Retail is one of the most important sectors in the modern world and growing fast in developing countries. A competitive world with high service and demand, that is based on customer preferences. This causes companies to ‘know’ their audience, capture their eye with the right image. But sometime the right image can do more harm than good. Customers start to compare their self-concept and self-image based on an advertisement. Scholars address this issue with many studies based on the relationship between retail stores and image congruence. With the research scholars hope to find how and why customers shape their self-image on a company’s ‘right image’. Why individuals strive for verification of their existing self-esteem. Consumers who shape …show more content…
This research identifies that marketers can and should manage the effects of self‐image of consumers on their companies brand. The effects of brand imaging by using modern promotional ideas encourage females to think on their own self‐image while evaluating a brand. Suggesting that consumers who have similar self‐images to that of a company’s image are more likely to be persuaded by these advertisements, while those with opposite images are more likely to think negative thoughts on themselves than on the company’s brand. These consumer behaviours are caused by brand images and target audience …show more content…
The media tells girls their what their worth is based on one’s outward appearance. The mental perception of what their body looks like becomes distorted. This leads many girls to engage in risky behaviors just because they don’t measure up to the impossible goal of the ideal body. Self-concept issues can and have lead to eating disorders, drug and alcohol use, cutting, and bullying. The problem is this ideal body doesn’t exist. The images presented are airbrushed on models. Most of which weigh 23% less than the average woman. Even with this knowledge, teen girls believe these lies and commit to unhealthy measures to fit into that impossible mold. The National Eating Disorders Association explained in a survey that 70% of 6-12-year-olds want to be thinner and nine out of ten high school juniors and seniors are on diets even if only one out of ten are actually
Foster creates a logos appeal by providing strong reasoning and evidence to support her argument. Through her example about how Facebook advertisers are aware of their user’s insecurities about their body, thereby, increasing publication of advertisements in hope that users will undergo negative self-reflection and realize they do not conform to the mainstream ideal of thinness. Her examples also include research that she references from other scholarly authors. “For example it is no secret that exposing women to images of thin celebrities causes them to feel dissatisfied with their own appearances (Grade, Ward, & Hyde, 2008).” Foster’s second strong claim to her logos appeal by writing, that in spite of user’s insecurities, Facebook advertisers hope user’s will feel more dissatisfied with their body image and turn to the ads for a solut...
In “The man behind Abercrombie and Fitch.” An interview conducted by Benoit Denizet-Lewis displays a glimpse into the life of Mike Jeffries and his views of his company only hiring “good-looking” people and targeting “good-looking” people to wear his clothes. This has been done in order to force his audience to recognize that the issue of acceptance one’s peers and exclusion of a community mentioned by Mike Jeffries, is a result of cultural perceptions and individual self-image. Denizet-Lewis skillfully shows that while Jeffries remarks of not wanting the “not-so-popular” kids to shop in his stores, it poses a question to consumers asking what change in our attitudes will come or if there will be any change at all. Thus comes the issue of how consumers today have a shift in the reasoning behind why one buys clothing and the motivating factors that influence one to buy certain clothing. Denizet-Lewis also demonstrates the different messages that controversial advertisements and statements affect different groups of people and how what they project is really what people desire, though deemed by many people as unacceptable or inappropriate. The author also examines how in the news media, the image has become more important than the message and how images have taken precedent over actual issues and character. As a result of this, various communities have formed by the construct of selling to “beautiful people” and how popular appeal has become an extension of a person.
Wan, Fang (2002). The impact of idealized images in advertising: A model of third-person effect. Media Impact of Body Image, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, of Minnesota, United States -- Minnesota. Retrieved July 4, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Publication No. AAT 3037494).
Have you ever seen an advertisement for a product and could immediately relate to the subject or the product in that advertisement? Companies that sell products are always trying to find new and interesting ways to get buyers and get people’s attention. It has become a part of our society today to always have products being shown to them. As claimed in Elizabeth Thoman’s essay Rise of the Image Culture: Re-Imagining the American Dream, “…advertising offered instructions on how to dress, how to behave, how to appear to others in order to gain approval and avoid rejection”. This statement is true because most of the time buyers are persuaded by ads for certain products.
It has recently been brought up that media influences girls in pre-adolescence, which is highly likely since most young girls idolize Barbie (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). “Were Barbie a flesh-and-blood woman, her waist would be 39% smaller than that of anorexic patients, and her body weight would be so low that she would not be able to menstruate” (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). Most young girls wish that they could look like Barbie when they grew up, but if they knew the reality of having her measurements, their perceptions would probably change. Children frequently fantasize about who they will be, what they will do, and how they will look when they grow into adulthood. Advertisers use women that are abnormally thin, and even airbrush them to make them appear thinner.
The advertising involved targets young teenage women and features models that portray desirable items, and the “norm” is for these women to be slender and beautiful (Vonderen & Kinnally, 2012). Research has been done to prove that the media’s pressure on being thin causes women to be depressive and have negative feelings about themselves. Women’s views are skewed and perceived incorrectly of what the typical female body should be (Haas, Pawlow, Pettibone & Segrist, 2012). Body image for women has always been stressed for them to look a certain way and to try to obtain “physical perfection.” But due to the pressure on women to be this certain way, it is common for the mass media to be destructive to the young, impressionable girl.
In American culture today, society's view of beauty is controlled by Hollywood, where celebrities are constantly in the lime-light. The media watches Hollywood's every move, and is quick to ridicule “A-listers” whenever they dare to gain a few pounds or to let an uncontrollable pimple show. The media has created a grossly distorted mental image of what should be considered beautiful, and with almost every junior high and high school-age girl reading and viewing this message, the idea has been instilled in them as well. This view of beauty is causing many teenage girls to become obsessed with a highly problematic and unattainable goal of perfection.
Would you rather be called good-looking or attractive? Is there a difference between a good looking and attractive person? To many probably not but I believe there's a thin line that separates those two words. A person might be very good-looking yet not attractive. How is that possible one might ask? Well the answer is very simple; it all depends on the attitude and personality.
image of themselves in real life. They are almost computer-generated women like in the movie Simone. Indeed, with the technology we have now, advertisers can transform a product into perfection, at the same time, misleading the consumer into seeing it as “real”, and thus permanently providing impossible standards (Ingham). More and more women are becoming dissatisfied with themselves trying to be this fantasy person created by the men in our society. This distorted view of reality, portrayed by advertisemen...
Marion and Michael (1996, cited by Graby 1993) exposed that there are three concepts of image that are necessary to understand and can be applied to brands, companies or countries:
Teenagers constantly worry about their body image. Magazines, newspapers, and television don’t exactly help to boost their confidence. The portrayal of stick thin woman and body building men forces teens to believe they need to achieve that “perfect” body and look. The biggest issue of these images being broadcasted to teens is the effects that the images have on them. Teenagers who obsess over their body image can experience stress due to trying to impress others, develop an eating disorder, and neglect, and even jeopardize, important aspects of their lives when they focus too much on their body image.
The Self-Concept is a complicated process of gaining self-awareness. It consists of mental images an individual has of oneself: physical appearance, health, accomplishments, skills, social talents, roles, intellectual traits, and emotional states and more –all make up our self-concept.
As people develop certain realizations occur surrounding who they are. Starting out as existential and physical realizations, children realize they are a part of the world and contribute to it. However, the question of self still remains. Despite knowing the literal meaning of who we are as humans, the individual self causes much controversy due to its personal and multifaceted meaning. However, by probing into what common themes affect the personality it can be assumed that the projected personality accurately represents what influences it. Because of this, self is the root of personality and shifts based on these themes. The concept of self is a dual layered projection of honest personality defined by ideal self
When people grow up and develop into adults, more often than not do they experience strong feelings towards themselves. They can range from immense joy or hatred which stems from their own experiences or viewpoints they have created over their life time. A self-image refers to the way people view themselves on an internal and external level. This image can flourish or distort over time if one continues to live with unhealthy life decisions, creating a wholly negative outlook on life and everyone they meet. In order to improve one 's self image, they must develop strategies to improve their health, attitude and viewpoints.
By being a consumer in a world of diverse products and services, it has given us a wide range of choices. A product may be produced by different companies and has the same function, but it is presented to the consumers in different forms. In order to differ from each other, companies use the help of advertising to present its product in a better way than their competitors’. However, advertising the product is becoming more crucial than the product itself. Companies are focusing more on making the brand more popular, rather than actually improving the product that they offer. By turning the advertisement competition into a war between companies, they mislead buyers by hyperbolizing their products positive features, thus hiding the negative ones. Companies forget about the effect they have on the consumers. Consumers should be aware of the manipulative tricks that advertising uses like subliminal messages and brain seduction in order to not be misled into buying something that they do not really require. By knowing how to manipulate the audience and consumers’ brain, companies use tactical methods in order to persuade specific customers to buy specific products or services. Other examples of techniques they use are techniques like puffery which are suggestive claims about a product, using subliminal messages and transferring information indirectly, as well as by targeting a specific group of people, creating a slogan or a mascot and by using sexy models with perfect bodies, advertising tries to manipulate and persuade consumers into buying the product they are offering.