Chapter - 04

Personality
Prof. Dr. Tripti Dhote

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Objectives of the Session
To understand
 Definition of Personality
 Nature of Personality
 Theories of Personality
 The Concept of Self

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Definition of Personality
 An individual's characteristics response tendencies across similar
situations of those psychological characteristics that both determine
and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment
 Individual characteristics
 Values
 Beliefs
 Principles
 Attitudes
 Traits
 Socio-culture element
 Cognitive element
 A consumer’s choice be it for a product, service or even the store
where the purchase will be made, is all determined by his
personality

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Nature of Personality
•Categorizing individuals
Personality Reflects into different groups based
individual on their personality.
differences • No two individuals are
•exactly alike

•But behavior varies –

Personality is Psychological, socio
consistent and cultural , environmental
enduring factors

•Major events – Marriage,

Personality can change
Child birth, job change

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Personality????

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Personality : 4 essential traits
 Behavior must show consistency over
time.
 Behavior should distinguish the person
from others.
 Personality characteristics are not rigidly
connected to specific types of behavior.
 Personality variables often moderate the
effects of other variables on behavior.

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Theories of Personality
Freudian Theory Unconscious needs &
(Psychoanalytical) drives at the heart Of
Human Motivation

Non- Freudian
(Social theories)
Social relationships
fundamental formation &
development of personality
Trait Theories
Quantitative approach,
psychological traits

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Freudian Theory of Personality or
Psychoanalytic Theory
 Unconscious thoughts control the conscious mind
and this plays a significant role in developing our
personalities
 Personality is the nucleus or the center of the
interaction between three systems
 Id ( primitive instincts & desires) --- Impulsive – UC Mind
 Superego (urge to do what is right? Achieving perfection)
– You would ask. UCM
 Ego ( Balance between id and super ego) --- You buy. CM

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Application in the market
 Human drives are largely unconscious.
Consumers Iryly unaware of the true reasons
for buying what they want.
 Underlying motivations and drives-
Sexual connotations in ads
Glamorous people using the product (appealing to
social acceptance)rather than practical applications
 Communicating messages such that anxiety is
reduced with the use of a particular product or
services

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Neo Freudian theory (Social)
 Individuals engage in constant adaptation and
creative development, based on environment
 Conscious mind and external factors also vital
influences on personality
 Social relationships are the fundamental in
formation and development of personality

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 Alfres Adler – (1870-1937)
Individual efforts to overcome feelings of
inferiority.
 Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Individual efforts to reduce tensions like
anxiety
 Karen Horney (1885-1952)
Impact of child parent relationships
Individual desires to conquer feeling of anxiety.

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Trait theory
 “A relatively enduring way in which one
individual differs from another”
 Personality characteristic (shy, outgoing
aggressive, detached)
 Basically quantitative or empirical
 Measurement of personality in terms of specific
traits.
 Identify and categorize personality traits.

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Market application
 Useful for identifying characteristics of a certain
Market segment.
 Helpful in distinguishing between consumer
innovators and non- innovators.
 How receptive a consumer is to new
experiences. How innovative. Is there
materialism, Dogmatism?
 Need for uniqueness, Social character – Inner
directed, Other directed)
 OSL (HOSL/ LOSL)

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Application of Freudian Theory in
Consumer Behavior
 Brand Personality
 The set of traits people attribute to a product as if it were a
person
 The assumptions behind brand personality is the belief that
brands can also have personalities like human beings
 Celebrity Endorsement
 A Celebrity promotes a product or brand, it makes more
impact and becomes easier to consumers to recall
 A consumer associates the product with the image or
personality of the person endorsing it

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Shortcomings of Freudian Theory
 Freud’s approach is subjective
 Freud’s theory was set in the socio-cultural
backdrop of 19th century
 A Purchase actually results from consumer’s
foresight rather than his need
 Personalities take shape from childhood and
reiterate their basic learning

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New-Freudian Theories
 Jung’s theory of psychological types
 Collective unconscious
 Certain Archetypes
 Four Dimensions of a personality
 Sensing-intuiting
 Thinking-feeling
 Extroversion-introversion
 Judging-perceiving

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New-Freudian Theories
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 Two dimensions to understand personality
 Sensation and intuitions
 Thinking and feeling
 Sensation
 Consumer is particular about accuracy and objectivity in collecting
and processing data regarding a product or service
 Intuition
 Consumer seeks an overview of all the information and trusts his
instincts
 Thinking
 Consumer emphasizes or focuses on taking a logical decision that is
rational and acceptable at all times
 Feeling
 Consumer takes the decision subjectively

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New-Freudian Theories
 View of Karen Horney
 The origin of differences of men and women were
shaped by culture and the society of the person
 People faced with difficult relationships, tried to
seek refuge in defense mechanism such as neurosis
 Based on neurosis and relationships 3 types of
personalities
 Those who move toward people
 Those who move against people
 Those who move away from the others

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New-Freudian Theories
 CAD
CAD Factors Related Traits Marketer’s Strategy
Modest Marketer needs to inform him about
Compliant Traditional his product and its uses and relate it to
Receptive his social affiliations.
High Level of Confidence Marketer has to appeal to him i.e. he
Extrovert should project that unique or
Aggressive
Egoistic innovative feature of the product that
establishes its superiority.
Suspicious of people Marketers has to try and win the
Introvert confidence, through ads that show
Detached
Anxious facts and statistics to prove the
product’s credibility

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New-Freudian Theories
 Adler and Sullivan
 Social angle play an important role in a person’s choice
 Style of life
 Efforts made my human beings to seek, pursue and fulfill
reasonable objectives such as good social relations, prestige
in society etc.
 Every person was born with a feeling of inferiority and as the
person grew old, his or her efforts were directed at reducing
such feelings
 All the actions of the people were directed at alleviating
themselves from a state of tension or anxiety to a state of
tranquility

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New-Freudian Theories
 Trait Theory
 A quantitative approach to the personality theory
 Personality of a person depends on his or her inherent ‘TRAITS’
 A Trait is ‘any distinguishing, relatively enduring way in which
one individual differs from another’
 A customer’s decision could be dominated by any of the following
personality traits
 Innovation
 Influence
 Materialism
 Consumer ethnocentrism
 Need for uniqueness
 Need for cognition

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New-Freudian Theories
 Multiple Trait Theory and Five-factor Theory
 A marketer has to offer his products on the basis of
a single trait of more than one trait of a consumer’s
personality
 The different traits of a personality are
 Openness to experience
 Conscientiousness
 Extraversion
 Agreeableness
 Neuroticism

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The Concept of Self
 An individual’s view about himself i.e. about his tastes, personality,
capabilities and shortcomings
 An image shaped by the very person holding that image
 We buy and use products that reflect our image in order to let others
know what image we are portraying
 Components of self-concept
 Physical
 Academic
 Social
 Transpersonal
 Ideal self concept – who he wants to become
 Private self concept – how a person would like to see himself
 Social self concept – how one would like to be seen by others

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The Concept of Self
 Single and Multiple Selves
 An individual is guided by single image when his
action display a prominent and consistent influence
of one specific image that he has of himself
 A person may also have many roles to play, it is
possible that a person might have multiple selves
 A person may also modify his image according to
circumstances, events and his own needs

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The Concept of Self
 Self and Situation Self
 When faced with specific situation, a person is guided by
what he thinks he should do (in keeping with his view of
‘self’) and what others might think he should do
 Every person’s self image has a bit of social image in it
 Existing self - every person has an image of himself as an
individual – refers to all the present and past experiences and
aspirations of a person
 Future self - what a person aspires to be in future
 3 dimensional view of self
 The past
 The present
 The possible future self of a person

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The Concept of Self
 Relationship between Self Image and Brand’s Image
Brand Owned Their View of a Their View of a Pontiac Their Perceived
Volkswagen Owner Owner Self

Pontiac Sensible More Status Conscious and Flashy

Less Sensible
Creative More Adventurous and Less Sporty
Creative
Quality Conscious More Pleasure Seeking and Less Economical
Less Quality Conscious
Volkswagen Status Conscious More Conservative and Less Traditional
Flashy
Sporty More Individualistic and Creative or Unique
Less Sporty
Fashionable More Economical and Less Quality Conscious
Style Conscious
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The Concept of Self
 Methods of Self-concept Assessment
 Rating Scales
 Checklist Method
 Q-short Technique
 Free-response Method

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Summary
 Definition of Personality
 Nature of Personality
 Theories of Personality
 The Concept of Self

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Thank you

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