PERSONALITY &
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
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
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
There are mainly three types of theories of
Personality. They are as under:-
Freudian Theory
Neo-Freudian Theory
Trait Theory
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.
ID EGO
Gratification System 1 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
Cognitive
Involvement
Product Affective
Cultural Involvement
Uniqueness
Cross-
Attitude Cultural
Language Adoption
Intention
Change Product
Behaviour Expertise
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
Excite- Sophistica-
Sincerity Competence Ruggedness
ment tion
Down to earth Daring
Reliable
Honest Spirit Upper class Outdoorsy
Intelligent
Wholesome Imaginative charming Tough
Successful
Cheerful Up-to-date
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 :- [Link]/bigfive
SUBMITTED TO :-
Prof. Mrs. Swati Bankar
Thank You