CHAPTER 2 : INTERNAL INFLUENCES

2.2 Personality and self Image

WHAT IS PERSONALITY

 The inner psychological characteristics that both

determine and reflect how a person responds to
his or her environment.

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 THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY

Personality reflects
individual differences
Personality is consistent and
enduring
Personality can change

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 THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
 Freudian theory
 Unconscious needs or drives are at the
heart of human motivation
 Three interacting systems
Id: primitive and impulsive drives

Superego: Individual’s internal

expression of society’s moral and ethical
codes of conduct
Ego: Individual’s conscious control
 continued
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 THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
 Neo-Freudian personality theory
 Social relationships are fundamental to the formation
and development of personality
 e.g., CAD theory

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 HORNEY’S CAD THEORY
 Using the context of child-parent relationships,
individuals can be classified into:
 Compliant individuals
 Aggressive individuals
 Detached individuals

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CAD THEORY
 Compliant Personality
 One who desires to be loved, wanted, and
appreciated by others.
 Aggressive Personality
 One who moves against others (e.g., competes
with others, desires to excel and win
admiration).
 Detached Personality
 One who moves away from others (e.g., who
desires independence, self-sufficiency, and
freedom from obligations).
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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY – CONT’D
 Cognitive Theories of Personality
 Personality as differences in cognitive
processes (how consumers process and
react to information)

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 NEED FOR COGNITION (NC)

 A person’s craving for enjoyment of thinking

 High NC consumers are likely to:
 Relate better to written messages
 Want product-related information

 Spend more time processing print ads

 Enjoy using the internet to get information

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 VISUALIZERS VS VERBALIZERS
 A person’s preference for information presented
visually or verbally
 Visualizers require strong visual elements in ads

 Verbalizers prefer written information, print ads,

question-answer format

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 THEORIES OF PERSONALITY – CONT’D
 Trait theory
 Quantitative approach to personality as a set of
psychological traits
 Single-trait or multiple-trait theories

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 TRAIT THEORIES – CONT’D
 Consumer materialism
 The extent to which a person is
considered “materialistic”
 Fixed consumption behaviour
 Consumers fixated on certain products
or categories of products
 Compulsive consumption behaviour
 “Addicted” or “out-of-control” consumers

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 CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS
 The degree to which consumers are
receptive to new products, new services
or new practices.
 Consumer innovators are likely to:
 Score lower on dogmatism
 Score higher on need for uniqueness
 Have higher optimum stimulation levels
 Have higher need for sensation seeking
and variety seeking behaviours 4-14
 CONSUMER MATERIALISM
 Possessions seen as for one’s identity
 Materialistic People
 Value acquiring and showing-off
possessions
 Are particularly self-centered and
selfish
 Seek lifestyles full of possessions
 Have many possessions that do not lead
to greater happiness
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 CONSUMER ETHNOCENTRISM
 Ethnocentric consumers feel it is wrong to
purchase foreign-made products
 They can be targeted by stressing nationalistic
themes

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 RESEARCH INSIGHT: FROM CONSUMER
MATERIALISM TO COMPULSIVE CONSUMPTION

 Consumer materialism
 The extent to which a person is
considered “materialistic”
 Fixed consumption behavior
 Consumers fixated on certain products
or categories of products
 Compulsive consumption behavior
 “Addicted” or “out-of-control” consumers

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 FIXATED CONSUMPTION
BEHAVIOUR
 Consumers have
 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
 the dedication of a considerable amount of
discretionary time and money to searching out
the product
 Examples: collectors, hobbyists

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 SAMPLE ITEMS 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 am one of those people who often responds to
direct mail offers.
5. I have often bought a product that I did not
need, while knowing I had very little money
left.
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 BRAND PERSONALITY
 Personality-like traits associated with brands
 Volvo - safety
 Perdue - freshness
 Nike - the athlete
 BMW - performance
 Levi’s 501 - dependable and rugged

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Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada
Inc.
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(continued)

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Figure 4-11 (continued)

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PERSONALITY AND MARKETING STRATEGY
 Identify relevant personality traits
 Target consumers with the relevant personality
traits
 Develop promotional messages that appeal to
consumers with specific personality traits
 Develop a personality for the brand

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 SELF AND SELF-IMAGE
 Self-image: A person’s perceptions of
his/her self
 People have multiple selves

 Different selves in different situations

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DIFFERENT SELF-IMAGES

Actual Self-
Ideal Self-Image
Image

Ideal Social Social Self-Image

Self-Image

Expected
Self-Image
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 DIFFERENT SELF-IMAGES
 Actual Self-Image
 How you see your self
 Ideal Self-Image
 How you would like to see yourself
 Social Self-Image
 How you think others see you
 Ideal Social Self-Image
 How you would like others to see you
 continued
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DIFFERENT SELF-IMAGES- CONT’D
 Expected Self-Image
 How you expect to be in the future
 “Ought-to” Self
 The qualities that you think you should possess

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POSSESSIONS ACT AS SELF-
EXTENSIONS

 By allowing the person to do things that otherwise

would be very difficult
 By making a person feel better

 By conferring status or rank

 By bestowing feelings of immortality

 By endowing with magical powers

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Copyright © 2006 Pearson Education Canada
Inc.
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 ALTERING SELF IMAGES
 If actual and ideal self-images are different,
consumers may use products to alter their selves
 Personality vanity: self interest or admiration for
one’s own appearance/achievements

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INTERNET INSIGHT: VIRTUAL SELF
 Online individuals have an opportunity to try on
different personalities
 Virtual personalities may result in different
purchase behaviour

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SELF CONCEPT AND MARKETING
STRATEGY
 Use self-concept for segmentation and positioning
 Market to consumers’ actual or ideal self-images
 Depends on the nature of the product
 Promote products as ways of altering or
extending self-image

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LIFE STYLE AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
 Psychographic Segmentation
 Segmenting consumers on the basis of their
activities, interests and opinions
 Psychographic-demographic profiles
 Geodemographic segmentation

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LIFE STYLES AND MARKETING STRATEGY
 Use life styles for segmentation and
positioning
 Develop media campaigns based on
consumer life styles

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End of the Chapter!

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