PERSONALITY &

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

WHAT IS PERSONALITY?

• The inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment

• This definition focus on : Specific qualities Attributes Factors Mannerisms

• Personality can Change:

– Under certain circumstances, personalities change

– A man’s personality changes as he matures slowly. For instance, our personality may have changed from how it was 5 years back.

– Often, we find aggressive man mellow down as they advance in years.

– An individual’s personality may be altered by major events such as birth of a child, death of close one, career promotion, etc.

NATURE OF PERSONALITY

• Personality reflects individual differences: Each individual has a special set of unique characteristics and is

unique by himself. Some individual are highly sociable whereas some are low on

sociability. Consumers can then be grouped together based on this identified

personality trait

.• Personality is consistent and enduring:

An individual’s personality tends to be both consistent and enduring.

Helps in predicting consumer behaviour over a period of time in terms of their personality

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

• Freudian theory– Unconscious needs or drives are at the heart of human motivation

• Neo-Freudian personality theory– Social relationships are fundamental to the formation and

development of personality

• Trait theory– Quantitative approach to personality as a set of psychological traits

FREUDIAN THEORY

• Id– Warehouse of primitive or instinctual

needs for which individual seeks immediate satisfaction

• Superego– Individual’s internal expression of

society’s moral and ethical codes of conduct. Our urge to ‘do what is right’ – achieving perfection.

• Ego– Individual’s conscious control that

balances the demands of the id and superego

Human personality consists of three interacting systems the id, the superego, and the ego

Superego- Internalize society’s rules, morals, ethics

- Restrains the impulsive forces of the id

- Works contradictory to ID

Ego-Balancing between Id and Superego

- Tries to balance them according to reality principle

Id- Warehouse of primitive desires

- Hunger, thirst, etc

-Immediate gratifications

- No contact with reality

Eg.: If you are thirsty

At Id level, you would grab water from anybody having a water bottle.

At Ego level, you may buy a water bottle or any other drink.

At Superego level, you ask the person for water.

NEO-FREUDIAN PERSONALITY THEORY

• Neo Freudian’s are those who further developed Freud’s ideas but presented new ways of looking at personality.

• Neo-Freudians believed that social relationships are fundamental to the formation and development of Personality.

• We seek goals to overcome feelings of inferiority.

• We continually attempt to establish relationships with others to reduce tensions.

Proposed three personality groups,

• Compliant move toward others, they desire to be loved, wanted, and appreciated

• Aggressive refers to individuals being an extrovert and getting noticed in all what he does

• Detached move away from others. They desire independence, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and individualism or freedom from obligations)

TRAIT THEORY

• Trait theory is concerned with the construction of personality tests that allow them to pinpoint individual differences in terms of specific traits.

• A trait is defined as any unique, comparatively continuing way in which one individual differs from another.

Personality traits that have been useful in determine consumer innovators and

non-innovators.

• Innovation

The degree to which consumers are interested to new products, new services, or new practices

• Dogmatism

Reflects the degree of strictness/rigidness a person displays towards the unfamiliar product and information that is different to his or her own established beliefs.

• Variety-novelty seeking

Measures a consumer’s degree of variety seeking.

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• Social Character

Inner-Directed•Consumers who tend to rely on their own inner values

•More likely to be innovators

•Tend to prefer ads that stress product features and benefits

Other-Directed•Consumers who tend to look to others for direction

•Less likely to be innovators

•Tend to prefer ads that feature social acceptance

• Optimum stimulation level A personality trait that measures the level or amount of novelty or complexity

that individuals seek in their personal experiences

High OSL consumers tend to accept risky and novel products more readilythan low OSL consumers.

COGNITIVE PERSONALITY FACTORS

Need for cognition (NC)

• Consumers who are high in NC are more likely to be responsive to the part of an ad that is rich in product-related information or explanation;

• consumers who are relatively low in NC are more likely to be attracted to the background or peripheral aspects of an ad, such as an attractive model or well known celebrity.

Visualizers versus verbalizers

• Consumers who preference visual information and products that stress the visual graphics and images.

• Verbalizers prefer visual information written or verbal information

HIGH NC LOW NC

CONSUMER ETHNOCENTRISM

• Consumer who are highly ethnocentric are likely to feel that it is inappropriate or wrong to purchase foreign-made products because of the resulting economic impact on the domestic economy etc.

• They take pride in using domestically produced products.

SELF AND SELF-IMAGE

• A self-images, or perceptions of self, are very closely associated with personality.

• Individuals tend to buy products and services and support retailers whose images or personalities relate in some meaningful way to their own self-images.

• In real meaning, consumers seek to represent themselves in their brand choices-they have a tendency to approach products with images that could enhance their self concept and avoid those products that do not.

• One or multiple selves

A single consumer will act differently in different situations or with different people

• Makeup of the self-image Contains traits, skills, habits, possessions, relationships and way of behavior.

Developed through background, experience ,and interaction with others consumers select products congruent with this image.

• Extended self

Consumer’s possessions can be seen to confirm or extend their self-images. For instance, acquiring a desired or sought-after pair of “vintage” Levi jeans might serve to expand a teenager’s image of self. The teenager might now see herself as being more desirable and more fashionable.

• Altering the self- image

Clothing, grooming aids or cosmetics & all kinds of accessories (sunglasses, jewelry, tattoos, or even colored contact lenses) offer consumers the opportunity to modify their appearances (to create a “makeover”) and thereby to alter their “selves.”

BRAND PERSONALITY

• Brand personality is as if 'making the brand come alive'.

• The attribution of human personality traits (seriousness, warmth, imagination, etc.) to a brand as a way to achieve differentiation.

• Usually done through long-term above-the-line advertising and appropriate packaging and graphics.

• Brand personality which is strong and favorable will strengthen a brand but not necessarily stimulates demand

• Identifying consumers’ current brand-personality link or creating one for new products are important marketing tasks.

• These traits inform brand behavior through both prepared communication / packaging, etc. and through the people who represent the brand - its employees.

• The way in which it speaks of its products or services shows what kind of person it would be if it were human.

• A brand without a personality has trouble gaining awareness and developing a relationship with customer.

ECONOMICAL

BEAUTY

ROUGH & TOUGH

ATHLETICS

A Brand Personality Framework

SINCERITY

Hallmark,

Kodak,

Mother Dairy

COMPETENCE

Hewlett Packard

Wall Street Journal

Bournvita

Reebok

EXCITEMENT

Pepsi,

Maggi

SOPHISTICATION Mercedes, BMW,ChannelLV

RUGGEDNESS Thumbs Up,Marlboro, Levis

Product Personality and Gender

• Assigning of a gender as part of personality description is fully consistent with the marketplace reality that products and services, in general, are viewed by consumers as having a “gender-being.”

• Armed with such knowledge of the perceived gender of a product or a specific brand, marketers are in a better position to select visual and copy-text for various marketing messages.

• Example: AXE DEO

Hero Honda Pleasure - “Why should boys have all the fun”

Personality and Color

• Consumers also tend to associate personality factors with specific colors.

• In some cases, various products, even brands, associate a specific color with personality-like connotations.

• Many fast-food restaurants use combinations of bright colors, like red, yellow, and blue, for their roadside signs and interior designs. – These colors have come to be associated with fast service and

food being inexpensive.

Commands respect, authority

•America’s favored color• IBM holds the title to blue•Associated with club soda•Men seek products packaged in blue

Caution, novelty, temporary, warmth,Excitement

•Eyes register it fasterEg: Maggi

Secure, natural, relaxed or easy- going, living things

•Good work environment•Associated with vegetables and chewing gum•Canada Dry ginger ale sales increased when it

changed sugar-free package from red to green and white

BLUE

YELLOW

GREEN

The Personality-like Associations of Colors

Copyright 2007 by Prentice Hall

Human, exciting, hot, Love, strong

•Makes food “smell” better•Coffee in a red can perceived as “rich”•Eg: Coca-Cola “owns” red• little hearts biscuits

Powerful, affordable, informal

•Draws attention quickly

Informal and relaxed, masculine, nature

•Coffee in a dark-brown can was “too strong” eg: Nescafe

Goodness, purity, chastity, cleanliness, delicacy, refinement, formality

•Suggests reduced calories•Pure and wholesome food•Clean, bath products•Eg: Toiletries

Sophistication, power, authority, mystery

•Powerful clothing•High-tech electronics•Eg: Allen solly, Armani

Regal, wealthy, stately •Suggests premium price

RED

ORANGE

BROWN

WHITE

BLACK

SILVER, GOLD

Product Personality and Geography

• Certain products, in the minds of consumers, possess a strong geographical association.

• Using the geographical association can create a geographic equity.

• Eg: Banarsi sarees

• The real question is, “Does location (geography) add to the brand image and to the product’s brand equity?”

From Consumer Materialism to Compulsive Consumption

• Consumer materialism

– Materialism, as a personality-like trait, distinguishes between individuals who regard possessions as essential to their identities and their lives and those for whom possessions are secondary.

– The extent to which a person is considered “materialistic

Materialistic People

Acquire and show off possessions

Self centered and selfish

Seek lifestyle full of possessions

Do not get greater personal satisfaction from

possessions

Materialistic People

• Fixated consumption behavior

– Somewhere between materialism and compulsion, with respect to buying or possessing objects, is the notion of being fixated with regard to consuming or possessing.

– A deep interest in a particular object or product category

– a willingness to go to considerable lengths to secure items in the category of interest

– Consumers fixated on certain products or categories of products(Barbie dolls, coins collection)

– Do not keep their objects or purchases of interest a secret; rather, they frequently display them, and their involvement is openly shared with others who have a similar interest.

Sample Items from a Materialism Scale

• Success– I admire people who own expensive homes, cars, and clothes– I like to own things that impress people

• Centrality– I like a lot of luxury in my life

• Happiness– My life would be better if I owned certain things I don’t have– It sometimes bothers me quite a bit that I can’t afford to buy all

the things I’d like

• Compulsive consumption behavior

– “Addicted” or “out-of-control” consumers

– Their actions may have damaging consequences to them and to those around them.

– Examples : uncontrollable shopping, gambling, drug addiction, alcoholism, and various food and eating disorders.

– To control or possibly eliminate such compulsive problems generally requires some type of therapy or clinical treatment.

Sample Items from Scales to measure Compulsive Buying

1. When I have money, I cannot help but spend part or the whole of it.

2. I am often impulsive in my buying behavior.

3. As soon as I enter a shopping center, I have an irresistible urge to go into a shop to buy something.

4. I have often bought a product that I did not need, while knowing I had very little money left.

5. I spend most of my money on betting, to make more money.