Personality and consumer behavior

1. PERSONALITY AND CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
Prof. Abhipsa Mishra, CB

2. 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.
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

3. Learning Objectives (contd..)
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.
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

4. Personality and it’s nature
• Personality refers to the relatively enduring
characteristics that differentiate one person from
another and that lead people to act in a
consistent and predictable manner, both in
different situations and over extended periods of
time.
• The Nature of Personality:
 Personality reflects individual differences
 Personality is consistent and enduring
 Personality can change
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

5. Discussion Questions
• How would
you describe
your
personality?
• How does it
influence
products that
you purchase?
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

6. 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
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

7. 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
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

8. Freud’s Theory: “The ID”
 The id uses the most primitive of thinking process.
 Basic biological urges (e.g., hunger, self-protection).
 Operates on the Pleasure Principle.
 Seeks pleasure and avoids pain:“I want what I want
NOW!”
 The id operates completely at an unconscious level.
 No direct contact with reality.
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

9. Freud’s Theory: “The Superego”
• Superego: the moral part of personality.
 Internalized rules of parents and society.
• Superego consists of two parts:
 Conscience: “notions of right/wrong.”
 Ego Ideal: “how we ideally like to be.”
• Superego: constrains us from gratifying every
impulse (e.g., murder) because they are immoral,
and not because we might get caught.
• It is partly conscious, partly unconscious.
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

10. Freud’s Theory: “The Ego”
• The ego consists of a conscious faculty for
perceiving and dealing intelligently with reality.
• The ego acts as a mediator between the id and
the superego.
– The ego is partly conscious.
– Deals with the demands of reality.
– Makes rational decisions.
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

11. Freud’s Theory:
Defense Mechanisms
• Repression: Pushing unacceptable and
anxiety-producing thoughts into the
unconscious; involves intentional forgetting but
not consciously done; repressed material can
be memories or unacceptable impulses.
• Regression: acting in ways characteristic of
earlier life stages/earlier stage of personality.
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

12. • Reaction formation: replacing an anxiety-
producing feeling with its exact opposite, typically
going overboard; repressed thoughts appear as
mirror opposites.
• Rationalization: creating false but believable
excuses to justify inappropriate behavior; real
motive for behavior is not accepted by ego.
Freud’s Theory:
Defense Mechanisms
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

13. • Denial: claiming and believing that something
which is actually true is false.
• Displacement: redirecting emotional feelings
(e.g., anger) to a substitute target; involves
directing unacceptable impulses onto a less
threatening object/person.
Freud’s Theory:
Defense Mechanisms
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

14. • Projection: attributing one’s own unacceptable
feelings or beliefs to others; perceiving the external
world in terms of one’s own personal conflicts.
• Sublimation: substitute socially acceptable
behavior for unacceptable impulses.
Freud’s Theory:
Defense Mechanisms
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

15. Neo-Freudian Personality Theories
• Style of life
• Feelings of inferiority
Alfred Adler
• People are shaped by cumulative experiences of the
past generations
• Archetypes – ‘Mother nature’, ‘Chanda mama’, myths,
stories, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings
Carl Jung
• We establish relationships with others to
reduce tensionsHarry Stack Sullivan
• Compliant: move toward others
• Aggressive: move against others
• Detached: move away from others
Karen Horney’s three
personality groups
Social relationships are fundamental to personality
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

16. Trait Theory
• Focus on
measurement of
personality in terms of
traits – identifiable
characteristics that
define a person
• Trait - any
distinguishing,
relatively enduring
way in which one
individual differs from
another. Eg. Extrovert,
introvert
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

17. Traits relevant to consumer behavior
• Degree to which a person likes to try new
thingsInnovativeness
• Amount of emphasis placed on acquiring and
owning productsMaterialism
• The degree to which a person deliberately
monitors and controls the self-image that is
projected to others
Self-consciousness
• The degree to which a person likes to think
about a thing and tries to seek the brand
information.
Need for cognition
• Frugal people deny short term purchasing whims,
choosing resourcefully to use what they already ownFrugality
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

18. 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
Personality is linked to broad
product categories and NOT
specific brands
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

19. Personality and Understanding
Consumer Behavior
Consumer
innovativeness
Dogmatism
Social
character
Need for
uniqueness
Optimum
stimulation
level
Sensation
seeking
Variety-
novelty
seeking
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

20. Personality and Understanding
Consumer Behavior
Consumer Innovativeness
• Willingness to innovate
• Further broken down for hi-
tech products
– Global innovativeness
– Domain-specific
innovativeness
– Innovative behavior
Dogmatism
• Reflects the
degree of
rigidity a
person displays
towards the
unfamiliar and
towards
information
that is contrary
to his or her
own
established
beliefs
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

21. Contd..
• Ranges on a continuum for inner-directedness
to other-directedness
– Inner-directedness (Idiocentrics)
• rely on own values when evaluating products
• Innovators
– Other-directedness (Allocentrics)
• Look to others
• less likely to be innovators
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

22. Need for Uniqueness
• Consumers who avoid
conforming to expectations
or standards of others
Sensation Seeking
• The need for varied, novel,
and complex sensations and
experience. And the
willingness to take social
and physical risks for the
sensations.
Contd..
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

23. 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.
Variety-Novelty Seeking
• Measures a consumer’s
degree of variety seeking
• Examples include:
– Exploratory Purchase
Behavior
– Use Innovativeness
– Vicarious Exploration
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
Contd..

24. 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
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

25. Consumer Ethnocentrism and
Cosmopolitanism
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
Cosmopolitanism
• A cosmopolitan orientation would consider the world
to be their marketplace and would be attracted to
products from other cultures and countries.
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

26. Brand Personality
• Personality-like traits
associated with brands
• Examples
– Tetrapack 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
Personality and Consumer Behavior I Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

27. Discussion Questions
• Pick three of your favorite food brands.
• Describe their personality. Do they have a
gender? What personality traits do they
have?

28. 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.

29. A Brand Personality Framework

30. 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