Me, myself and I : how luxury fashion brands have become consumers’ extended selves

• Autor(a) principal: Silveira, Mariana de Oliveira Gomes Noronha da
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/31312
• topic: Self-concept; Self-congruity; Luxury fashion brands; Brand image; Brand personality; Auto-conceito; Auto-congruência; Marcas de moda de luxo; Imagem da marca; Personalidade da marca; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

This thesis aims to explore the role of luxury fashion brands in creating and developing the consumer’s self-concept. Previous studies have investigated how individuals make use of consumption behavior to build their self-concept adopting, however, a one-dimensional view. Therefore, this research contributes to the self-concept’s literature by embracing a multidimensional lens of the consumer’ self. We built an integrated conceptual framework, inspired by the two main conceptual models of the ‘self’ and carried out a qualitative research, conducting fifteen in-depth interviews with consumers of luxury fashion brands. The findings show that individuals have a solid awareness of their ‘self’, consistent with the way they perceive themselves through consumer practices. We find the needs for self-consistency, self-esteem, social consistency and social approval as the self-concept motives for luxury consumption, albeit with different magnitudes. Consumers possess a ‘self-centered’ view of luxury, once individualistic factors (e.g. hedonic experiences) are more likely to determine purchase intention, compared to collectivistic factors (e.g. social eagerness). Regarding the theoretical contribution, this research concludes that brand personality is more linked to the ‘actual’ self-dimensions of individuals, whereas brand image with the ‘ideal’ ones.