| Summary: | This research is chiefly concerned with negative symbolic consumption which refers to consumers reject products and brands with negative symbolic meanings which are associated with negative self-concepts that they fear for. Since negative symbolic consumption has been an under-explored area in consumer research and the empirical study is limited in clothing industry, the objective of this study is specifically to explore and discuss the negative symbolic consumption in MP3 player market.
The study is based on the literature in product/brand symbolism, self-concept and image congruence theory. In this study, a conceptual framework is proposed to understand the relationships between the major components, including negative possible selves, negative product/brand images, and avoidance reference groups and negative significant others, in negative symbolic consumption. In addition, the conceptualisation also incorporates self-esteem as a mediator motive that stimulates avoidance behaviour under negative image congruence; and distastes and dislikes as the approach to explore negative possible selves and negative product/brand images.
Given that the study was focused on understanding rather than generalisation, qualitative methods was employed and fourteen in-depth interviews were conducted. Through the thorough analysis of the interview data, the findings provided general supports for the conceptualisation and revealed that the purchase of MP3 players partially involved negative symbolic consumption, offering useful implications for marketing management. However, this study is limited to MP3 player market. Considerable work still needs to be done for empirical exploration and theoretical advances in the negative aspects of symbolic consumption.
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