Consumer Motivation
Driving force within individuals that force them to act
Needs are circumstances in which something is necessary or
requires some course of action
Personality: Psychological characteristics that determine
and reflect how we think and act
Anthropomorphism: Assigning human characteristics to
an object
Brand personification: Communicating human features of
a brand in advertising
Needs and Goals
Needs
Biogenic (physiological/ innate)
Psychogenic needs (learned)
Need arousal (trigger)
Physiological arousal
Cognitive arousal
Goals: sought after outcomes of motivated behavior
Approach objects: positive outcome we seek
Avoidance objects: negative outcome we prevent
Generic goals
Product specific goals
Frustration
Feeling that results from failure to achieve a goal
Defense mechanism: cognitive and behavioral ways to
handle frustration
Aggression
Rationalization
Regression
Withdrawal
Projection (of blame)
Daydreaming
Identification (ad situation)
Psychological needs
Murray’s Psychogenic needs
Maslow’s need hierarchy
Projective techniques
Association technique
Completion technique
Construction technique
Expressive techniques
Projective Techniques
Association Techniques (stimulus and first response)
Word association (frequency with which word is given,
response time lag, non response)
Completion Techniques (complete incomplete stimulus
situation)
Sentence completion
Story completion
Construction Techniques
Picture response (Thematic Appreciation Test-TAT,
Zaltman’s Metaphor Elicitation Technique- 10-15 pictures
to bring of your choice and describe salient
characteristics, picture sort- link brand with photo)
Projective Techniques
Construction Techniques
Cartoon Tests (what cartoon might say)
Expressive Techniques
Role playing (project own feelings, behaviors)
Third person technique (why others behave in a way)
Applications
When required information can’t be obtained by direct
method
Exploratory research for initial insights
Personality
Inner characteristics – specific qualities, attributes, traits,
factors and mannerisms that distinguish one individual
from other individuals
Individual differences
Consistent and enduring
Personality can change
Freudian concepts (id, ego, superego)
Non Freudian theory (social relationships are crucial factors in
development of personality)
Compliant individuals (move toward others)
Aggressive (move against others)
Detached individuals (move away from others)
Personality Traits
Inner psychological characteristics that distinguishes one
individual from other individuals
Innovators versus Laggards
Consumers who are open to new ideas and are among the
first to try new products/services (practices like digital
payments) versus consumers who are loyal and adopt the
new products last
Open versus Closed minded
Dogmatism- degree of rigidity
Conformity versus Individuality
Inner directed
Outer directed
Need for uniqueness
Personality Traits
Novel/Complex vs. Simple/ Safe
OSL (Optimum stimulation level)
High
Low
Sensation seeking
Novelty seeking
Exploratory purchase behavior
Vicarious exploration
Innovativeness (use of adapted product in a new way)
Preference for thinking
Need for cognition (NFC)
Low in NFC accepted marketer’s recommended products easily
Personality Traits
Written or Visual
Verbalizers (respond favorably to verbal message)
Visualizers (respond favorably to visual and pictorial
message)
Object visualizers (encode images as single unit) -artists
Spatial visualizers (process image piece by piece) –engineers
Possessions
Materialism: extend to which individual is preoccupied with
purchasing and showing off physical possessions (mostly
non essential and often luxury goods)
Personality Traits
Compulsions and Fixations
Compulsive consumers (addictive and out of control) 75% of
compulsive consumers are female
Fixated consumers (collectors and hobbyists who
accumulate items that are related to their interest and form
clusters with people with similar interests)
Consumer Ethnocentrism (willingness to buy foreign
made products)
Personality and color
Product personality and Gender
Product personality and Geography
Personality Traits
Self Perception
Self image (how people perceive themselves)
Actual self image
Ideal self image
Social self image
Ideal social self image
The Extended Self (Consumers’ possessions can confirm
or extend their self image)
Altering the Self (wish to change/improve the self)
Vanity (acting self important)
Physical vanity
Achievement vanity