Personality

and
Consumer Behavior
 Learning Objectives

1. To Understand How Personality Reflects

Consumers’ Inner Differences.
2. To Understand How Freudian, Neo-Freudian, and
Trait Theories Each Explain the Influence of
Personality on Consumers’ Attitudes and
Behavior.
3. To Understand How Personality Reflects
Consumers’ Responses to Product and Marketing
Messages.
 Learning Objectives (continued)

4. To Understand How Marketers Seek to Create

Brand Personalities-Like Traits.
5. To Understand How the Products and
Services That Consumers Use Enhance Their
Self-Images.
6. To Understand How Consumers Can Create
Online Identities Reflecting a Particular Set of
Personality Traits.
 Personality and
The Nature of Personality
• Scientist Disagreement:
– Heredity and early childhood experiences?
– Social and environmental influences?
– Unified vs. Specific Traits

• Definition: The inner psychological

characteristics that both determine and reflect
how a person responds to his or her
environment
Chapter Five Slide
 Personality and
The Nature of Personality
• The Nature of Personality:
– Personality reflects individual differences
• No two individuals are exactly alike
• Personality enables marketers to categorize consumers into
different groups

– Personality is consistent and enduring

– Personality can change

Chapter Five Slide

 Discussion Questions

• How would
you describe
your
personality?
• How does it
influence
products
that you
purchase?

Chapter Five Slide

 Theories of Personality

• Freudian theory
– Unconscious needs or drives are at the heart of
human motivation
• Neo-Freudian personality theory
– Social relationships are fundamental to the
formation and development of personality
• Trait theory
– Quantitative approach to personality as a set of
psychological traits

Chapter Five Slide

 Freudian Theory
• Id
– Warehouse of primitive or
instinctual needs for which
individual seeks immediate
satisfaction
• Superego
– Individual’s internal
expression of society’s
moral and ethical codes of
conduct
• Ego
– Individual’s conscious control
that balances the demands of
the id and superego

Chapter Five Slide

 Neo-Freudian Personality Theory
• Social relationships are fundamental to personality
• Alfred Adler:
– Style of life
– Feelings of inferiority
• Harry Stack Sullivan
– We establish relationships with others to reduce tensions
• Karen Horney’s three personality groups
– Compliant: move toward others
– Aggressive: move against others
– Detached: move away from others

Chapter Five Slide

Why Is Appealing to an Aggressive Consumer a
Logical Position for This Product?

Chapter Five Slide

 Because its Consumer Seeks
to Excel and Achieve Recognition

Chapter Five Slide

 Trait Theory

• Focus on measurement of personality in terms

of traits
• Trait - any distinguishing, relatively enduring
way in which one individual differs from
another
• Personality is linked to broad product
categories and NOT specific brands

Chapter Five Slide

 Soup and Soup Lover’s Traits
Table 5.2 (excerpt)
• Chicken Noodle Soup Lovers
– Watch a lot of TV
– Are family oriented
– Have a great sense of humor
– Are outgoing and loyal
– Like daytime talk shows
– Most likely to go to church
• Tomato Soup Lovers
– Passionate about reading
– Love pets
– Like meeting people for coffee
– Aren’t usually the life of the
party
• Vegetable/Minestrone Soup
Lovers
– Enjoy the outdoors
– Usually game for trying new
things
– Spend more money than any
other group dining in fancy
restaurants
– Likely to be physically fit
– Gardening is often a favorite
hobby
Chapter Five Slide
Personality Traits

• Innovators or laggards
• Close-minded vs. Open-minded (Dogmatism)
• Conformity vs. Individuality (Inner- vs. Other-directed; Need for uniqueness

Table 3.3 High Need for Uniqueness

•When I travel, I’m always seeking out unusual gifts for myself.
•I’m happy when other people tell me that my taste is ”different” and ”uncommon.”
•I work at maintaining my own unique persona.
•Some of my acquaintances think I’m somewhat of a weirdo in my seeking to be
different.
•Standing out and being different is important to me.
•I stop buying brands when everyone starts to buy them.
•Being different is my own personal trademark.
Other Personality Factors
• Optimum stimulation level (OSL)
• Sensation seeking, Novelty seeking
• Need for Cognition
• Visualizers v s . Verbalizers
er us

• Materialism
• Compulsions and Fixations
• Ethnocentrism

Source: Duralee Fabrics, LTD.

Personality and Understanding
Consumer Behavior

Chapter Five Slide

How Does This Ad Target the Inner-
Directed Outdoors Person?

Chapter Five Slide

A Sole Person is Experiencing the Joys
and Adventure of the Wilderness

Chapter Five Slide

 Consumer Innovativeness

• Willingness to innovate
• Further broken down for hi-tech products
– Global innovativeness
– Domain-specific innovativeness
– Innovative behavior

Chapter Five Slide

 Consumer Motivation Scales
Table 5.3 (excerpt)
A “GENERAL” CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS SCALE
1. I would rather stick to a brand I usually buy than try
something I am not very sure of.
2. When I go to a restaurant, I feel it is safer to order dishes I am
familiar with.
A DOMAIN-SPECIFIC CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS SCALE
1. Compared to my friends, I own few rock albums.
2. In general, I am the last in my circle of friends to know the
titles of the latest rock albums.

Chapter Five Slide

 Dogmatism

• A personality trait that reflects the degree of

rigidity a person displays toward the
unfamiliar and toward information that is
contrary to his or her own established beliefs

Chapter Five Slide

 Personality and Understanding
Consumer Behavior
• Ranges on a continuum for inner-directedness
to other-directedness
• Inner-directedness
– rely on own values when evaluating products
– Innovators
• Other-directedness
– look to others
– less likely to be innovators

Chapter Five Slide

 Need for Uniqueness

• Consumers who avoid conforming to

expectations or standards of others

Chapter Five Slide

 Optimum Stimulation Level

• A personality trait that measures the level or

amount of novelty or complexity that individuals
seek in their personal experiences
• LS=OSL Quite Satisfied
• LS<OSL Bored Vacation wt Thrill & Adventure
• LS>OSL Rest--> Seeks Quiet, Isolated, Relaxing Vacations
• High OSL consumers tend to accept risky and novel
products more readily than low OSL consumers.

Chapter Five Slide

 Sensation Seeking

• The need for varied, novel, and complex

sensations and experience. And the willingness to
take social and physical risks for the sensations.
– E.g. Heavy metal Music,

Chapter Five Slide

 Variety-Novelty Seeking
• Measures a consumer’s degree of variety
seeking
1) Exploratory Purchase Behavior : Switching
brands to experience new, different & better
alternatives
2) Vicarious Exploration: Securing information
about new or diff. alternative and the
contemplating/day dreaming about that option
3) Use Innovativeness : Using an already adopted
product in new or novel way. Eg. Washing
Machine and Paints…

Chapter Five Slide

 Variety Seeking and Behavior

• VS  Features of Products
• VS v/s Time of the Day
– Greater VS Arousal Low
• Leader’s brand fare better  Arousal Low
• Follower’s Brand do better Arousal is heightened
• VS is more  Purchasing for others…
 Cognitive Personality Factors

• Need for cognition (NFC)

– A person’s craving for enjoyment of thinking
– Individual with high NFC more likely to respond to ads rich in
product information
• High NFC Rich in Product info./Description
– Spend more time processing/recalling info
• Low NFC Attracted by back ground / Peripheral
aspect/attractive model/ celebrity

Chapter Five Slide

 Cognitive Personality Factors

• Visualizers : Visuals and Pictures

– Object Visualisers :-Encodes and processes the
image as a single perceptual unit
• Artist
– Spatil Visualisers : Processes images piece by piece
• Scientist

• Verbalizers : Written and Verbal

Chapter Five Slide

To whom this Ad Particularly
Appealing to?

Chapter Five Slide

Visualizers :The Ad Stresses Strong
Visual Dimensions

Chapter Five Slide

To whom this Ad Particularly
Appealing to?

Chapter Five Slide

Verbalizers as It Features a Detailed
Description

Chapter Five Slide

1.Materialism: Characteristics…

Chapter Five Slide

 From Consumer Materialism to
Compulsive Consumption
2. Fixated consumption behavior
– Consumers fixated on certain products or
categories of products
– Characteristics
• Passionate interest in a product category
• Willingness to go to great lengths to secure objects
• Dedication of time and money to collecting
• Deeply involved in the process also of acquiring the
product-”hunt”

Chapter Five Slide

 From Consumer Materialism to
Compulsive Consumption
3. Compulsive consumption behavior :
Abnormal Behavior and dark side of
consumption.
 Uncontrollable Shopping : Oniomania
 Gambling
 Drug Addiction / alcoholism
• Self Gifting, impulse buying  way to influence
or manage their mood. (Depression
management)
• Women v/s Men
• Younger v/s Older Chapter Five Slide
 Consumer Ethnocentrism and
Cosmopolitanism
• Ethnocentric consumers feel it is wrong to
purchase foreign-made products because of the
impact on the economy
• They can be targeted by stressing nationalistic
themes
• A cosmopolitan orientation would consider the
world to be their marketplace and would be
attracted to products from other cultures and
countries.

Chapter Five Slide

 Strategies of Managing
Country of origin Effects
Marketing Mix Positive Negative
Product Emphasize “made in Emphasize Brand
India” name
Price Premium Price Low price to attract
value conscious
Place (Channel Exclusive Locations Establish supply
of Distribution) chain partners
Promotion Country Image / Brand Image /
Nation Sponsored Manufacturer
Sponsored
 Brand Personality

• Personality-like traits associated with brands

– Cinthol and freshness
– Nike and athlete
– BMW is performance driven
• +ve Brand Personality favorable Attitude 
Brand Preference Higher Purchase
Intentions Brand Loyalty
• Brand personality which is strong and favorable will
strengthen a brand but not necessarily demand a
price premium
Chapter Five Slide
 Discussion Questions

• Pick three of your favorite food brands.

• Describe their personality. Do they have a
gender? What personality traits do they
have?

Chapter Five Slide

 Product Anthropomorphism &
Brand Personification

• Product Anthropomorphism :Attributing human

characteristics to objects
• ZooZoos (Vodafone)
• FidoDido(7 UP)
– Brand Personification
• Consumer’s perception of brand’s
attributes for a human-like character
Mr. Coffee is seen as dependable, friendly, efficient, intelligent and
smart.

Chapter Five Slide 49

A Brand Personality Framework
Figure 5.12

Chapter Five Slide

 Product Personality Issues

• Gender
– Some products perceived as masculine (coffee and
toothpaste) while others as feminine (bath soap and
shampoo)
• Geography
– Actual locations, like Philadelphia cream cheese and
Arizona iced tea
– Fictitious names also used, such as Hidden Valley and
Bear Creek
• Color
– Color combinations in packaging and products
denotes personality
Chapter Five Slide
 Self and Self-Image

• Consumers have a
variety of enduring
images of themselves
• These images are
associated with
personality in that
individuals’
consumption relates
to self-image

Chapter Five Slide

 One or Multiple Selves

• A single consumer will act differently in

different situations or with different people
• We have a variety of social roles
• Marketers can target products to a particular
“self”

Chapter Five Slide 54

 Makeup of the Self-Image

• Contains traits, skills, habits, possessions,

relationships, and way of behavior
• Developed through background, experience,
and interaction with others
• Consumers select products congruent with this
image

Chapter Five Slide 55

 Which Consumer
Self-Image Does This Ad Target, and Why?

Chapter Five Slide

Actual self-image because it tells middle-age women
who like their hair long to continue doing so.

Chapter Five Slide

Different Self-Images

Chapter Five Slide

 Extended Self

• Possessions can extend self in a number of

ways:
– Actually
– Symbolically
– Conferring status or rank
– Bestowing feelings of immortality
– Endowing with magical powers

Chapter Five Slide 59

 Altering the Self-Image

• Consumers use self-altering products to

express individualism by:
– Creating new self
– Maintaining the existing self
– Extending the self
– Conforming

Chapter Five Slide

Altering the Self
 Virtual Personality

• You can be anyone…

– Gender swapping
– Age differences
– Mild-mannered to aggressive

Chapter Five Slide 62