Consumer's Symbol-consumption and Brand Management

As a key driving factor of brand equity, brand image is a research hotspot in the field of consumer behavior and brand marketing. The management over brand image is regarded as a key activity in the field of enterprise marketing. In addition, symbol consumption with the sense of self is another research hotspot in the field of consumer behavior. Brand image management of enterprises is faced with a new important topic, i.e. how to link symbol consumption with brand image management. This paper conducts in-depth research on the degree of consistency between actual self of consumers and brand image and that between their social self and brand image with product type as research variable by introducing self-concept theory based on the integration of existing symbol consumption research achievements. The research finds that the degree of consistency between actual self-concept and brand image of products in private is significantly higher than that between actual self-concept and brand image of products in public; that between social self-concept and brand image of products in public is significantly higher than that between social self-concept and brand image of products in private; that between actual self-concept and brand image of products in private is significantly higher than that between social self-concept and brand image of products in private; that between social self-concept and brand image of products in public is significantly higher than that between actual self-concept and brand image of products in public.