Berger and Heath's piece on identity signaling explains how consumers choose products different from those of others to best express their individual identities. This is especially true for products that signal identity like music and hairstyles. Clothing choice was not an option in their study, but I predict it would be at least as divergent in taste selection as music choice because there is so much variety and it is such an obvious form of personal expression. When another group appropriates your clothing style, how do you react? Getting misidentified could prevent you from interacting with the group you share a common interest with and you could instead get labeled as belonging to a group you don't share a common interest with. Divergence exists to avoid communicating undesired identities, and this is probably why fashion changes so quickly--especially for consumers who seek to communicate their upper-class identity. Once their styles are imitated or adopted by lower class brands/populations, top designers immediately create new fashions to preserve the individuality of those who can afford designer clothing. What do you think about this claim? Would you consider clothing to be more of a status symbol or an expression of an individual's personality?
Monday, May 23, 2011
Discussion: brand identity
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think clothing can be a status symbol or an expression of personality depending on the person. Upper-class people might consider clothing to be more of status symbols that distinguishes them from the lower class. For the working class, clothing as a status symbol probably is not of great concern.
ReplyDeleteClothing is indeed a means for people to portray themselves as they'd like to be seen- including both aspects of, and going beyond, status and personality. If people want to be seen as earth-loving, they may dress "hippy," for example, with no correlation to their true socioeconomic status. A friend was just telling me that he isn't confident in his looks so he dresses sloppy to make people think he doesn't care about looks. Thus, I think there are many things people think they are portraying with their clothing, beyond just status and personality.
ReplyDeleteI think that clothing is much more of a status symbol than an expression of an individual's personality. By status, I mean the group identity that someone wants to be identified with. Often I think people say that they dress to express their personalities, but in actuality they often dress very similarly to their friends. And let's face it--not everyone who shops at Urban Outfitters has the same personality (good thing, that would be crazy).
ReplyDelete