Consumer Behavior Chap 5 Personality

CHAPTER
FIVE
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.
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall Chapter Five Slide 2
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.
What Is the Personality Trait Characterizing the
Consumers to Whom This Ad Appeals?
Enthusiastic or Extremely
Involved Collectors
Personality and
The Nature of Personality
• The inner psychological characteristics that
both determine and reflect how a person
responds to his or her environment
• The Nature of Personality:
– Personality reflects individual differences
– Personality is consistent and enduring
– Personality can change
Discussion Questions
• How would
you describe
your
personality?
• How does it
influence
products
that you
purchase?
IMP-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
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
Snack Foods and Personality Traits
Table 5.1 (excerpt)
Snack Personality Traits
Foods
Potato Ambitious, successful, high achiever, impatient with less
chips than the best.
Tortilla Perfectionist, high expectations, punctual, conservative,
chips responsible.
Pretzels Lively, easily bored with same old routine, flirtatious,
intuitive, may over commit to projects.
Snack Rational, logical, contemplative, shy, prefers time alone.
crackers
Cheese Conscientious, principled, proper, fair, may appear rigid
curls but has great integrity, plans ahead, loves order.
How Does This Marketing Message
Apply the Notion of the Id?
It Captures Some of the Mystery and The
Excitement Associated With the “Forces” of
Primitive Drives.
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
Why Is Appealing to an Aggressive Consumer a
Logical Position for This Product?
Because its Consumer Seeks
to Excel and Achieve Recognition
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
Soup and Soup Lover’s Traits
Table 5.2 (excerpt)
• Chicken Noodle Soup Lovers • Vegetable/Minestrone Soup
– Watch a lot of TV Lovers
– Are family oriented – Enjoy the outdoors
– Have a great sense of humor – Usually game for trying new
– Are outgoing and loyal things
– Like daytime talk shows – Spend more money than any
– Most likely to go to church other group dining in fancy
restaurants
• Tomato Soup Lovers – Likely to be physically fit
– Passionate about reading – Gardening is often a favorite
– Love pets hobby
– Like meeting people for coffee
– Aren’t usually the life of the
party
IMP-Personality and Understanding
Consumer Behavior
How Does This Ad Target the Inner-
Directed Outdoors Person?
A Sole Person is Experiencing the Joys
and Adventure of the Wilderness
IMP- Consumer Innovativeness
• Willingness to innovate
• Further broken down for hi-tech products
– Global innovativeness
– Domain-specific innovativeness
– Innovative behavior
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.
IMP-Dogmatism (4 CHARACTERISTCS)
• 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
SOCIAL CHARACTER
• 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
Need for Uniqueness
• Consumers who avoid conforming to

expectations or standards of others
Optimum Stimulation Level
• A personality trait that measures the level or

amount of novelty or complexity that
individuals seek in their personal experiences
• High OSL consumers tend to accept risky and
novel products more readily than low OSL
consumers.
Sensation Seeking
• The need for varied, novel, and complex

sensations and experience. And the willingness to
take social and physical risks for the sensations.
Variety-Novelty Seeking
• Measures a consumer’s degree of variety

seeking
• Examples include:
– Exploratory Purchase Behavior
– Use Innovativeness
– Vicarious Exploration
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
.
Cognitive Personality Factors
• Visualizers
• Verbalizers
Why Is This Ad Particularly Appealing
to Visualizers?
The Ad Stresses Strong
Visual Dimensions
Why Is This Ad Particularly
Appealing to Verbalizers?
It Features a Detailed Description
Discussion Question
• What advertising media (print, television,

Internet, salesperson, POP display, newspaper,
radio) is good for a person with a high NFD?
• A Verbalizer
From Consumer Materialism to
Compulsive Consumption
From Consumer Materialism to
Compulsive Consumption
• 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
• Compulsive consumption behavior
– “Addicted” or “out-of-control” consumers
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
word to be their marketplace and would be
attracted to products from other cultures and
countries.
Brand Personality
• Personality-like traits associated with brands

• Examples
– Purdue and freshness
– Nike and athlete
– BMW is performance driven
• Brand personality which is strong and favorable will
strengthen a brand but not necessarily demand a
price premium
In What Ways Do Max and Other Brand
Personifications Help Create VW’s Brand Image?
Speaks English, is “interviewed”
about VW products, and is a friend
Discussion Questions
• Pick three of your favorite food brands.

• Describe their personality. Do they have a
gender? What personality traits do they
have?
Product Anthropomorphism and
Brand Personification
• Product Anthropomorphism
– Attributing human characteristics to objects
– Tony the Tiger and Mr. Peanut
• 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.
A Brand Personality Framework
Figure 5.12
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
IMP-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
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”
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
Which Consumer
Self-Image Does This Ad Target, and Why?
Actual self-image because it tells middle-age women
who like their hair long to continue doing so.
Different Self-Images
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
Altering the Self-Image
• Consumers use self-altering products to

express individualism by:
– Creating new self
– Maintaining the existing self
– Extending the self
– Conforming
Virtual Personality
• You can be anyone…

– Gender swapping
– Age differences
– Mild-mannered to aggressive
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mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as

Prentice Hall

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CHAPTER

1. To Understand How Personality Reflects

4. To Understand How Marketers Seek to Create

• Focus on measurement of personality in terms

• A personality trait that reflects the degree of

• Ranges on a continuum for inner-directedness

• Consumers who avoid conforming to

• A personality trait that measures the level or

• The need for varied, novel, and complex

• Measures a consumer’s degree of variety

• Need for cognition (NFC)

• What advertising media (print, television,

• Personality-like traits associated with brands

• Pick three of your favorite food brands.

• A single consumer will act differently in

• Contains traits, skills, habits, possessions,

• Possessions can extend self in a number of

• Consumers use self-altering products to

• You can be anyone…

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as

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