CONSUMER RESEARCH

PGPM FLEX 2017-2019 (MAVERICKS)

DEBATE: Personality
does not matter to
Marketing Practitioners

Team 1
Kannan S- PGPMFX19015
Rahul R- PGPMFX19032
Senthilkumar C- PGPMFX19037
Vinoth M - PGPMFX19051
Srinidhi S - PGPMFX19052
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 2
2. PERSONALITY SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATION IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR 2
3. PERSONALITY THEORIES 3
4. TESTING PERSONALITY PROFILES: 5
4.1 Traditional Way of Understanding Personality Profiles 5
4.2 Modern methods of assessing consumer behaviour and personality 5
5. PERSONALITY INFLUENCE IN CONSUMER JOURNEY 6
6. NEED FOR PERSONALITY MARKETING 7
7. PERSONALITY MARKETING IN ACTION 8
8. CONCLUSIONS 8
9. REFERENCES 9

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1. INTRODUCTION
In the later half of the 20th century, there was a revolutionary transformation in the way
managers started looking at marketing & Advertising and the way they looked at their
consumers. Increasing levels of education and exposure to mass media made business an
intensive area of competition. Behavioural sciences seemed to present a solution.[1]
Marketers assumed Personality might play an important role in product purchase. The
concept of consumers buying products for non-functional purposes was establishes as early
as 1950 with the classic HBR article by Sidney levi “Symbols for Sale” [2]. These theories were
so popular that research was done on how consumers are denied their freedom of choice by
psychological manipulation [3]. However, there is rarely a single construct which decisively
influences the success of sales and marketing. There was no consensus amongst the
researchers on interpretation of a single consumer in-depth interview. But the basic crux for
the success is to understand what consumers are thinking and that too well ahead. By
understanding the personality of the consumers, the product can be appropriately positioned
to the target segment that enables the purchase resulting in maximization of sales.

A new study suggests that advertisements can be more effective when they are tailored to
the unique personality profiles of potential consumers. Understanding the personality of
consumers will enable Marketers to position the product, sell products in right channel,
promote the products, make the product appealing, market the product at right time.

In this report, we have argued how the understanding of consumer’s personality by marketing
practitioners can be applied in different areas of marketing and therefore build sales and
influence.

2. PERSONALITY SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATION IN CONSUMER

BEHAVIOUR
The American Psychological Association defines personality as “individual differences in
characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.” Every person has peculiar traits
that make him who he is or can be. It is a well-known proverb that it’s not the person who
makes habits but habits make a person. Psychologists converged on the current and widely-

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accepted view of personality science. The framework like MBTI, Big Five, 4A Framework etc.
simplifies the personality descriptions into few factors. Personality science enables the
marketers to empathize with consumers and engage them with the message, advertisement
or content in a way that is more likely to resonate with them.

3. PERSONALITY THEORIES
The major theories on personality can be grouped into six major theories: The psychodynamic
theory, the traits theory, the behavioural theory, the biological theory, the humanistic theory,
and, the socio-cognitive theory.

The psychodynamic theory and the trait theory are relevant to understand consumer
behaviour.

Psychodynamic theory is a theory in psychology founded on the idea that human personality
developed primarily as a result of the interaction of instinctual drives and unconscious forces
within the individual. The theory basically assumes that human behaviour is unconsciously
driven, different parts of the unconscious mind are in perpetual conflict, and our behaviours
are traceable to our childhood experiences (McLeod, 2014). Psychodynamic theory include
the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud (psychoanalytic theory) and those of his followers
(Neo-Freudian theories)

Freudian Theory:

Sigmund Freud‘s psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behaviour is the
result of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and
superego.

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According to Freud, personality develops during childhood and is critically shaped through a
series of five psychosexual stages, which he called his psychosexual theory of development.
During each stage, a child is presented with a conflict between biological drives and social
expectations; successful navigation of these internal conflicts will lead to mastery of each
developmental stage, and ultimately to a fully mature personality. Freud’s ideas have since
been met with criticism, in part because of his singular focus on sexuality as the main driver
of human personality development.

Neo-Freudian theory:

Over the years, Freud attracted many followers who adapted and modified his psychoanalytic
theories to create new theories of personality. These Neo-Freudians theorists agreed with
Freud that childhood experiences matter. They expanded on Freud’s ideas by focusing on the
importance of sociological and cultural influences in addition to biological influences.

Alfred Adler was the first to explore and develop a comprehensive social theory of the
psychodynamic person and coined the idea of the “inferiority complex.” Erik Erikson proposed
the psychosocial theory of development, which suggested that an individual’s personality
develops throughout their lifespan based on a changing emphasis on different social
relationships. Two of Carl Jung’s major contributions were his ideas of the collective
unconscious and the persona. Karen Horney’s theories focused on “unconscious anxiety,”
which she believed stemmed from early childhood experiences of unmet needs, loneliness,
and/or isolation.

Trait Theory:

Trait theory is a major departure from the subjective approach to personality measurement.
It postulates that individuals possess innate psychological traits (e.g., innovativeness, novelty
seeking, need for cognition, materialism) to a greater or lesser degree, and that these traits
can be measured by specially designed scales or inventories. Because they are simple to use
and to score and can be self-administered, personality inventories are the preferred method
for many researchers in the assessment of consumer personality. Product and brand
personalities represent real opportunities for marketers to take advantage of consumers’
connections to various brands they offer. Brands often have personalities—some include

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“human-like” traits and even gender. These brand personalities help shape consumer
responses, preferences, and loyalties.

Each individual has a perceived self-image (or multiple self-images) as a certain kind of person
with certain traits, habits, possessions, relationships, and ways of behaving. Consumers
frequently attempt to preserve, enhance, alter, or extend their self-images by purchasing
products or services and shopping at stores believed to be consistent with the relevant self-
image(s) and by avoiding products and stores they perceive are not.

4. TESTING PERSONALITY PROFILES:

Personality Profiles of consumers can be identified by two methods.

4.1 Traditional Way of Understanding Personality Profiles

In 1959, a research was conducted to distinguish Ford from Chevrolet owners to identify the
impact of personality on the buying choices. The advertisement, however clearly positioned
the cars for different personality types, there was no evidence to suggest personality
differences in consumers accounted for their brand choices. Until the 1970s all behavioural
theories based on different constructs of personality influence in consumer behaviour were
rejected and none of them could explain the variance in the studies.

Reasons for Failure of such studies:

1. Personality profiling were developed by psychologists for clinical applications

2. Very low predictive power for a great demand in market research
3. Marketing researchers did not consider the subjective conditions of influence
4. Traits/personality type to consumption was not theoretically explained
5. Personality/traits apply to global views of human behaviour

4.2 Modern methods of assessing consumer behaviour and personality

Recent studies have tried to avoid the earlier mistakes. The personality scales used these days
are less confined to clinical applications and more relevant to analysis of everyday behaviour
including economic choices and activities.[4] Several studies that came later established
positive correlation between personality and consumer choice.[5] The tendency to self-
monitor and control expressive behaviour in certain personality types led to influenced

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consumer behaviour and reception of advertisements.[6] Such experiments and studies
established that personality indeed influences consumer behaviour.

4.3 The Digital revolution:

In the modern world, every person in the world is leaving a digital footprint. Analysing these
digital footprints is called, “digital psychometrics”. Most of the people use some social
networking sites in one way or the other and in doing so, everyone would have reacted to
certain posts, have done some likes, shares, tweets, etc. On understanding these digital
footprints, it is possible to accurately predict the personality traits of the consumers. This is
the scientific way of testing personality traits of a consumer.

For example, imagine a person who has liked posts and pages relating to “Lady Gaga”. In
majority of the cases, the person tends to be a modern extrovert and who craves for modern
stylish accessories.

So, once understanding the personality traits of the persons which often proves to be
accurate, marketers can use this knowledge to customize messages, advertisements or even
campaigns targeting to the specific group of consumers. Artificial Intelligence and Machine
Learning will come handy for analysis of the digital footprints and predicting the consumer’s
personality traits. This will not only gain success for that campaigns but also helps in deep
understanding of their consumer behaviour.

5. PERSONALITY INFLUENCE IN CONSUMER JOURNEY

A research in 2012 analysed the impact of personality influence in the marketing mix factors
and purchasing decisions and tried to analyse the scale of impact in different stages of
consumer journey. [5]

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They concluded that personality type has positive influence on marketing mix factors and
purchasing decision. Also, marketing mix factors has positive influence on customers
purchasing decision. By understanding this relationship, following things can be predicted:
the customer behaviour patterns, customer preferences, and their way of thinking and doing
evaluation process to the information from the environment.

However further studies also presented that they have significant influence in quality
customer–firm relationships as is evidenced by the proliferation of research on relationship
marketing.[7]

Thus, the application of personality based predictions is huge in all aspects and stages of
marketing.

6. NEED FOR PERSONALITY MARKETING

Again, the theory is that if you can match the tone and framing of the communications or
marketing with the personality profiles and thinking styles of potential customers, patients,
voters, or those whose behaviour you’d like to change, you can boost effectiveness.

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For example, look at retail shoppers. Some do not particularly like shopping. They take a
functional approach. It’s a chore. They are not wedded to brands and are motivated by price.
Psychologists call them “utilitarian” shoppers. Meanwhile, “hedonic” shoppers enjoy
shopping and love brands and join loyalty programs. They identify themselves with brands
and may use them to signal who they are and what they stand for. Certain personality profiles
correlate with utilitarian versus hedonic shoppers. So, if you can know shoppers’
personalities, you can customize how you engage them.

7. PERSONALITY MARKETING IN ACTION

First step is to understand the challenge or goal we are trying to achieve. Next is to identify
the cognitive biases and heuristics that serves as barriers or drivers along the way to achieving
the goal. Map the biases to steps along the consumer journey. Doing so will help one identify
steps along that journey where creative communications or content can help consumers
overcome specific biases or other hurdles. Once we have a strong understanding of the
customer journey, we can run a personality test and combine it with other data to reveal
correlations between personality traits and certain behaviors, preferences, or mindsets.

The final step is to craft the messaging, advertising or content to match different personality
profiles while also considering the stage of the customer journey at which you plan to engage.
It offers the opportunity to create the most effective and empathetic messaging with different
groups of customers.

Personality marketing is an aspect of a new, fast-emerging approach to understanding people

from the inside out.

8. CONCLUSIONS
The earlier constructs and understanding of consumer behaviour was flawed and lacked
theoretical and empirical evidence of any correlation between consumer behaviour and
personality. However later research corrected their mistakes and developed model that were
able to establish the connection. However, their predictive power has been exponentially
grown with the digital explosion and highly customised marketing throughout their buying
journey has been made possible. We conclude by saying, “Yes” personality traits will benefit
Marketers when practiced right. Marketers should carefully analyse and understand the

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personality traits of the consumers and then carefully craft messages or Advertisements
targeting to the specific customers who belong to that category. Even tailor-made solutions
for each consumer is possible these days. The world is changing, and every consumer out
there is expecting a customized product which is catering to their specific needs. So, deeply
understanding each consumer and producing a product that will create a personal
attachment to them will be the future of marketing. Thus, marketers should focus on
upcoming technologies and understand consumer behaviours and tailor their contents
according to the customer’s needs.

9. REFERENCES
1. Foxall, Gordon & Goldsmith, Ronald. (1988). Personality and consumer research: Another
look. Journal of the Market Research Society. 30. 111-125.
2. https://www.uibk.ac.at/smt/marketing/brandresearchlab2/files/symbolsforsale_levy.pdf
3. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3730.The_Hidden_Persuaders
4. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002224378302000204?journalCode=mrja
5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229289358_Personality_as_a_determinant_of_b
eer_and_cider_consumption_among_young_men
6. https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/5/3/159/1802279
7. http://sci-
hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296301002193
8. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7fb4/88fd6a26271e4c877dd348c5453b964d9785.
pdf
9. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/psychodynamic-
perspectives-on-personality/
10. https://hbr.org/2018/05/what-marketers-should-know-about-personality-based-marketing

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