REVIEW
6-1. List three dimensions that describe the self-concepts.
1. Content—facial attractiveness versus mental aptitude;
3. Intensity, stability over time, and accuracy—the degree to which one’s
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-2. Compare and contrast the real versus the ideal self. List three products for which a person
is likely to use each type of self as a reference point when he or she considers a purchase.
The ideal self is a person’s conception of how he or she would like to be, whereas the
actual self refers to our more realistic appraisal of the qualities we have and don’t have.
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking,)
6-3. How might the “digital self” differ from a consumer’s self-concept in the real world, and
why is this difference potentially important to marketers?
Technology allows user to modify profile photos on online sites. Many users create
identities in the form of an avatar when playing online games. While our physical bodies
don’t change, we are becoming more what we post than what we really are. Respondents
(5 minutes, chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflecting Thinking)
6-4. Have ideals of beauty in the United States changed over the last 50 years? If so, how?
A study of almost 50 years of Playboy centerfolds shows that the women have become
less shapely and more androgynous since Marilyn Monroe graced the first edition with a
voluptuous hourglass figure of 37–23–36. However, a magazine spokesman comments,
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-5. What is fattism?
Fattism is an obsession with weight.
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 5, AACSB: Reflective Thinking,)
6-6. What does “the looking glass self” mean?
This process of imagining the reactions of others toward us is known as “taking the role
of the other,” or the looking glass self. According to this view, our desire to define
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-7. How do Eastern and Western cultures tend to differ in terms of how people think about
the self?
The emphasis on the unique nature of the self is much greater in Western societies. Many
Eastern cultures instead stress the importance of a collective self, where a person derives
his identity in large measure from his social group. Both Eastern and Western cultures
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Multicultural and Diversity Understanding)
6-8. How did tattoos originate?
Tattoos have a long history of association with people who are social outcasts. For
example, the faces and arms of criminals in sixth-century Japan were tattooed as a
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 6, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
DISCUSS
6-9. At the end of the day, are you what you buy?
Student responses will differ based on opinion. Students may discuss the self-image
congruence models that suggest we choose products when their attributes match some
aspect of the self. Emotional connects can make consumers defensive of their favorite
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB : Reflective Thinking)
6-10. Are you what you post online?
Students will have different responses based on opinions. A discussion on digital self and
the ability to modify profile photos will help support the idea of impression management.
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-11. Shopping for back-to-school “basics” used to mean T-shirts, jeans, socks and some
notebooks. Now, many parents have a new item to add to the list: tattoos. About 45% of
parents polled say that hair highlights, teeth whitening, even tattoos are among the items
they will buy their kids to go back to school. What (if any) age is appropriate for
kids to get these grownup additions?
Students will have different opinions about the appropriate age for each of these three
items. Some students may bring up the show “Toddlers in Tiaras”, where pre-school
(15 minutes, Chapter Objective 6, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-12. “Breastaurants” represent a popular category of dining establishments. Is it ethical to hire
women as waitresses because they have certain physical characteristics? Is it ethical to
exclude others (including men) from thesejobs if they don’t?
Student opinions will vary but will likely include information about Hoots or other chains
that attract diners with servers in short shorts and tight or small tops. The discussion
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-13 One consequence of the continual evolution of sex roles is that men are concerned as
never before with their appearance. Men spend $7.7 billion on grooming products
globally each year. A wave of male cleansers, moisturizers, sunscreens, depilatories, and
body sprays washes up on U.S. shores, largely from European marketers. L’Oréal Paris
reports that men’s skincare products are now its fastest-growing sector. In Europe, 24
percent of men younger than age 30 use skincare products— and 80 percent of young
Korean men do. Even some cosmetics products, like foundation and eyeliner, are
catching on in some segments, though men aren’t comfortable owning up to using them.
In fact, a British makeup product looks like a ballpoint pen so men can apply it secretly at
the office.191 Over the past decade, the media paid a lot of attention to so called
“metrosexuals”: straight males who are interested in fashion, home design, gourmet
cooking, and personal care products. How widespread is this phenomenon? Do you see
men in your age group focusing on these interests? Should marketers change how they
think of male sex roles today?
Student responses will vary and include information based on their own life experiences.
An identification of sex-typed products should be made, and how marketers are
challenging the stereotype. Men receive mixed messages about how they are supposed to
behave and feel. One study found that men try to make sense out of three models of
(6 minutes, Chapter Objective 3, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-14. Some activists object to Axe’s male-focused marketing because they claim it demeans
women. In contrast, Dove’s “Natural Beauty” campaign gets kudos because it promotes
more realistic expectations for girls. Guess what? The same company – Unilever – owns
both Axe and Dove. Is it hypocritical for a big company to sponsor positive messages
about women in one of its divisions while it sends a different message in another?
Student responses to this will vary. Some will see the behavior as hypocritical and others
will say it is just a matter of segmentation and targeting based on an understanding of
the target audience. When Unilever consolidated brands, they try to capture universal
values – for Dove it was real beauty and for Unilever it was something they termed “bom
(20 minutes, Chapter Objective 3, AACSB: Reflective Thinking and Ethical
Understanding and Reasoning Abilities)
6-15 The mainstream media have sent a clear message for the last several years: It’s cool to be
slutty. Role models like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and even Bratz
dolls convey standards about how far preteens and teens should go when they broadcast
their sexuality. Now, as these messages seem to go over the top (at least in the eyes of
some concerned parents), we start to see early signs of a backlash because some who
subscribe to the “modest movement” advocate a return to styles that leave almost
everything to the imagination. At the Pure-Fashion Web site, girls get style tips
recommending skirts and dresses that fall no more than four fingers above the knee and
no tank tops without a sweater or jacket over them; the ModestApparel site proclaims,
“because a modest woman is a beautiful woman. Is our culture moving from a celebration
of “girls gone wild” to “girls gone mild?”
Responses will vary based on students opinion. The idea that how we dress is an
opportunity for impression management. Self-esteem, or the positivity of a person’s
(20 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-16 The clothing chain H&M features computer-generated models on its Web site. The
company drew criticism for presenting only picture-perfect people; for example, the
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation accused the chain of “creating unrealistic physical
ideals.” A company spokesman defended the move by explaining that these unreal bodies
would ensure that the garments remain the focus of online shoppers’ attention. In
contrast, the teen-oriented magazine Seventeen pledged to always feature “real girls” in
its pages. This change was in response to an online petition that gathered nearly 85,000
signatures in just 4 days. The 14-yearold reader who posted the petition stated, “For the
sake of all the struggling girls all over America, who read Seventeen and think these fake
images are what they should be, I’m stepping up. I know how hurtful these photoshopped
images can be.” What do you think of this argument—does the use of only “perfect”
bodies create a problem for real shoppers?
Student’s responses will vary but cover similar issues. Body image refers to a consumer’
subjective evaluation of his or her physical self. Our evaluations don’t necessarily
correspond to what those around us see. Whether the perceptions are accurate is not the
(20 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
APPLY
6-17. If our possessions do indeed come to be a part of us, how do we bring ourselves to part
with these precious items? Researchers find that people often take steps to distance
themselves from a favored object before they get rid of it. Strategies they identified
include taking pictures and videos of the objects; moving them into an out-of-the way
location such as a garage or an attic; or washing, ironing, and wrapping the item.
Interview people you know who have disposed if a product that was important to them—
for example, a well-used car or a favorite sweatshirt that finally had too many holes to
keep. What steps did they take to “divest” themselves of this attachment (such as
removing personal items from a car before selling it, etc.).
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-18. Construct a “consumption biography” of a friend or family member. Make a list and/or
photograph his or her most favorite possessions and see if you or others can describe this
person’s personality just from the information provided by this catalog.
Students might like to bring in a short videotape of the types of products the subject owns.
personality. (Possible Individual Field Project)
(45 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking
6-19. Interview victims of burglaries or people who have lost personal property in floods,
hurricanes, or other natural disasters. How do they go about reconstructing their
possessions, and what effect did the loss appear to have on them? Similarly, poll your
class: If their house or apartment was on fire and they could only take one possession with
them as they evacuate, what would this be?
This project may be somewhat difficult to do if no losses have occurred. An alternative is
to have students watch news broadcasts and record their impressions of the responses and
(75minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-20. Find examples of self-esteem advertising. Evaluate the probable effectiveness of these
appeals. Is it true that “Flattery gets you everywhere?”
Most major magazines contain a variety of this type of advertisement. To make the
project more interesting, however, probe deeper. Go to mothers’ magazines and business
magazines and see how self-esteem advertising appeals are used. Are they different from
the fashion magazines and sports magazines? An additional question can be raised about
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking
6-21. Watch a set of ads featuring men and women on television. Try to imagine the characters
with reversed roles (i.e., the male parts played by women and vice versa) Can you see
any differences in assumptions about sex-typed behavior?
Students will have fun with this challenge though it will be a revelation to some. An
example of an ad that has women and men playing their traditional roles is a Duncan
Hines cake mix commercial. The commercial shows the wife/mother making a cake.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 3, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6-22. How do people you know feel about their cars? Interview some of them about the
“relationship” they have. Do they decorate their cars? Do they have nicknames for them?
And, check out a video on YouTube called “I Love My Car” to really see how deep these
6-23. Many advertisers routinely purchase stock photography when they need an image of a
certain kind of person to insert in an ad. Many photos of women reflect common
stereotypes, ranging from the crisp businesswoman who wears a suit and glasses and
holds a briefcase to the smiling mother who pours milk into cereal bowls for her kids at
of women. To what extent do they represent a range of roles? Categorize these images
according to the type of product advertised and the situation that photo depicts (e.g.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
CASE STUDY TEACHING NOTES
Chapter 5 Case Study: Riding the Plus-Size Wave
Summary of Case
This case features the well-known plus-size company, Lane Bryant. Although the company has
been around since 1900, they are riding a wave of success that is based on changing weights,
body types, and perceptions of beauty. A key element in the strategy of Lane Bryant is the way
that they are positioning plus-sized women in society. With new product lines and promotional
campaigns, they are sending the message that it’s not only okay to be a plus-size, but that women
in this category can be as in-style as anyone.
Suggestions for Presentation
There is quite a bit of information in the text on the ideals of beauty and how perceptions of such
are changing around the world. While many countries throughout the world are adopting what
has been the Western ideal for quite some time, western countries are seeing a shift in what is
considered acceptable among men and women. The Marketing Opportunity special feature
focusing on women’s body types can complement this case.
Suggested Answers for Discussion Questions
CS 6-1. Explain the success that Lane Bryant is currently experiencing in relation to
self-concept, self-esteem, and self-consciousness.
Look for students to understand the following concepts
The self-concept: What are the beliefs that women have about their own qualities and
traits and how they evaluate such?