The image concept: Its place in consumer psychology

One of the recent developments in consumer psychology is the growing emphasis on low involvement consumer behavior. Under a variety of circumstances, consumers are neither capable nor motivated to elaborate product information. It is assumed that, under these circumstances, they are likely to make use of product or brand images. This concept is frequently referred to in the marketing and marketing research literature. However, image is not an unequivocal concept. There is lack of agreement on what constitutes an image, on the possible psychological functions of images, on the conditions under which these psychological functions are addressed, and on how an image should be operationalized. In this paper a review will be provided of the literature on brand images. An attempt is made to propose a conceptualization and operationalization that is based on an integration of the literature. Also, a specification will be provided of the psychological functions that images may have under particular (advertising) conditions.