Appealing to consumers sense of self

- When I try on a new shirt and look in the mirror, I'm not looking at the shirt. I see the image of myself and the person I want to become by wearing that shirt based on my unique personality. As a marketer, you need to understand this very important aspect of consumer behavior called personality. Your customers are complex and their mental make-up affects everything they do in terms of shopping, buying, and using your products. Personality is the collection of individual traits and characteristics that make each of us unique. Now it's a complicated topic with many different theories and approaches, but for marketers, one personality factor you must understand is known as the self-concept. Self-concept is a person's ideas and feelings about himself or herself. We live our lives shaping and influencing it. Each of us has more than one concept of ourselves. The real image is how people actually see you. Your self-image is how you see yourself regardless of how others view you. And your possible self, (chuckling) it's what you aspire to become one day. It's like an ideal self-image. Now these self-images can change depending on where we are and who we're with. Your self-image might be a lot different at home with your family, than it is at work, for example. As a marketer, you want to build products and services that help people enhance one of these images. For example, fashion brands like L'Oreal and Gucci appeal to how you want to be seen by others. Or you can appeal to how customers see themselves in their own eyes. If you want to appeal to customers striving to get ahead in life, you can offer products and services that let people pursue their dreams. LinkedIn is a great example of that. Understanding which self-image you're appealing to will drive how you communicate and advertise to customers. Typically, you want to portray that image directly in the ad or in the packaging somehow. For example, a home improvement center, such as The Home Depot, doesn't show products, rather it shows a handy homeowner doing a great job installing that new kitchen. Hey, all the handymen out there, like me for example, will identify with the commercial because it's telling us that Home Depot's products will reinforce my self-concept as a handy person. People consume products and services to make themselves happy and a big part of that is feeling happy about who you are. Marketers don't just sell products, they help consumers shape the person inside and that's a very special role.