service. Consumer research looks into the motivations and personalities of an Introduction individual in terms of consuming or buying a particular product or service, later turning this information into strategies In today’s information-oriented society, geared at gaining a particular segment of research and development, particularly the market that the company targets or information research, has become an centers on. important activity for business companies, institutions, and organizations, who want to know more about the consumer market, This paper discusses in detail the role that people who consider consumption as motivation and personality plays in embedded and part of their everyday lives. influencing consumer behavior, taking the Initially, commercialism of goods and case of the Hongkong and Shanghai services through advertising mainly Banking Corporation (HSBC) as an focused on extant products and services example to discuss and analyze these that people need; nowadays, persuasive important points. In this paper, an analysis messages are extended through of the print ads of HSBC is analyzed, advertising, informing people about the relating its features to identify its target goods and services that they should and market and perceived motivations and ought to know and buy for themselves. personalities of HSBC’s target market. This study aims to provide an illustration of how motivation and personality analysis Selling these products and services of consumers are vital to the understanding through persuasive advertising messages, of consumer markets and behavior. however, are the products of advertising research. More specifically, consumer research tries to identify not only the Consumer Personality and socio-demographic, but also Motivation as illustrated in HSBC psychographic profile of consumers, Print ads understanding how people can be Personality is defined by Sheth et. al. (1999) as “[a] person’s consistent ways The terms motivation and personality may [sic] of responding to the environment in seem familiar for people, but its which he or she lives” (G-11). Personality, significance to consumer behavior is less he states, is created through the combining known, yet increasingly essential in of external influences or the social identifying, determining, and environment and genetic or biological understanding insights regarding traits of the individual. The combination of consumption patterns and preferences. social with the individual slogan, “Never underestimate the importance of local knowledge.” These ads, which serve as units of results to the creation or development analysis of the study, are textually customer personality; consumer analyzed to generate themes that depict personality may be product- or service- the influence of motivation and oriented, or both (243). Product-oriented personality of consumers tend to patronize a product or service based on the merchandise itself, while service-oriented consumers tend to “seek relationships” with the seller, producer of the service or manufacturer the target consumer market in the of the product. production of the advertising message and form. The texts that follow discusses the salient points generated from the Motivation, meanwhile, is identified as analysis, which involves the following: “an inner drive that reflects goal- (1) HSBC ads illustrate how culture as oriented arousal” (Arnould et. al., the social environment and cultural traits 2004:259). It differs from personality in serve as primary consideration in that it is a deeper and more abstract crafting today’s advertising messages to concept, although similar to it in the the consumer; (2) motivations such as sense that motivations are also linked to achievement, power, uniqueness, the social environment and individual affiliation, and self-esteem are the traits of the individual. determinants of a consumer’s cultural environment and traits. These linkages In order to distinguish properly between are seen thoroughly in the next section. the two terminologies, personality may be understood as a holistic or general term to describe consumer behavior— that is, consumer behavior at the “Never underestimate the macrolevel. Motivation, on the other importance of local knowledge”: hand, provides an in-depth look of the HSBC on culture and the consumer as a unique individual and consumer harder to discern and understand. Motivation, thus, represents consumer behavior at the microlevel. It was initially discussed that consumer behavior in terms of the personality Applying these concepts in the context dimension is primarily determined of HSBC and its adverting and through the consumer’s merchandise- or marketing strategies, the researcher of service-orientedness. However, going this paper analyzed three (3) print ads, further into the analysis of consumer which came out on three issues of TIME personality, there is also recognition that magazine: March 11, 18, and 25 for the consumers adopt various personalities year 2002. These issues are relevant for depending on the role that they assume this study, since this is the year that as consumer: user, payer, or buyer HSBC launched its campaign on (Sheth et. al., 1999:243). multiculturalism, entitled “Business Connections,” carrying with it the These distinctions are somewhat similar oriented consumer as buyer, and the to the merchandise-oriented and service- consumer’s financial position as the oriented dichotomy introduced earlier, payer. although in this new set of consumer In the HSBC “Business Connections” personalities, the economic dimension is advertising campaign, these components taken into consideration. Thus, of consumer behavior become evident. consumer personality is divided into The buyer or service-oriented consumer, three facets: the merchandise-oriented clearly, is the primary target market of consumer as the user, the service- the HSBC ad discussed above will show approval of the distinction made by the banking company. This approval will, in HSBC, since its business orientation is turn, lead to the to provide banking services for potential clients. However, it is evident that HSBC decided to transgress its role as bank service provider to becoming the development of credibility of HSBC and consumer’s “expert” on cultural trust from the consumer; thus, the next knowledge of every nation engaged in time the consumer should consider the business industry. Its ad campaign is seeking help in banking services of developed to fulfill this objective, financial transactions, s/he would seek allowing the consumers to get to know HSBC, primarily because it understands other societies and cultures around the the individual’s sentiments, feelings, and world, stressing how HSBC knows each opinions—in other words, the culture featured, and understands these customer’s personality. cultures well, enabling them to effectively handle business and financial transactions with them. This can also be applied to the consumer as user, wherein the commodity can be either the information about Hungarian The March 18, 2002 ad of HSBC shows and American culture depicted in the ad, two images of hands toasting glasses or the banking service provided by together, with the first image displaying HSBC, or both. The first scenario occurs the text, “HUNGARY: Bad luck,” while when the individual is also a business the second image shows the text “USA: person who is interested in knowing the Good health.” This simple, yet effective business culture of another country, display of cultural differences around the which, to the business-oriented world is reflective of HSBC’s work individual, is always a potential ethic, implying to the reader (who is also customer. The information that it is bad a potential customer) that they luck in Hungary and good health in the understand various cultures very well. USA to toast glasses will become helpful This understanding of various cultures of to the individual when s/he deals with the world becomes HSBC’s advantage, clients coming from these countries. Or, since it helps them “…recognise [sic] it may be that the consumer-user is financial opportunities invisible to interested in knowing up to what extent outsiders” (TIME, 2002). HSBC’s credibility and banking The buyer (service-oriented consumer) experience is; thus, from the ad, one can would be enticed with the said ad, since already surmise that HSBC has sufficient institutions whose primary commodity is experience to merit credibility and service provision knows that warrant trust from the consumer. understanding the individual and his/her social/cultural environment is one way of highlighting the fact that they are The consumer as payer, meanwhile, is selling service that reflects the different from the preceding kinds of personality of consumer-buyer. For consumer personalities discussed. Since example, an American who encountered in this category, the impact of economic stability and financial capability are addressed by the inclusion of the term taken into account, the strategy of HSBC “local knowledge” in its ad, giving must then emanate as to include and reference to the fact that not only did address the concerns of the consumer- HSBC learned to know and understand payer in its ad. In the ad, this concern is the culture of a country, but it of the institution itself, and aligns it with his/her own financial status, and when both criteria meet, it is then that the was also able to capture its people, the consumer-payer decides whether to masses, which ultimately constitutes a subsist to the product (or service) or not. particular culture, the keepers and actors of this “local knowledge.”
Whether the consumer-payer has
Motivations as the consumer financial troubles or not, HSBC “drive”: achievement, power, considers everyone a potential customer, uniqueness, affiliation, and self and the consumer-payer, through the ad, esteem shall assume that HSBC will aid him/her for whatever banking service or financial support s/he wants to avail, In the previous section, the researcher simply because the institution has identified consumer personality in understands “local knowledge,” the terms of the product, service, and reality of life in that particular society in financial climate of both the seller and the world. HSBC, then ‘personalizes’ its buyer. In this section, the study takes an service, accommodating for any in-depth look at the individual traits of diversity that it may encounter in the these consumers, identifying potential conduct of its business (Francese, motivations that serve as consumer 2004:40-1). ‘drives,’ needs and wants that may have been accomplished through the consumption of the product or service In effect, business institutions like offered by the business HSBC have learned to ascertain the company/institution. In this section, kinds of people who can be their motives are identified into four, namely, potential clients or customer by achievement, power, uniqueness/novelty, categorizing them according to their affiliation, and self-esteem motive. These cultural and individual traits. In this kinds of motives are present in one way section, personality is shown to be a or other within the consumer as s/he goes major determinant in identifying the through the decision-making process (of likelihood of an individual to become a purchasing a product, good, or service). consumer of a particular product or These kinds of motives are defined by service. Arnould et. al. (2004) as follows:
Thus, if the consumer is merchandise-
oriented or a user, then goods as commodities are more appealing for him/her; the consumer as buyer, on the other hand, is more interested in establishing close ties with the sellers, producers, or manufacturers, the people Achievement motive- the drive to who provide service for the consumers; experience emotion in connection with and lastly, the consumer as payer takes evaluated performance; into consideration the economic climate Power motive- the drive to have control Uniqueness/novelty motive- the drive to or influence over another person, group, perceive oneself as different from others; or the world at large;
Affiliation motive- the drive to be with
people; consumers sometimes experience a strong motivation to conform with the cultural norm— becomes a primary factor that convinces the consumer to subsist to the product or reconnect and associate with groups…; and
service. Similarly, the illustration of a
Self-esteem motive- credit for successes, particular culture through print explain away failures, (consumers) see advertisement creates the impression that themselves as better than most others. every culture has power, thereby influencing the consumer that as member of that culture, s/he has power to approve Given the following kinds of motivations or disapprove of the ad and patronize or and their definitions, the HSBC not patronize the product or service advertising campaign clearly invokes all advertised. of these motivations. This is actually imperative for the company, since they have as their audience people of all ages, The most important and dominant gender, races, and culture. In order to motives included in the ad are the become effective in motivating and uniqueness, affiliation, and self-esteem persuading consumers to subsist to the motives. In the HSBC ad campaign, the HSBC service, the company must be able showcasing of a particular culture per ad to “grasp” or capture all of the illustrates the strong regard the company characteristics of its consumers; thus, the has for cultures of the world—that is, the need to consider all the motivations that a uniqueness of a society or nation and the consumer may have or use in the process individual. These motives work in of deciding to purchase a product or linkages, initially starting with starting subscribe to a particular service. with the premise that every culture is unique, and proof of this in the ad is the provision of information telling the The “Business Connections” ad readers the uniqueness of a particular campaign illustrates the achievement material, symbol, or activity in the motive, primarily because HSBC tries to business culture of a particular country establish personal relations with the (Brown et. al., 2003:19). consumer. In trying to sell its service (banking service), HSBC evokes the In the same way, affiliation results from emotions of consumers as it re-establish the character of uniqueness, wherein the ties with him/her by showcasing a consumer, once s/he has identified particular culture of a nation (Benady, herself/himself with the culture depicted 2004:43). For example, the HSBC ad in the ad, feels a sense of belongingness depicts the culture of UK and US by with the subject or image displayed in illustrating an image of cross-legged the ad. Thus, the consumer who shoes, where the act may be construed as understands and agrees with the culture “relaxed” in American culture, while it is depicted becomes affiliated with it, and considered “rude” among Thai people. HSBC, taking advantage of this event Feelings of approval and/or reproach (creation of uniqueness and sense of over the said cultural norms shows how affiliation), persuades the reader to achievement—that is, to achieve and subsist to HSBC, the company that ‘understands’ people of all cultures. s/he recognizes the value that HSBC Combining both uniqueness and gives to people of his/her culture, would affiliation results to the development of then affiliate himself/herself with the self-esteem, where the consumer, once banking institution. In effect, the ad portrays the HSBC brand as embedded in each culture and actually belongs to the people. Thus, the ad campaign becomes successful in showing the consumers that HSBC knows its consumers—their personality, and what motivates them to consume a particular product or service.