Motivation, values, and

personality

Best to use the index Dr Charlotte Rimmer

within the texts to find c.rimmer@bangor.ac.uk
sections related to the
lecture material.
Solomon Kardes et al. Szmigin and Blackwell et
(2018) (2011) Piacentini al. (2006)
reading: (2015) and
(2018)
7 11 7 7
 Outline of the lecture
• Motivation
• Distinguish between needs and wants
• Understand different motives driving consumer
behaviour
• Personal Values
• Outline of personal values
• Understand how values influence consumers
• Personality Trait approach
• Cover what the trait approach is as well as
some general and consumer traits
• Psychographics
Motivation defined
• Motivation is the driving force within individuals that
impels them to act

• The terms need and motivation are often used

interchangeably

• Marketers want to know that

- products can satisfy a range of consumer needs
- the reasons people purchase any product can vary widely
- they need to identify the specific motives that underlie
consuming a product
• Motives are unobservable inner forces that stimulate and
compel us to respond in a particular way.
Utilitarian vs Hedonic motives;
Needs vs Wants

• Utilitarian vs Hedonic:

• Needs vs Wants:
 Goals and goal conflicts
• A goal is something that you want to achieve
• E.g., to buy a house, to maintain a healthy weight, to own a .....
• Positively valued goals – consumers are motivated to approach
the goal and will seek out products that will be instrumental in
attaining it.
• For example……
• Avoiding negative goals – consumers are motivated to avoid a
negative outcome structuring their purchases or consumption
activities.
• For example……
• Different goals are often in conflict (e.g loose weight but hungry)
Types of Motivational Conflicts
• Two desirable alternatives
• Beliefs/Behaviours are in
conflict.
• Choose one to eliminate
unpleasant tension

• Positive & negative aspects

of desired product
• Guilt of desire occurs.
• Chocolate = Hunger V
Weight loss
• Facing a choice with two
undesirable alternatives.
• Revision = Boring V Failing
Values
outlined Products take on
meaning because they
are seen as being
• Values influence our views, instrumental in
attitudes and behaviour;
hence, values can be the helping the person
underlying rationale for achieve a goal linked
motives.
to value.
• Personal values
• Each individual has
a small number of
values which guide
them in what they
think, feel and do
 Personal values: Rokeach’s Value Survey
Actions needed to
achieve terminal values End
states

Instrumental values Terminal values

ambitious imaginative a comfortable lifeinner harmony
broadminded independent an exciting life mature love
capable intellectual a sense of accomplishment pleasure
cheerful logical
v a world at peace national security v
clean loving a world of beautysalvation
courageous obedient equality self-respect
forgivingpolite family security social recognition
helpful responsible freedom true friendship
honest self-controlled happiness wisdom

Source: Rokeach (1973) Book - The Nature of Human Values, Free Press, New York, NJ.
 Are values important?
Values are important because they shape our
attitudes.

Value Attitude Behaviour

Intention

Source: Homer and Kahle (1988)

Homer, P. M.and Kahle, L. R. (1988), "A Structural Equation Test of the Value-Attitude-Behavior Hierarchy," Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 54 (April), 683-646.
Personality
Personality defined

• Personality is 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.
 What are the
Do you think they
advantages of
should rely on
understanding
personality data?
personality of the
Yes/no why?
consumers?
 Benefits of personality

Personality can
Helps marketers
help marketers
predict consumer
segment their
behaviour
target market

KitKat – youtube = the breakoff

Nature Versus
Nurture
• Nature
• Personality is genetic and we
are predisposed to behave a
certain way and have certain
abilities.
• Nurture
• We learn our personalities
from others - we grow to this
this is how we should behave.
 Types and traits
Type: a descriptive label for a distinct pattern of personality
characteristics, such as introvert, extravert, neurotic.
o Old fashioned
o Label/categorise individuals
o Only 1 point can separate you from being classed as an
introvert/extrovert.

Trait: a relatively stable quality or attribute of an individual’s

personality, influencing behaviour in a certain direction.
o Looks at behavioural patterns in certain situations
(punctual/late)
o Compared to a degree for example ‘always late’ or ‘Always
early’.

You HAVE a TRAIT but you FIT into a TYPE.

 William
Sheldon’s
somatotype
The big five – McCrae and Costa
Extroversion
characterized by sociability, energy,
and talkativeness
Conscientiousness is
reflected in discipline,
responsibility, and Agreeableness involves
orderliness warmth, cooperativeness,
and helpfulness

Openness to
experience consists of Neuroticism is
creativity, intellectualism, characterized by anxiety,
and preference for moodiness, and emotional
novelty instability

Definitions taken from: Seidman, G. (2013), “Self-presentation and belonging on Facebook: How personality influences social media use
an motivations,” Personality and Individual Differences, 54, 402-407.
Personality traits and consumer
behaviour
• Many personality traits are relevant to consumer
behavior we can’t cover them all today but will
focus on:
• Need for cognition
• Consumer innovativeness
• Need for uniqueness
• Frugality
• Consumer ethnocentrism
Need for cognition (NFC)

• Researchers are aware that cognitive personality

factors can influence consumer behaviour.
• Need for cognition affects the response to certain
types of adverts.
• Individual with high NFC is more likely to respond to ads
rich in product information.
• Individual with low NFC is more likely to be attracted to
the background, models, characters.
Need for uniqueness
• There is a measurement scale that researchers use
to quantify an individuals need for uniqueness.

• Creative choice counterconformity (CCC): "original,

novel, or unique" choices that are different yet
"likely to be considered good choices by these
others" (11 items)
• Example wearing vintage clothes.
Need for uniqueness
• Unpopular choice counterconformity (UCC): choices
that "deviate from group norms and thus risk social
disapproval that consumers withstand in order to
establish their differentness from others" (11 items)
• Example: The decision to take up smoking

• Avoiding similarity (AS): "the loss of interest in, or

discontinued use of, possessions that become
commonplace in order to move away from the norm
and re-establish one's differentness" (9 items)
• Example: Stop using a certain brand – if popular then some
people are turned off (want to be different).

See Tian et al. (2001)

Tian, K.T., Bearden, W.O. and Hunter, G.L. (2001), “Consumers’ Need for Uniqueness:
Scale Development and Validation,” Journal of Consumer Research, 28 (1), 50-66.
 Consumer innovativeness
• Consumer innovativeness, or ‘‘consumption of newness,’’
is the tendency to buy new products more often and
more quickly than other people (Midgley and Dowling,
1978).
• Useful in understanding Youtube = Law of diffusion of
• New types of product innovation (Ken Lee consulting)
• Diffusion of innovations

Item sample of Baumgartner and Steenkamp’s EAP scale

• I would rather stick to a brand I usually buy than try something I am not very sure of
• When I go to a restaurant, I feel it is safer to order dishes I am familiar with
• If I like a brand, I rarely switch from it just to try something different
• I enjoy taking chances in buying unfamiliar brands just to get some variety in my purchase
• When I see a new brand on the shelf, I’m not afraid of giving it a try

Midgley, D., and Dowling, G.R. (1978), “Innovativeness: The concept and its measurement,” Journal of Consumer
Research, 4, 229– 242.
Baumgartner, H., and Steenkamp, J-B.E.M. (1996), “Exploratory consumer buying behavior: Conceptualization and
measurement,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 13, 121– 137.
 Frugality
“Frugality is a unidimensional consumer lifestyle trait
characterized by the degree to which consumers are both
restrained in acquiring and in resourcefully using economic
goods and services to achieve longer-term goals.”
(Lastovicka et al., 1999, p. 88)

Higher likelihood that

consumers will use
coupons/voucher codes.

Lastovicka, J.L., Bettencourt, L.A., Hughner, R.S., and Kuntze, R.J. (1999), “Lifestyle of the Tight and Frugal: Theory
and Measurement,” Journal of Consumer Research, 26, 85-98.
Consumer ethnocentrism.

• 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.

Shimp, T.A. and Sharma, S. (1987), “Consumer Ethnocentrism: Construction and Validation
of the CETSCALE ,” Journal of Marketing Research, 24 (3), 280-289.
 Consumer
ethnocentrism.
• Ethnocentric consumers feel it is wrong to
purchase foreign-made products because of
the impact on the economy
• This differs from country to country and
changes over time.
HOWEVER
• A cosmopolitan orientation would consider
the world to be their marketplace and
would be attracted to products from other
cultures and countries.
• Research has show that if the image of the
country is positive i.e. French Wine, then it
is important that the marketer emphasizes
this.
 Psychographics

Use of psychological, sociological, and anthropological factors

to:
• Determine market segments
• Determine their reasons for choosing products
• Fine-tune offerings to meet needs of different segments
• Consumers can share the same demographics and still be
very different!
Psychographics
• A lifestyle profile
• Looks for items that differentiate between users and
nonusers of a product.
• A product specific profile
• Identifies a target group and then profiles these consumer
on product relevant dimensions.
• A general lifestyle
• Segmentation places a large sample of respondents into
groups based on similarities of their overall preference.
• A product specific segmentation
• Tailors questions to a product category.
 Watson personality

• Short video for you to watch. (What Watson sees in

your personality).
 Summary

• Consumer personality influences the way one

responds to marketing stimuli.

• There are many different personality traits which

influence consumer behaviour.

• Lifestyles are an important aid to many marketing

strategies.

• Psychographics go beyond simple demographics to

help marketers understand different consumer
segments