Personality and

Consumer Behavior
• EVERY MAN is in certain respects
a. like all other men,
b. like some other men,
c. like no other man.
-Henry A. Murray and Clyde
Kluckhohn
• How would
you describe
your
personality?
• How does it
influence
products that
you
purchase?
 Personailty
• In psychology, three elements are defined
as a part of personality:
-private personality (thoughts, feelings,
fantasies, ambitions, talents)
-public personality (how you want others to
see you)
-attributed personality (how others see you)
 Personality….
• Outcome of the Influence of heredity and
early childhood experiences
• Social and environmental influences that
develop one’s personality over a continuous
period of time.
 The inner
psychological
characteristics that
What is
both determine and
Personality?
reflect how a person
responds to his or her
environment.
 Personality…..
• How people affect others and how they
understand and view themselves as well as
their pattern of inner and outer measurable
traits and the person situation interaction
 Personality…..
• The ingrained characteristics that we call
personality are likely to influence the
individual’s product choice.
• They affect the way consumers respond to
marketers’ promotional efforts and when,
where, and how they consume particular
products and services.
 Personality…..
• Consumer’s appearance and possessions
reflect the individual’s personality
• It becomes necessary to understand
consumer personality characteristics so as
to develop marketing strategies.
 Scales measuring personality
Big- Five Personality Factors
• Extraversion (sometimes called Surgency). The broad
dimension of Extraversion encompasses such more specific
traits as talkative, energetic, and assertive.
• Agreeableness. Includes traits like sympathetic, kind, and
affectionate.
• Conscientiousness. Includes traits like organized, thorough, and
planful.
• Neuroticism (sometimes reversed and called Emotional
Stability). Includes traits like tense, moody, and anxious.
• Openness to Experience (sometimes called Intellect or
Intellect/Imagination). Includes traits like having wide interests,
and being imaginative and insightful.
 Scales measuring personality
• MBTI
• Dichotomies
– Extraversion (E) - (I) Introversion
– Sensing (S) - (N) Intuition
– Thinking (T) - (F) Feeling
– Judgment (J) - (P) Perception
16 Personality types
 The Nature of Personality
• Personality reflects individual differences
– How to segment them?
• Personality is consistent and enduring
– It is not possible to change the consumer’s
personality, But their consumption behavior
changes as it is affected by so many other
factors
• Personality can change
– Life events; Growth and maturity; Feminine
becoming Masculine
 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 (ancient) 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
 Ad
Portraying
the Forces
of the Id
 A Representation of the Interrelationships
among the Id, Ego, and Superego

Gratification ID
ID EGO
EGO
System
System11 System
System33

SUPEREGO
SUPEREGO
System
System22
 Freud theory
• Freud classified the child development in to
FIVE stages
– Oral
– Anal
– Phallic
– Latent
– Genital
• Development of personality is based on the
satisfaction of one’s need at each and every
stage
 Freudian Theory and
“Product Personality”
• Consumer researchers using Freud’s
personality theory see consumer purchases
as a reflection and extension of the
consumer’s own personality
 Snack Food Personality Traits
Potato Chips:
Ambitious, successful, high achiever, impatient (annoyed)

Tortilla Chips:
Perfectionist, high expectations, punctual, conservational

Pretzels:
Lively, easily bored, flirtatious, intuitive

Snack Crackers:
Rational, logical, contemplative, shy, prefers time alone
Neo-Freudian Personality Theory
• Social relationships are fundamental to personality
• Alfred Adler:
– Style of life (seeking to attain rational goals)
– Feelings of inferiority (Striving to achieve superiority)
• 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
20
Neo-Freudian personality theory
Horney’s CAD Theory
• Using the context of child-parent
relationships, individuals can be classified
into:
– Compliant individuals
– Aggressive individuals
– Detached (separate) individuals
 One who desires to
Compliant (in
be loved, wanted,
compliance)
and appreciated by
Personality
others.
 One who moves
against others (e.g.,
Aggressive competes with
Personality others, desires to
excel and win
admiration).
 One who moves
away from others
(e.g., who desires
Detached
independence, self-
Personality
sufficiency, and
freedom from
obligations).
Ad Applying
Horney’s
Detached
Personality
 Trait Theory
• Personality theory with a focus on
psychological characteristics
• Trait - any distinguishing, relatively
enduring way in which one individual
differs from another
• Personality is linked to how consumers
make their choices or to consumption of a
broad product category - not a specific
brand
 Soup Lovers Trait
• CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP LOVERS
– Watch a lot of TV
– Family oriented
– Great sense of humor
– Outgoing and loyal
– Like daytime talk shows
• TOMATO SOUP LOVERS
– Passionate about reading
– Love Pets
– Like meeting people for coffee
– Aren’t usually the life of a party
Personality and Understanding
Consumer Behavior
 The degree to which
consumers are
Consumer receptive to new
Innovativeness products, new
services or new
practices.
 Distinguishing Innovators
from Non-Innovators
• Some traits that have been useful are:
– Consumer Innovativeness
– Dogmatism
– Directedness (social character)
– Optimum stimulation level
– Variety-novelty seeking
 A Consumer Innovativeness Scale
In general, I am among the last in my circle of friends to buy a new
(rock album) when it appearsb.
If I heard that a (new rock album) was available in the store, I
would be interested enough to buy it.
Compared to my friends, I own few (rock albums). b
In general, I am the last in my circle of friends to know the (titles of
the latest rock albums).b
I will buy a new(rock album), even if I haven’t heard it yet.
I know the names of (new rock acts) before other people do.

Note: Measured on a 5-point “agreement” scale.

a
The product category and related wording is altered to fit the purpose of the researcher.
b
Items with a (b) are negatively worded and are scored inversely.
Source: Ronald E. Goldsmith and Charles F. Hofacker, “Measuring Consumer Innovativeness,” Journal o the
Academy of Marketing Science 19 (1991), 212. Copyright © 1991 Academy of Marketing Science.
 A personality trait that
reflects the degree of
rigidity a person
displays toward the
Dogmatism unfamiliar and toward
information that is
contrary to his or her
own established
beliefs.
 Dogmatism
• Consumers low in dogmatism (open-
minded) are more likely to prefer innovative
products to established or traditional
alternatives
• Highly dogmatic consumers tend to be
more receptive to ads for new products or
services that contain an appeal from an
authoritative figure
 Ad
Encouraging
New Product
Acceptance
 Social Character
Inner-Directed Other-Directed
• Consumers who tend • Consumers who tend
to rely on their own to look to others for
inner values direction
• More likely to be • Less likely to be
innovators innovators
• Tend to prefer ads that • Tend to prefer ads that
stress product features feature social
and benefits acceptance
 How Does This Ad Target the
Inner-Directed Outdoors Person?
 Consumers who avoid
appearing to
Need for Conform (being conventional)
Uniqueness to
expectations or
standards of others.
 A personality trait that
measures the level or
amount of novelty
(innovation) or
Optimum complexity that
Stimulation individuals seek in their
Levels personal experiences.
(OSL) High OSL consumers
tend to accept risky and
novel products more
readily than low OSL
consumers.
 A personality trait
characterized by the need
for varied, novel, and
Sensation complex sensations and
Seeking experience, and the
(SS) willingness to take
physical and social risks
for the sake of such
experience.
 A personality trait
similar to OSL, which
measures a consumer’s
degree to variety seeking
Variety- Examples:
Novelty •Exploratory Purchase Behavior
Seeking •Vicarious Exploration (Securing
information)
•Use Innovativeness (Using
already adopted product in a
novel way)
 Cognitive Personality Factors
• Need for cognition
– A person’s craving (passion) for enjoyment of
thinking to use a product.
• Visualizes versus verbalizes
– A person’s preference for information
presented visually or verbally.
– i.e. TV, Internet
– Radio
 Need for Cognition (NC)
• Consumers high in NC are more likely to
respond to ads rich in product-related
information
• Consumers low in NC are more likely to be
attracted to background or peripheral
aspects of an ad
Visualizers or Verbalizers?
From Consumer Materialism to
Compulsive Consumption
 From Consumer Materialism to
Compulsive Consumption
• Consumer materialism
– The extent to which a person is considered
“materialistic”
• Fixed consumption behavior
– Consumers fixated on certain products or
categories of products
• Compulsive consumption behavior
– “Addicted” or “out-of-control” consumers
 Materialistic People
• Value acquiring and showing-off
possessions
• Are particularly self-centered and selfish
• Seek lifestyles full of possessions
• Have many possessions that do not lead to
greater happiness
 Fixated Consumption Behavior
• Consumers have
– a deep interest in a particular object or product
category
– a willingness to go to considerable lengths to
secure items in the category of interest
– the dedication of a considerable amount of
discretionary (optional, flexible) time and
money to searching out the product
• Examples: collectors, hobbyists
 Consumers who are
compulsive buyers
have an addiction; in
some respects, they
Compulsive
are out of control
Consumption
and their actions
Behavior
may have damaging
consequences to
them and to those
around them.
Consumer Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentric
consumers feel it is
wrong to purchase
foreign-made
products
• They can be
targeted by stressing
nationalistic themes
 Strategy for COO Effects
Marketing Mix Positive Negative
Product Emphasize ‘Made in’ Emphasize ‘Brand
Name’

Price Premium Attract value conscious

Place Exclusive Supply chain partners

Promotion Country Image Brand Image