One of the most basic levels of identification is with things: My toy, my car, my house, my clothes, and so on. I try to find myself in things but never quite make it and end up losing myself in them. The people in the advertising industry know very well that in order to sell things that people don’t really need, they must convince them that those things will add something to how they see themselves or are seen by others; in other words, add something to their sense of self. And so in many cases you are not buying a product but an 'identity enhancer'. Designer labels are primarily collective identities that you buy into. They are expensive and therefore 'exclusive'. If everybody could buy them, they would lose their psychological value and all you would be left with would be their material value, which likely amounts to a fraction of what you paid. The ego satisfaction is short-lived and so you keep looking for more, keep buying, keep consuming.
When you can not feel the life that you are, you are likely to fill up your life with things. Whether your sense of self-worth is bound up with things you possess. Do certain things induce a subtle feeling of importance or superiority? Does the lack of them make you feel inferior to others who have more than you? Do you casually mention things you own or show them off to increase your sense of worth in someone else’s eyes and through them in your own? Do you feel resentful or angry and somehow diminished in your sense of self when someone else has more than you or when you lose a prized possession?