Examples of Self Image Congruence

Oil of Olay: female consumers hopes and dreams Deep insight into consumer motivation and self-brand relations is crucial when developing brand personality. In 1985 Joseph Plummer made an investigation of consumers associations with the Oil of Olay brand that could be used to describe the brand personality of Oil of Olay. The result was rather surprising and illustrates well how brands can appeal not only to the actual self of consumers but also to the desired or ideal self of consumers. Consumers were asked to associate how they would describe Oil of Olay with other abstract descriptions, apart from it being a lotion. Consumers associated Oil of Olay with: An animal: a mink. Country: France. Occupation: secretary. Fabric: silk. Magazine: Vogue. These associations brings to mind a French secretary wearing mink and silk reading Vogue while relaxing somewhere on the French Riviera. This elegant woman uses Oil of Olay every morning and evening to stay beautiful. The stereotypical user of Oil of Olay at the time had a personality far from the personality consumer associated with the Oil of Olay brand. She could be described as: Down-to-earth. Practical. All in all, very different from the personality described as the personality of Oil of Olay, which was described as more up-scale, exclusive and sophisticated. These differences illustrate very well how some brands in their communication must address not necessarily the actual self of the stereotypical consumer but rather the desired or ideal self.
Adapted from Plummer (1985)

Apple Mac (Laptop vs PC) In 2006 Apple launched the first of three new television advertisements for Mac laptops. A young man dressed in casual clothes introduces himself as a Mac (Hi, I am a Mac). An older, more conservative-looking man enters the scene, introducing himself as PC. The two, clearly very different personalities, act out a brief vignette in which the capabilities and attributes of Mac and PC are compared. The PC is represented as a formal and stuffy person overly concerned with work often being frustrated by the superior abilities of the more laid-back Mac. The two, the casual Mac and the more uptight PC, discuss some of the everyday difficulties of the PC and how the Mac does not have these problems. The Mac personality versus the PC personality is an example of a brand that takes the theoretical possibilities of the personality approach literally, using the brand personality to position and differentiate the brand against other brands in the same product category.
Adapted from Brand Management: Research, Theory and Practice (2008)

Brand Management