You are looking for evidence that these theories help to predict how consumers behave, and help us to understand consumer behaviour. You are to interview one consumer using the qualitative interview techniques discussed in class. Once you have carried out the interview, you are then to analyse the patterns in the data and develop an interpretation of how your project participant’s self-concept is expressed via their tastes, consumption choices, and preferences. In your final interpretation you should focus strongly, though not exclusively, on how the self-concepts influences the relationships with brands.
Report Format:
Section 1 – Introduction (10%) This needs to contain a brief summary of the purpose of the project and your own appraisal of what you found
Section 2 – Methodology (20%) In this section you should firstly review your experience of conducting this type of qualitative interview. Explain whether you felt your approach managed to match the guidelines advocated in the relevant literature. Discuss – with examples – what went well and what went badly. What would you do differently the next time, and what do you feel you have learned about this particular research methodology. In the second, or main part of this section, you need to discuss how you went about analysing your data. How did you verify your patterns? When you re-read your interview transcript after identifying each possible theme, did you have to correct or even eliminate it from your interpretation?
Section 3 – Description of consumer’s self-concept (30%) Description of self concept i.e. actual and ideal self-concept, along with at least three passages from the interview transcript that illustrate every aspect of the Self that you feel you’ve identified (as we will discuss in class, everyone has more than one sense of Self, hence the notion of what we call the Multiple Self).
Section 4 – Self-Image Congruence (30%) For this section, you are required to discuss the theory of self-image congruence, as illustrated in the relationship between the consumer’s self-concept and their consumption choices and preferences. This theory tells us that our brand choices are usually congruent (i.e. consistent) with how we see ourselves, so you should expect to find patterns in your data that confirm a consistency between self-concept (as identified in Section 3) and brand preference. You may also find similar consistencies between self-concept and other non-branded choices such as hobbies, various activities (window shopping is an activity, as is playing computer games) – where relevant, include these choices in your analysis. As was the case in Section 3, you will need to develop each theme in detail (i.e. demonstrate the existence of a pattern/ patterns in your data to illustrate each case of self-image congruence) Remember you must include multiple quotations to prove that you found patterns across the data. (You cannot for example say ‘see Appendix…’ – you must use actual quotations) (Do NOT remove quotations that illustrate patterns solely as an exercise in meeting the word count. You will NOT be penalised for going over the word count.)
Section 5 – Conclusion (summary of findings and your thoughts on the connection between self-concept and consumer/ brand relationships, now that you have completed the research; – 10%)
