Chapter 4

Personality, Self-Image, and

Life Style

Consumer Behaviour
Canadian Edition
Schiffman/Kanuk/Das

Copyright © 2006 1
Pearson Education Canada Inc
 Opening Vignette
❑ Do you see yourself as beautiful?
▪ Only1% of all women see themselves as
beautiful
▪ Most ads portray an ideal image that is
unattainable
▪ Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’
http://www.dove.ca

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 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
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 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 behaviour
– Consumers fixated on certain products or
categories of products
◼ Compulsive consumption behaviour
– “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 behaviour.
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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 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-demographicprofiles
◼ 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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