consumer personality

1. Consumer Personality

2. • While motivations are forces that stimulate
and direct consumers toward performing
purposeful goal oriented behavior, the
personality of a consumer guides the
behaviour chosen to achieve goals in different
situations.

3. Definition of Personality
• Personality is the dynamic organization within
the individual of those psychological systems
that determine his unique adjustment to
environment.

4. • Personality characteristics help us describe
and differentiate between individuals.
• Personality of an individual is made up of
his/her inherited characteristics and the
interaction with environment and moderated
by situational conditions.
• It is a composite total result of a person’s
psychological characteristics motives, beliefs,
attitude, habits and overall outlook

5. Properties of personality in the context
of marketing
• Personality is used to account for differences
between individuals rather than the similarity.
• Many individuals tend to be similar in terms of
single personality traits.
• This helps marketers to group people on the basis
of a single or a few common traits.
• If each individual were to be different in every
respect, then any kind of grouping of consumers
based on similarity would be impossible.

6. • Personality is generally believed to be consistent
and enduring overtime and trends to carry to a
variety of situations.
• Knowing this, marketers attempt to influence
specific consumer responses by appealing to
relevant personality traits.
• Though personality is consistent, yet
consumption behavior of individual often varies
due to specific motives, attitudes, group
pressures and even new product introductions
may influence an individual’s behavior.

7. • Despite the fact that personality tends to be
consistent and enduring, it may change due to
major life events such as marriage, birth,
death in the family, changes in economic
circumstances and the process of ageing.

8. Four theories of personality
1. Self- concept theory
2. Psychoanalytic theory
3. Social/cultural (Neo-Freudian ) theory
4. Trait theory

9. Self-concept(self-image) theory
• Self-concept is viewed as most relevant and a
popular approach for marketers as it focuses on
how the self-image of individual consumers
influences the purchase behaviour.
• Self-concept is defined as ‘the totality of the
individual’s thoughts and feelings having
reference to herself/himself as an object’.
• Every individual sees herself/himself as having
certain attributes and qualities and values them.

10. • According to a popular model proposed by M
Joseph Sergy, there are four specific types of
self-images.
• They are their Actual self(what they would like
to be)
• Ideal self ( how they feel others see them)
• Social self( how they would like others to see
them and
• Ideal social self

11. • Research has identified one more kind of self
image which is expected self.
• Expected self means how consumers expect to
see themselves sometime in the future.
• From a marketers point of view, expected self is
more valuable than other types of self-concepts
as it offers them opportunity to design products
and promotions appealing to consumers and
providing genuine opportunity to change their
self-image.

12. • According to H R Markus and S Kitayama, it is
useful to categorise self-concepts in two kinds
• (1) independent(separateness) and
• (2) interdependent (connectedness)

13. Independent self
• It is a self concept that predominantly reflects
western cultural beliefs that individuals are
basically separate.
• It is characterized by emphasizing personal goals,
characteristics, achievements and desires.
• Such individuals are individualistic, autonomous,
egocentric, self-reliant and self contained.
• They focus on what they have done, what they
possess and their personal traits that make them
different from others.

14. Interdependent self
• It is more common in Asian cultural belief.
• It is the connectedness of human beings.
• It is characterized by emphasizing family, culture,
professional and social relationships.
• Such individuals tend to be obedient, social
relationship focused, holistic, connected and
relation oriented.
• They define themselves in term of social roles,
family relationships and what is common with
other members of their group.

15. Principles that govern self concept
theory
(1) The desire to achieve self- consistency
(2) The desire to enhance one’s self-esteem
For example – if an individual sees himself as being
self controlled and practical, then he would
wear conservative clothes and quite likely to
stay at home in the evenings.
If deep down his ideal self were to be reckless and
carefree, then he act in accordance to his ideal
self, he would wear fashion clothes, go to
parties, drive a sports car.

16. Actual self
• There is in fact no actual self because
consumers have different role identities.
• A Consumer can be a husband, father,
employee, a member of some club.
• In some specific situations, one of these roles
will be dominant and influence individual’s
behaviour
• The actual self is the outcome of the
combination of individual’s different roles.

17. • Consumers actual self influences their purchase
in accordance with images they have of
themselves and there by attain self-consistency.
• Research studies confirm the consumer’s
purchases are influenced by their self-concept.
• An owner’s self-image is reflected in her/his car
• Self-concept and brand image relationship is
somewhat complicated as consumers change
their self concept in different situation.

18. Ideal self
• The concept of ideal self is closely related to
an individual’s self esteem
• Greater the difference between the two,
lower the self-esteem.
• The desire for both self-consistency and self
esteem could be conflicting.

19. Psychoanalytic Theory
• Freud’s psychoanalytic theory proposes that
every individual’s personality is the result of
childhood conflicts.
• These conflicts are derived from three
fundamental components of personality: Id.
Ego and Superego.

20. • According to this theory the Id is the source of an
individual’s strong basic drives and urges such as
hunger, aggression and self-preservation.
• The Id operates on pleasure principle.
• To seek immediate pleasure and avoid pain.
• The Id is entirely unconscious and not fully
capable of dealing with objective reality.
• A newborn baby’s behaviour is governed totally
by Id

21. The ego
• The ego is the individual’s conscious control
• It comes into being because of the limitations
of the id in dealing with the real world by
developing individual’s capabilities of realistic
thinking and ability to deal suitable with
her/his environment.
• The ego operates on reality principle

22. • It is capable of postponing the gratification
until that time when it will be suitably and
effectively directed at attaining the goals of
the id in a socially acceptable manner.
• For example, rather then manifest the need
for aggression in an anti social manner, a
consumer can partially satisfy this need by
purchasing a powerful motor cycle.
• The ego is the individual’s self-concept

23. The super ego
• The super ego constitutes the moral part of an
individual personality.
• It represents the ideal rather than the real.
• It defines what is right and good and it influences
the individual to strive for perfection.
• It operates in the unconscious and often
represses certain behaviour that would otherwise
occur based on the id, which could disrupt the
social system

24. • The ego manages the conflicting demands of the
id and the super ego.
• There are several themes based on
psychoanalytic theory which are sometimes used
by marketers in attempting to influence
consumers such as fantasy, wish fulfulment,
aggression and escape from life’s
pressures(perfume, hair dye, skincare products,
dresses, motor cycles which come under this
category)

25. Social/cultural (Neo-Freudian) Theory
• Freud’s understanding of personality focused
mainly on observations of emotionally disturbed
people.
• A number of Freud’s disciples, particularly Carl
Jung and Alfred Adler, disagreed from this view of
personality.
• They believed that social and cultural variables
rather than biological drives are more important
in the development of an individual’s personality,

26. • Carl Jung believed that an individual’s culture
created an accumulation of shared memories
from the past such as caring and nurturing
female, heroes and wise men.
• He called these shared memories as
‘archetypes’.
• Jung identified a number of personality types.

27. • Sensing-thinking personality: they are rational,
objective. They are logical and empirical in their
approach. They have extensive problem solving
orientation. Weigh economic considerations, are
price sensitive and avoid risks.
• Sensing-feeling personality: they are moved by
personal values rather than logic. They follow a
subjective orientation in making decisions. They
are inclined to consider others when making
decisions. They are status conscious.

28. • Intuiting- thinking personality: such
individuals take a broad view of their own
situation and the world. They rely heavily on
imagination and consider a wide range of
options, yet use logic in making decisions.They
are not averse to take risks and their
perspective is long term.

29. • Intuiting-feeling personality: their view of
personal situations or world is broad. They use
imagination in making decisions. They are
likely to consider other’s views and show least
sensitivity towards prices. They seek novelty,
take risks and time horizon is indefinite in
making decisions.

30. • Alfred Adler took a separate direction.
• He focused on social orientation in
development of personality.
• He said that individual’s strive to obtain
superiority in a social context.
• He viewed human beings as striving to attain
various rational goals, which he referred as
style of life.

31. • Another neo-Freudian psychologists, Harry
Sullivan, emphasized that human beings
perpetually strive to establish significant and
rewarding relationships which serves as the
fundamental factor in shaping up an
individual’s personality.

32. • Joel B Cohen, Karen Horney identified ten
major needs, which individuals acquire as a
result of striving to find solution to their
problems in developing personality and
dealing with other in the society.
• Based on these ten needs they classified three
major approaches individuals adopt for coping
with anxiety: Complaint, aggressive and
detached(CAD)

33. 1. Complaint individuals are those that move
toward people and stress the need for love,
affection, approval and modesty. Such
individuals exhibit empathy, humility and are
unselfish
2. Aggressive individuals are those who move
against people and emphasize the need for
power, admiration, strength and the ability to
manipulate others.

34. 3) Detached individuals are those who move
away from others and desire independence,
freedom from obligations and self- reliance.
They so not develop strong emotional bond
with others.

35. Marketing implications
• Joel B Cohen measured CAD using 35 item
inventory and dound some tentative relationships
between CAD types/brand usage.
• ‘complaint’ individuals seemed to prefer known
brands and use more mouthwash and toilet
soaps, ‘aggressive’ types used more cologne and
after shave lotion and preferred to use Van
Heusen shirts and old spice deodorant ( because
of its masculine appeal)

36. • ‘detached’ types seemed to have least
awareness of brands, drank more tea.
• Mark Salama. Terrel Williams and Armen
Tashchian have reported that the ‘detached
personality type seems to have low-
involvment in purchasing than ‘compliant’ or
‘aggressive’ types

37. Trait Theory
• States that human personality is composed of
a set of traits that describe general response
pattern.
• These theories are of recent origin.
• Trait is any distinguishing and relatively
enduring way in which one individual differs
from another.
• Traits are general and stable characteristics of
personality that influence behavior.

38. Assumptions of this concept
• Behavioral tendencies in individuals are
relatively stable.
• A limited number of traits are common to
most individuals. They differ only in the
degree to which they have these tendencies.
• These traits and their relative degree when
identified and measured, are useful in
characterizing individual personalities.

39. Cattell’s list of personality traits
• Reserved
• Less intelligent
• Affected by feelings
• Submissive
• Serious
• Expedient
• Timid
• Tough-minded
• Outgoing
• More intelligent
• Emotionally stable
• Dominant
• Happy-go-lucky
• Conscientious
• Venturesome
• Sensitive

40. • Trait theorists construct personality
inventories(personality tests) and ask
respondents to record their responses to many
items.
• Respondents are asked to agree or disagree with
certain statements as they please or express their
likes or dislikes for certain situations or kinds of
people.
• The responses are then statistically analyzed and
reduced to a few personality dimensions.

41. • R B Cattell isolated 171 traits.
• He then reduced these to 16 personality
factors, which he called as source of primary
traits.
• Personality test that measure only one trait(
such as self-confidence or innovativeness) are
called single trait personality tests.
• Such tests are developed for use in the study
of consumer behavior.

42. Do personality traits affect Consumer
Behavior?
• Harold H Kassar and Mary Jane reviewed more
than 300 studies on personality and have
concluded that the results are’equivocal’.
• Few studies seem to show a definite
relationship between consumer’s personality
and behavior.
• Other studies indicate no relationship
between consumer personality and behavior.

43. • Majority of studies indicate that if at all there
is any relationship between personality and
behavior, it is too weak to have any practical
value to marketers.
• Despite this, experts still argue that consumer
personality is an important factor influencing
their buying behavior.