Why we buy who we want to be: identity and consumer behaviour

A professional tool can do the same practical job as 3 alternatives and still feel like the only appropriate choice.

It may fit the way its buyer thinks good work should be done. It may signal membership of a profession or community. It may represent the sort of person the buyer is trying to become.

None of that makes function or price irrelevant. It means that some choices carry another kind of value: they help people express, verify or develop a sense of self.

Identity is one part of the wider psychology shaping consumer behaviour. It is not a hidden switch that a brand can activate by calling its audience ambitious. Its influence depends on what the identity means to the buyer, how central it is to their life and whether the offer provides credible evidence for it.

What self-concept means in consumer behaviour

Self-concept in consumer behaviour is the network of beliefs, identities, roles, values and personal narratives through which someone understands who they are. A purchase becomes identity-relevant when it helps the buyer express that self, verify it privately, belong to or distance themselves from a group, or move towards a possible future self.

The phrase 'network' matters. A person does not have one commercial identity waiting to be matched with a brand. They may be a parent, designer, runner, local resident, environmentalist and careful spender at the same time. Which identity influences a decision can change with the situation.

M. Joseph Sirgy's foundational 1982 review found that self-concept research in consumer behaviour was already broad and fragmented. Later work has tried to clarify when a label becomes behaviourally meaningful. A 2012 review of identity-based consumer behaviour argued that an identity starts to guide behaviour when it becomes sufficiently central to the self-concept that someone strives to be that kind of person.

That is more useful than saying people buy things that 'match their personality'. It connects the choice to a role, standard or way of acting that matters to the buyer.

The self you are and the self you would like to be

Sirgy's self-congruity work separates 2 comparisons a buyer can make. Actual self-congruity is the fit between an offer and how someone sees themselves now. Ideal self-congruity is the fit with how they would like to see themselves.

The 2 pull in different directions, and which one dominates depends on the category and the situation. A tool bought to do today's work well is usually judged against the actual self. A course, a membership or a piece of equipment bought at the start of something is often judged against the ideal one.

The distinction matters commercially because ideal-self appeals are the easier ones to write and the easier ones to get wrong. Describing who the reader could become costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. It also invites the reader to measure the gap between the 2 selves, and a message that makes someone feel further from their ideal self than when they arrived is unlikely to sell them anything.

Identity, signalling and self-brand connection are related but different

Marketing discussions often collapse several ideas into one claim: people use brands to show who they are. That can happen, but it is only one part of the picture.

Concept	What it means	A simple example
Self-concept	The wider set of roles, identities, values and beliefs through which a person understands themselves	'I am an independent consultant who values careful work.'
Social identity	A part of the self connected with membership of a group or category	'I am a designer' or 'I support this club.'
Self-brand connection	The extent to which a brand has become linked with a person's sense of self	A tool feels like part of how someone defines their professional practice.
Identity signalling	Using a visible choice to communicate something about the self	Clothing or equipment communicates membership of a community.
Self-congruity	The perceived fit between a buyer's self-image and the image associated with an offer or its users	An understated brand feels consistent with the buyer's own style.

A choice can be identity-consistent without being visible. The consultant who pays for a specialist tool may never show anybody which software they use. The decision can still verify a private standard: this is how a serious practitioner approaches the work.

That distinction prevents identity from becoming a more elaborate name for status.

A choice can support identity in several ways

Russell Belk's influential article on possessions and the extended self helped establish the idea that possessions can contribute to how people construct and maintain a sense of self. The claim is not that everything we own becomes part of us. It is that some objects, places, experiences and brands acquire personal meaning beyond their immediate function.

In consumer decisions, that meaning can do at least 4 different jobs.

It can verify something privately

A buyer may choose the repairable product, the local supplier or the professional tool because the choice fits a standard they already hold.

Nobody else needs to see it. The choice provides evidence to the buyer that their actions are consistent with what they value.

It can communicate something publicly

Some categories carry shared meanings that make them useful signals. Research by Jonah Berger and Chip Heath found that people were more likely to diverge from others in identity-relevant product domains, where a choice could communicate something about them.

The audience still matters. A signal only works when other people recognise roughly the same meaning.

It can create belonging and difference

People can move towards groups they value and away from associations they reject.

Jennifer Edson Escalas and James Bettman found that member and aspiration groups can contribute to self-brand connections. Their later research showed that the effect of in-group and out-group brand meanings also varied with self-construal and how symbolic the brand was.

This is where identity meets social influence, but the 2 mechanisms are not the same. Social proof can make an option feel popular or safe. Identity makes the group's meaning relevant to the self.

It can represent a future self

A course, tool or membership can feel like evidence of progress towards a desired way of living or working.

That does not mean the purchase creates the change. Buying running shoes does not make somebody a runner. But the product may support an identity-related goal when it is followed by the behaviour the identity requires. Our article on goals in consumer behaviour explains why the desired outcome must still organise action.

The same identity does not guide everyone equally

Calling 2 people 'football supporters' tells you less than it first appears to.

For one person, the identity may connect with family memories, friendships, place and weekly routines. For another, it may be an occasional interest. Both use the same label, but it occupies a different position in their self-concept.

Recent research calls this causal centrality: how strongly someone believes an identity is connected through cause and effect with other parts of who they are.

Stephanie Chen, Oleg Urminsky and Jiaqi Yu tested this account across 7 main studies and 6 supplementary studies. People were more likely to make identity-consistent choices when the relevant identity was more causally central to their self-concept. Their settings included brand choice, football supporters' willingness to spend and environmentally relevant decisions. One study manipulated perceived centrality rather than only measuring it.

The researchers also distinguished centrality from salience. An identity can be brought to mind without being deeply connected to the rest of the self. Repeating 'as a founder…' in an advert may make a founder identity noticeable, but it does not make the advertised behaviour consistent with what that identity means to the reader.

The practical lesson is not to find a more powerful identity cue. It is to stop treating membership of a segment as proof of motivation.

Some categories have no identity to address at all

Everything above describes purchases where identity does some work. It is worth being clear that many purchases are not like that, because assuming otherwise produces the worst kind of positioning.

PCLA are independent loss assessors working in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and I work with them. They are a useful case because no persona survives contact with the customer list. The buyer might be a first-time buyer, a middle-aged couple with 3 children or a retired man living alone. Different postcodes, different types of property, different cultural backgrounds. There is no age, income bracket or attitude that picks them out.

One thing is common to all of them. They hold the insurance policy.

That is a contractual role rather than an identity, and it is the only thing the audience shares. Adding a second unifying trait would mean inventing one.

The state they are in is describable too, and it is not flattering to anybody. Most people are wary of insurers and half expect a large organisation to treat them badly. Most do not know what a loss assessor is, or that the role exists at all. The trigger is usually a conversation with the insurer that produces jargon or a general sense of confusion, after which they go looking for help.

There is an identity available to reach for here, and the market reaches for it constantly. The convention in this industry is combative: fighting your corner, standing up to the insurer, getting what you deserve. That framing assigns the customer a character. It says they are somebody who fights.

I think it is wrong for most of the people who make contact. Someone who wants a burst pipe dealt with while living in rented accommodation is not asking for a fight. They want the problem handled by somebody who understands the process. Wanting it to stop and wanting to do battle are different states, and the second one is imported by the marketing rather than found in the customer.

So the honest unit here is the role plus the situation. Policyholder, part way through a claim, out of their depth. That is checkable against enquiries in a way that 'takes control' is not, and it does not ask the reader to accept a description of themselves before they can accept the service.

I should mark the limits. This is my reading of that market and of the enquiries that arrive, not a segmentation study, and there is no test comparing an identity-led version of the message against a situational one. The reason for preferring the situational version is narrower than performance: we know what position the customer is in, and we do not know how they see themselves.

Products get their identity meaning from context

A brand cannot decide by itself what a product says about its user.

Meanings develop through product experience, advertising, communities, media and the people perceived to use the brand. They can also differ between groups.

Katherine White and Darren Dahl found that products associated with a group somebody actively wanted to avoid could have a stronger negative effect than products linked with an unrelated out-group. But their dissociative-group research also showed that the effect depended on factors including how strongly the person identified with their own group and whether that identity was made relevant.

This makes identity-based positioning unusually easy to mishandle.

A software company may describe its product as 'built for hustlers', believing it has created an attractive badge. A careful business owner may hear something entirely different: rushed work, unnecessary intensity or a culture they do not want to join.

The phrase has not uncovered an identity. It has imposed one.

An identity link does not guarantee loyalty

Even a real connection between a product and the self does not control every later choice.

Liad Weiss and Robin Tanner distinguish between identities that depend on products for their expression and identities that do not. A chef may need particular tools to perform the role, while a foodie identity may depend less on owning specific products.

Across 7 studies, they found that making a product-independent identity prominent could weaken preference for self-linked products and brands without removing the self-link itself.

This is an important boundary. Identity is dynamic, several identities can compete and some have weak or contested norms. A brand may be meaningful without being indispensable.

It also explains why identity should not be used as an excuse to neglect function. If the product stops helping somebody act in the way they value, symbolic language will not repair the gap.

How to use identity without stereotyping customers

Identity-led messaging should begin with evidence about the audience, not a flattering adjective added to a headline.

Work through these 5 questions in a positioning or messaging session. The third column is the one to watch, because each warning sign is the version most brands reach for first.

The question	What a usable answer looks like	Warning sign
Which identity or role is relevant to this problem	A professional role, community or way of working that the buyer would name themselves	A generic ambition such as ambitious, driven or visionary
What does that identity mean in the customer's own words	Phrases taken from interviews, sales calls and support questions	Language inferred from age, job title or segment
What makes the offer credible for that identity	A link between the message and the product, process, standards or outcome	Recognition with no evidence attached to it
Who could this shorthand exclude or misrepresent	A named group the wording would read badly to, and a decision about it	One version of the group treated as the only valid one
Can someone decline without their identity being challenged	A message that stays true whether or not they buy	'People who care choose us', which turns a purchase into a moral test

Compare 2 hypothetical messages for the same service.

Built for ambitious disruptors who refuse to settle.

The sentence offers a badge but says little about the work. It asks the reader to accept the identity before they understand the service.

For small teams that want a dependable publishing process without building a content department.

This version still speaks to a way of working. It is independent, practical and resource-conscious. But it gives the reader something concrete to recognise and evaluate.

Identity can contribute to how value is perceived. It works best when that symbolic value grows from a useful offer rather than attempting to replace one.

Recognition is stronger than manufactured insecurity

Identity-based marketing becomes manipulative when it creates shame, threatens belonging or suggests that buying is the price of being a legitimate member of a group.

That is also weak positioning. It depends on pressure the brand cannot sustain once the customer encounters the product itself.

The more durable approach is recognition. Show that you understand how the right customer wants to work, what they value and the standard they are trying to meet. Then demonstrate how the offer supports that behaviour.

A brand cannot give somebody an identity merely by declaring it, and the same applies to its own. Declaring a personality in a brand document does not produce one, which I go into in brand messaging versus brand voice.

The useful message helps people recognise how they want to act, and leaves them free to decide whether the offer belongs in that picture.

Take the identity language currently on your homepage and run it through the 5 questions above. If the first question cannot be answered with a role your customers would use about themselves, the rest of the message is describing somebody who does not exist.