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  • Essay / The Dissonance of Self-Image and Self-Image - 755

    In this way, only products or brands symbolized as similar to the self-concept will maintain or enhance the self by matching the images of products or brands with self-images (Dolich, 1969) thus implying that the consumer will tend to buy the product whose image is closest to their own. Landon and Laird (1974) propose that dissonance, on the other hand, could lead the consumer to believe that the product actually expresses their true personality and that a more subtle possibility is that consumers may come to change their self-image after certain purchases. Accordingly, the self-image congruence model assumes a process of cognitive correspondence between a product's image and the consumer's self-image. Indeed, modified consumption modifies both the “I” and the “me” in the hope of getting closer to the “I” by choosing products more representative of the true “I” (Mittal, 2006). A clear interpretation of this may include that individuals have a desire to bridge the gap between their current state of perceived self-image and an idealized, enhanced self-image. Such a disparity between the two can be bridged by the act of consumption in an attempt to move from the first to the second. Different incidences, explains Mittal (2006), can allow the consumer to choose products that index the desired “me”, which he carves to shape the “I” – more particularly the integrated vision of consumption of the “I”. Like most individuals who are not fully satisfied with themselves, they will always seek to improve or change themselves, as this is something that continually changes from person to person and over time. time (Belk, 1998). Likewise, it is consistent with the notion of postmodernism which considers the self to be, in some way, a coherent construct and suggests that middle of paper ...... the physical values ​​of products develop a greater acceptance of the product. or rejection by the similarity of these values ​​with oneself (Dolich, 1969). Consumers will be less likely to purchase from brands benchmarked to the ideal self-image if their ideal self-images do not match the product image. Therefore, special attention should be paid to consumer psychology when psychological involvement is used as a promotional tool for brand differentiation (Dolich, 1969). Mittal (2006) criticizes such an image-based measure for its restraint, the content of which requires fuller consideration. Since many consumer activities are linked to self-definition, it is not surprising to learn that consumers demonstrate consistency between their image and the products they purchase, although not exclusively, on the basis of the fact that they are relevant to themselves when constructing their identity..