Similarly, the greater the brand relationship quality, the higher the brand loyalty the consumer will tend to show (Fournier, 1994).