Current Job Market Candidate from the Richard Ivey School of Business:

Jodie Whelan (PhD Candidate)

Exploring Consumer Identities:  Consumer Cues, Boundaries, and Identity Salience,"

-manuscript being prepared for submission.

In marketing, identity theory has been used to study how variations in identity salience affect responses to advertising (e.g. Forehand et al. 2002), how consumers' behaviour and preferences can be influenced by a desire to (not) signal certain identities (e.g., Berger and Heath 2007;  Berger and Rand 2008; Kleine et al. 1993), and how consumers react to identity threats (e.g., White and Argo 2009; White et al. 2012).  However, researchers have yet to use identity theory to explore the consequences of being a consumer, that is, how and when does a consumer identity influence cognition, perception, and behaviour?  To address these questions, we employ a multi-stage, mixed-method approach.  In part l, we used image-based depth interviews to explore what a consumer identity entails.  Based on this data, we present a working conceptualization of a consumer identity and proposed that individuals erect consumer boundaries to manage the ease with which a consumer identity is made salient.  In part ll, we develop a measure of individual differences in consumer boundary strength and, in part lll, we demonstrate that this measure moderates the relationship between consumer cues and consumer identity salience.