Individual article analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Individual article analysis - Essay Example How a person sees oneself along these lines helps marketers to speculate the kind of products that may appeal to the person. However, the way a person perceives oneself is often far from reality(Gration, Raciti and Arcodia 650). This paper reviews the article by the title above. Brands confer value to consumers in multiple ways(Khare and Handa 63). One way is by enhancing the personality of their user. Besides functional attributes, the non-functional features of the product may determine the consumers decision to buy or not to buy. The article under review reports the findings of the research that explored the degree to which self-concept and brand personality interact to influence how a consumer evaluates brands and arrives at purchase decisions. The research involved a number of secondary school students whose individual self-concept was measured using a scale developed by Malhotra in 1981. The respondents were then made to evaluate one out of three imaginary brands of mobile phones, rate the brand on the basis of the general quality then indicate whether or not they would buy the phone. Having set the stage, the authors proceed to define key concepts in their paper. These are self-concept, personality and Indian youth. They contend that self-concept studies have understood the concept as being multi-dimensional(Khare and Handa 64). The concept enables the consumer to evaluate oneself under different circumstances. Most self-concept studies, they report, have focused on explaining why a consumer buys one brand of a product and not the other. It is crucial that marketers comprehend and appreciate the impact of self-concept, both individual and social, on purchase decisions. Self-concept studies have been based on the hypothesis that the way a consumer sees oneself influences the types of brands they buy. Brand personality entails giving brands human characteristics. For example, a car manufacturer