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 :- www.outofservice.com/bigfive
SUBMITTED TO :-

Prof. Mrs. Swati Bankar

Thank You