Personality and Consumer Behavior

Overview

1. Personality reflects consumers’ inner differences.

2. Freudian, Neo-Freudian, and Trait Theories are used to
explain the influence of personality on consumers’
attitudes and behavior.
4. Marketers seek to create Brand Personalities-Like traits
to match the consumer’s traits.
5. Products and services that consumers use enhance
their Self-Images.
6. Online, consumers can play Virtual Personalities.

Chapter Five Slide 2

Personality
Definition and
Nature

Chapter Five Slide 3

 Personality and
The Nature of Personality
Personality is the inner psychological characteristics
that determine and reflect how a person responds to
his or her environment.
• The Nature of Personality:
– Personality reflects individual differences (marketers can look for certain similar
personality traits in different consumers and work on them as a segment)
– Personality is consistent and enduring (This helps marketers predict consumer
behavior in terms of personality)
– Personality can change (your personality now is somewhat different from when
you were 7 years old)

Chapter Five Slide 4

Theories of
Personality

Chapter Five Slide 5

 Theories of Personality

• Freudian theory
– Unconscious instinctual and sexual needs or drives
are primarily at the heart of human motivation and
personality in nature.
• 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 6
 Freudian Theory

According to
Freud, human
personality
consists of
these three
systems, the
id, super ego
and the ego.

Chapter Five Slide 7

 Freudian Theory

• Id
– The warehouse of primitive or instinctual (physiological) needs
or drives such as hunger, thirst, and sex which are driven by
pleasure principle and immediate gratification (individual
seeks immediate satisfaction).
• Superego
– Individual’s internal expression of society’s moral and ethical
codes of conduct. it drives the individual to fulfill their needs in
a socially acceptable function.
• Ego
– Individual’s conscious control that balances the demands of
the id and superego (reality principle)

Chapter Five Slide 8

 Freudian Theory

the Id is the devil and the SUPEREGO is the "angel." The EGO is
basically the "brain" in between, trying to sort out what each is advocating
and more objectively and logically arrive at a decision.

Chapter Five Slide 10

 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.

Chapter Five Slide 10

 Neo-Freudian Personality Theory
• Social relationships are fundamental to formation and development of
personality.
• Alfred Adler:
– People seek to attain rational goals in life (Style of life) and;
– Reduce Feelings of inferiority by striving for superiority.
• Harry Stack Sullivan
– We continuously establish significant and rewarding relationships with others
to reduce tensions such as anxiety.
• Karen Horney’s three personality groups
– Compliant: move toward others. A compliant individual desires to be loved,
wanted and appreciated.
– Aggressive: move against others. aggressive individual desires to excel and
win admirations.
– Detached: move away from others. detached person desires independence,
self reliance and freedom from obligation.
Study: highly compliant students prefer name-brand products like Bayer.
Aggressive students prefer masculine appeal brands like Old Spice.. Whereas
detached proved to be heavy tea drinkers as a sign of difference.
Chapter Five Slide 11
Why Is Appealing to an Aggressive Consumer a Logical
Position for This Product?

Because its
Consumer Seeks
to Excel and
Achieve
Recognition

Chapter Five Slide 12

 Trait Theory

• Unlike Freudian and Neo-Freudian theories, trait theory is

less qualitative and more focused on measurement of
personality in terms of traits.

• A trait is any distinguishing, relatively enduring way in

which one individual differs from another.

• Tests can be done to measure single traits in consumers

such as how receptive they are to new experiences
(innovativeness), their attachment to worldly possessions
(materialism), and their likelihood to accept or reject
foreign-made products (ethnocentrism).
Chapter Five Slide 13
 A study: Soup and Soup Lover’s Traits

• 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

Research result: Personality traits are linked to broad product

categories and NOT specific brands

Chapter Five Slide 14

 Snack Foods and Personality Traits
(study on 19000 consumers)
Snack Foods Personality Traits

Potato chips Ambitious, successful, high achiever, impatient with

less than the best.
Tortilla chips Perfectionist, high expectations, punctual,
conservative, responsible.
Pretzels Lively, easily bored with same old routine, flirtatious,
intuitive, may over commit to projects.
Snack crackers Rational, logical, contemplative, shy, prefers time
alone.
Cheese curls Conscientious, principled, proper, fair, may appear
rigid but has great integrity, plans ahead, loves order.

Chapter Five Slide 15

 Trait Theory

Personality traits
and consumer
behavior

Marketers are very interested in the link

between personality traits and consumer
behavior.

Chapter Five Slide 16

Personality Traits and Consumer Behavior

Chapter Five Slide 17

 Consumer Innovativeness
• Consumer innovativeness is the tendency to try new products
• Companies consider consumer innovativeness very important when
introducing new products or brand extensions.
• For hi-tech products, innovativeness can be at three levels:
– Global (General) innovativeness (overall consumer innovative level
of willingness to buy new and different products or brands at any
category).
– Domain-specific innovativeness (when consumer deals with
particular product category such as computers, cameras, fashion, or
watches).
– Innovative behavior (actual responses indicating early acceptance of
change and adoption, being among the first to buy new and different
products).

Chapter Five Slide 18

 Consumer adoption categories
based on adoption time
Mass Market/
Followers

‫عدد المشترين‬
Number
of % 34 % 34
customers End of Life
% 2.5
% 13.5 % 16

‫المبدعون‬ ‫المتبنون‬ ‫األكثرية‬ ‫األكثرية‬ ‫المتلكأون‬ ‫الزمن‬

Innovators
‫األوائل‬ ‫المبكرة‬ ‫المتأخرة‬ Laggards Time
Early Early
Late
Adopters/ Majority
Majority
Pioneers

introduction growth maturity decline

 Dogmatism

• A personality trait that reflects the degree of

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

Dogmatism describes to which extent a person is rigid or

open to new and unfamiliar ideas and products. A person
who is highly dogmatic will rarely consider the unfamiliar
and tend to be very close minded. Marketers have realized
this type of customer appreciates advertising appeals with
celebrities and other experts.

Chapter Five Slide 20

 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’ guidance
– less likely to be innovators

Social character is of great interest to marketers because it differentiates the

type of advertising that influences these customers. Inner-directed people
prefer ads that stress product features. Other-directed individuals gravitate
to ads that show approving social environment rather than product
information – they want to look to others to understand how to act or be
accepted, and the ads give an example of this.

Chapter Five Slide 21

 Need for Uniqueness

• Consumers who avoid conforming to

expectations or standards of others, either in
appearance or possessions.
• You may be able to identify friends with greater
need for uniqueness. You can see it in their
clothes and hairstyles.
• there is a measurement scale that researchers
use to quantify an individual’s need for
uniqueness.
Chapter Five Slide 22
 Optimum Stimulation Level

• A personality trait that measures to which

extent the consumer tends to like or dislike new
(novel) and unusual experiences and products
• High OSL consumers tend to accept risky and
new products more readily than low OSL
consumers.
• High OSL consumers are important to marketers
of new products.

Chapter Five Slide 23

 Sensation Seeking

• The need for varied, novel, and

complex sensations and experience.
And the willingness to take social and
physical risks for the sensations.
• Much research has been tied to the
study of teenage males who often
engage in this behavior.

Chapter Five Slide 24

 Variety or Novelty Seeking

• Measures a consumer’s degree of variety seeking

• Types of variety seekers include:

– Exploratory Purchase Behavior (consumers often switch
brands to experience new products).
– Use Innovativeness (consumers display variety by use
innovativeness, using an existing product in a new way).
– Vicarious Exploration (which often does not involve
actual purchase about the product, but as a result of
watching, listening to, or reading about it of other people).
Chapter Five Slide 25
 Trait Theory

Cognitive
Personality factors

Chapter Five Slide 26

 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
The level of a consumer’s need for cognition
affects how they are likely to respond to certain
types of advertisements. Those who are high
in need for cognition tend to respond to ads that
supply product information as opposed to those
who are low in need for cognition who tend to be
attracted to the background of the ad, attractive
models, and cartoon characters.

Chapter Five Slide 27

 Cognitive Personality Factors

• Visualizers (consumers who prefer

visual information).
• Verbalizers (consumers who prefer
verbal or written information).
• This difference in cognitive personality
factors would affect how they respond
to a print ad.
Chapter Five Slide 28
 Why Is This Ad Particularly Appealing to
Visualizers?

The Ad
Stresses
Strong
Visual
Dimensions

Chapter Five Slide 29

 Why Is This Ad Particularly
Appealing to Verbalizers?

It Features a
Detailed
Description
(information)

Chapter Five Slide 30

 Trait Theory

Materialistic, fixated,
and compulsive
consumers

Chapter Five Slide 31

Materialistic people traits

Chapter Five Slide 32

 Fixated and Compulsive Consumers

• Fixated consumption behavior

– Consumers fixated on certain products or categories of
products
– Characteristics
• Passionate interest in a product category
• Willingness to secure the product category of interest
• Dedication of time and money to find the product
• Compulsive consumption behavior
– “Addicted” or “out-of-control” consumers with their
purchase (suffer form shopping addiction called Oniomania).

Chapter Five Slide 33

 Trait Theory

Consumer
Ethnocentrism and
Cosmopolitanism

Chapter Five Slide 34

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 (buy
their nation made products).
• Cosmopolitan consumers would consider the
world to be their marketplace and would be
attracted to products from other cultures and
countries.

Chapter Five Slide 35

Brand
personality

Chapter Five Slide 36

 Brand Personification
• Personality-like traits associated with brands
• Examples
– Perdue chickens (freshness)
– Nike (athlete)
– BMW is performance driven
– Mr. Coffee is seen as dependable, friendly, efficient,
intelligent and smart.
• Brand personality which is strong and favorable will strengthen
a brand and lead to a more favorable attitude, brand
preference, higher purchase intention, and brand loyalty

Chapter Five Slide 37

Self and self
image

Chapter Five Slide 38

 Self and Self-Image

• Consumers have a
variety of enduring
images of themselves
• Individuals tend to buy
products and services
and patronize retailers
whose images or
personalities relate to
their own self images.

Chapter Five Slide 39

 Different Self-Images

Many consumers will purchase products to meet the gap

between their actual and ideal selves.
Chapter Five Slide 40