How consumers relate to possessions and consumption goods, and pursue identity goals
through spontaneous metaphors of anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, and dehumanization
(AZD) in consumption, has not been explored. Whereas previous studies primed and
prompted AZD by focusing on consumers’ reactions to marketers’ AZD, we examined ...
How consumers relate to possessions and consumption goods, and pursue identity goals
through spontaneous metaphors of anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, and dehumanization
(AZD) in consumption, has not been explored. Whereas previous studies primed and
prompted AZD by focusing on consumers’ reactions to marketers’ AZD, we examined AZD
metaphors that emerged spontaneously from our conversations with Greek consumers in this
phenomenological study. We identify four patterns that show how different attachment styles
to consumer goods were combined with different types of AZD metaphors to provide different
emotional benefits relating to identity goals. The study contributes to our understanding of
how consumers employ AZD as self-therapeutic metaphors to cope with unwanted feelings
such as guilt and ambivalence within identity conflicts, approach and feel closer to their
desired selves, experience self-augmentation, and cope with their undesired selves and selfdiminishment in consumption. We discuss how marketing campaigns linked to product
design, branding, and advertising might facilitate consumers’ metaphoric coping by
stimulating consumers’ AZD metaphors
