PERSONALITY & CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Prepared by:Bhavesh R. Purohit

WHAT IS PERSONALITY ?

The specific qualities, attributes, traits, factors, and mannerisms that distinguish one individual from other individuals is known as personality.

In other words, "those inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment.

WHAT IS CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR?

The behaviour that consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs.

NATURE OF PERSONALITY

Three distinct properties of central importance are as follows:-

Personality reflects individual differences. For e.g.: high in venture, low in venture

Personality is consistent and enduring . For e.g.: newly available brands may cause change

Personality can change. For e.g.: marriage, birth of a child, change in job

There are mainly three types of theories of Personality. They are as under:-

Freudian TheoryNeo-Freudian TheoryTrait Theory

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

FREUDIAN THEORY

Sigmund Freud built this theory on the premise that unconscious needs or drives, especially sexual and other biological drives, are at the heart of human motivation and personality.

GratificationID

System 1

EGO System

3

SUPER EGO

SYSTEM 2

The id was conceptualized as a ‘warehouse’ of primitive and impulsive drives-basic physiological needs such as thirst, hunger, and sex-for which the individual seeks immediate satisfaction without concern for the specific means of satisfaction.

The superego is conceptualized as the individual’s internal expression of society’s moral and ethical codes of conduct. The superego’s role is to see that the individual satisfies needs in a socially acceptable fashion.

The ego is the individual’s conscious control. It functions as an internal monitor that attempts to balance the impulsive demands of the id and the socio-cultural constraints of the superego. Freud emphasized that an individual’s personality is formed as he or she passes through a number of distinct stages of infant and childhood development.

These are the oral, anal, phallic, latent, and

genital stages. Freud labeled four of these stages of development to conform to the area of the body on which he believed the child’s sexual instincts are focused at the time.

Freudian Theory & “Product Personality”

Study of consumer personality believe that human drives are largely unconscious and that consumers are primarily unaware of their true reasons for buying what they buy, e.g. Taal movie…

SNACK FOODS PERSONALITY TRAITS

Potato chips Ambitious, successful, high achiever, impatient with less than the best.

Tortilla chips Perfectionist, high expectation & punctual, conservative & responsible.

Nuts Easygoing, empathetic, understanding, calm, even-tempered.

Popcorn Takes charge, pitches in often, modest, self-confident but not a show-off.

NEO-FREUDIAN PERSONALITY THEORY

Several neo-Freudians believed that social relationships are fundamental to the formation and development of personality.

Alfred Adler viewed human beings as seeking to attain various rational goals which he called “style of life”.

Harry Stack Sullivan stressed that people continuously attempt to establish significant and rewarding relationships with others.

Karen Horney focused on the impact of child-parent relationships and the individual’s desire to conquer feelings of anxiety. Horney proposed that individuals be classified into three personality groups complaint, aggressive and detached.

1. Compliant individuals are those who move toward others (they desire to be loved, wanted, and appreciated.)

2. Aggressive individuals are those who move against others (they desire to excel and win admiration).

3. Detached individuals are those who move away from others (they desire independence, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and individualism or freedom from obligations).

TRAIT THEORY

The orientation of trait theory is primarily or empirical; it focuses on the measurement of personality in terms of specific psychological characteristics, called traits.

Trait is defined as “any distinguishing, relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from another.”

Constitutes a major departure from the qualitative measures that typify the Freudian and neo-Freudian movements.

Single-trait personality tests measures such traits as consumer innovativeness, consumer materialism & consumer ethnocentrism.

Personality & Understanding Consumer Diversity

Marketers are interested in understanding how personality influences consumption behavior because such knowledge enables them to better understand consumers and to segment and target those consumers who are likely to respond positively to their product or service communications.

CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS & RELATED PERSONALITY TRAITS

Consumer innovativeness Dogmatism – low & high, referring open-

mindedness Social Character – inner to other directedness Need for uniqueness – unconventional choice Optimum stimulation level – high - linked with

greater willingness to take risks, to try new products, to be innovative etc.

Sensation seeking – take risk for sake of experience

Variety-novelty seeking – close to OSL

COGNITIVE PERSONALITY FACTORS

Need for cognition High – more likely to be responsive to the part of an ad

that is rich in product-related info or description. low – more likely to be attracted to the background or

peripheral aspects of an ad, such as an attractive model or well-known celebrity.

Visualizers V/s Verbalizers Visualizers – who prefer visual info & products that

stress the visual. For e.g. membership in a videotape club

Verbalizers – who prefer written or verbal info & products. For e.g. membership in book clubs or audiotape clubs.

FROM CONSUMER MATERIALISM TO

COMPULSIVE CONSUMPTION

CONSUMER MATERIALISM

Materialism means the extent to which a person is considered materialistic

They especially value acquiring and showing off possessions

They are particularly self-centered and selfish They seek lifestyles full of possessions (e.g., they

desire to have lots of “things”, rather than a simple, uncluttered lifestyle)

Their many possessions do not give them greater personal satisfaction

FIXATED CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR

Fixated consumers do not keep their objects or purchases of interest a secret.

A deep interest in a particular objector product category

A willingness to go to considerable lengths to secure additional examples of the object or product category of interest

The dedication of a considerable amount of discretionary time and money to searching out the object or product

COMPULSIVE CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR

Compulsive consumption is in the realm of abnormal behaviour – dark side of consumption.

Have an addiction; in some respects they are out of control, and their actions may have damaging consequences to them and to those around them.

E.g.:- Uncontrollable shopping, gambling, drug addiction, alcoholism, and various food and eating disorders. Many women and a small number of men who are chocoholics-they have an intense craving for chocolate.

CONSUMER ETHNOCENTRISM: RESPONSES TO FOREIGN-MADE

PRODUCTS

MARKETING MIX COUNTRY IMAGE POSITIVE NEGATIVE

Product Emphasize Emphasize “Made in” Brand name

Price Premium Price Low price

Place (channel of Distribution) Exclusive Establish Locations supply chain prtn

Promotion Country image Brand image

Casual Relationship among foreign product competence, product expertise, involvement, attitude, and cross-cultural adoption

intention

ProductCultural

Uniqueness

Language

Change Behaviour

Cognitive Involvemen

t

Affective Involvemen

t

Product Expertise

AttitudeCross-

Cultural Adoption Intention

Brand Personality

Unlike product-personality, consumers also subscribe to the notion of brand personality; i.e. they attribute various descriptive personality-like traits or characteristics to different brands in a wide variety of product categories.

For e.g. Nike as athlete in all of us BMW as performance driven Levi’s 501 jeans as

dependable and rugged

A brand personality framework

Brand Personality

SincerityExcite- ment

Competence

Sophistica- tion

Ruggedness

Down to earth

HonestWholesome

Cheerful

DaringSpirit

ImaginativeUp-to-date

ReliableIntelligentSuccessful

Upper classcharming

OutdoorsyTough

Brand personification

Product personality and gender For e.g. Bajaj Pulsar – Definitely Male, masculine

gender

Dyna soap – Be a lady, feminine gender

Product personality and geography For e.g. Philadelphia cream cheese, but manufactured

in Illinois.

Personality and color For e.g. Vodafone – red color, as red is color of

innovation, passion, hard-work.

SELF & SELF-IMAGE

One or multiple selves

Make up of self image:- Actual self-image (how consumers in fact see them-

selves) Ideal self-image (how consumers would like to see

themselves) Social self-image (how consumers feel others see them) Ideal self-image (how consumers would like others to

see them) Expected self-image (how consumers expect to see

themselves at some specified future time) Ought-to self image (consists of traits or characteristics

that an individual believes it is his or her duty to posses)

The extended self

Possessions are considered extensions of the self. It has been proposed that possessions can extend the self in a no. of ways:

Actually, e.g. problem solving by computers Symbolically, e.g. receiving employee award for

excellence Conferring status or rank, e.g. ownership of mastership Bestowing feelings of immortality, e.g. leaving valued

possession to young family members Endowing with magical powers, e.g. luck by chance.

VIRTUAL PERSONALITY OR SELF

The notion of a virtual personality or virtual self provides an individual with the opportunity to try on different personalities or different identities, much like going to the mall and trying on different outfits in a department or speciality store.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Consumer Behaviour - Leon G. Schiffman - Leslie Lazar Kanuk

• Website :- www.outofservice.com/bigfive

SUBMITTED TO :-

Prof. Mrs. Swati Bankar

Thank You