Personality

• Personality :Meaning, Nature

• Personality : Freudian theory
• Personality : Neo-freudian and trait
theories
• brand personality
• Self image
 Personality :
Meaning
• Personality may be defined as those inner
psychological characteristics that both
determine and reflect how a person
responds to his or her environment.
• Inner Characteristics –those specific
qualities, attributes, traits, factors and
mannerism that distinguish one individual
from the other individuals.
• In study of personality, three distinct
properties are of central importance :
1. Personality reflects individual differences:
No Two persons are exactly alike.
2. Personality is consistent and enduring :
Although marketers can not change
consumers’ personalities to conform to
their products, if they know which
personality characteristics influence
specific consumer responses, they can
attempt to appeal to the relevant traits
inherent in their target group of
consumers.
3. Personality can change- Situation has
impact. (Life events)
 Theories
• Significant Relationship between
Personality and CB.
1. Freudian Theory : Sigmund Freud’s
Psycho Analytic Theory of personality.
Assumptions : Unconscious Needs or
Drives especially sexual and other
biological drives are at the heart of
human motivation and personality.
• He constructed his theory based on
patients’ recollection of early childhood
experiences, analysis of their dreams
and specific nature of their mental and
physical adjustment problems.
• ID, Superego and Ego : Id is a
warehouse of primitive and impulsive
drives-basic physiological needs;
thirst, hunger and sex.
• Super ego is individual’s internal expression
of society’s moral and ethical codes of
conduct. Its role is to see that the individual
satisfies needs in a socially acceptable
fashion. It restrains the impulsive forces of
id.
• 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 super ego.
 Freud Theory and Product
personality
• Human drives are unconscious.
• The researchers tend to see consumer
purchases and consumption situations as a
reflection and an extension of the
consumer’s own personality.
• They consider the consumer’s appearance
and possessions-grooming, clothing,
jewelry-as reflections of the individual’s
personality.
 Neo Freudian Personality Theory
• Social Relationships are fundamental to the
formation and development of personality.
• Horney Proposed that individuals be
classified into 3 personality groups :
1. Compliant : are those who move towards
others (want love, appreciation)
2. Aggressive : are those who move against
others (who want to excel and admiration)
• Detached Individuals :are those who move
away from others (desire independence, self
reliance, self sufficiency and individualism).
• Many marketers use neo Freudian theories
intuitively.
1. Marketers who position their products as
providing an opportunity to belong or to be
appreciated by others in a group or social
gathering would seem to be guided by the
Horne’s characteristics of individual
personality.
 Trait Theory
• The orientation is primarily quantitative.
• Focuses on measurement of personality in
terms of specific psychological
characteristics called traits.
• Selected Single Trait Personality Tests
(which measure just one trait, such as self
confidence) are often developed specifically
for use in CB studies.
• These tailor made personality tests
measure such traits as consumer
innovativeness (how receptive a person is
to new experiences), Consumer
Materialism (the degree of the consumers’
attachment to worldly possessions) and
Consumer Ethnocentrism (the consumer’s
likelihood to accept or reject foreign made
products.)
• They found that it is generally more
realistic to expect personality to be linked
to how consumers make their choices and
to the purchase or consumption of a broad
product category rather than a specific
brand.
• HW
• Study Specific Personality Traits from
book.
• Consumer Ethnocentrism :
• In an effort to distinguish between
consumer segments that are likely to be
receptive to foreign made products and
those that are not, researchers have
developed and tested the ethnocentrism
scale (CETSCALE).
 Brand Personality
• Consumers attribute various descriptive
personality like traits or characteristics to
different brands in a wide variety of
product categories
• Eg- With some help from frequent
advertising, consumers tend to see
Perdue (Chickens) as representing
freshness, Nike as the athlete in all of us.
• Research states that any brand
personality, as long as it is strong and
favorable will strengthen a brand.
 Brand Personification
• Some marketers find it useful to create a
brand personification which tries to recast
the consumers’ perception of the attributes
of a product into a human like character
 Product Personality
• A Product Personality or persona,
frequently endows the product or brand
with a gender.
• A study that asked Chinese consumers to
categorize various products in terms of
gender found that they perceived coffee
and toothpaste to be masculine products
where as bath soaps and shampoos were
seen as feminine products.
 Self Concept/Image
• Consumers have a variety of enduring
images of themselves.
• These self images or perceptions of self
are very closely associated with
personality in that individuals tend to buy
products and services and patronize
retailers whose images or personalities
relate in some meaningful way to their own
self images.
• Consumers seek to depict themselves in
their brand choices
• They tend to approach products with
images that could enhance their self
concept and avoid those products that do
not.
 Self Image
• A variety of different self images have
been recognized in the consumer
behaviour literature for a long time. Many
researchers have depicted some or all of
the following kinds of self image.
• Actual SI-How consumers in fact see
themselves
• Ideal SI- How consumers would like to see
themselves
• Social SI-How Consumers feel others see
them
• Ideal Social SI- How consumers would like
others to see them