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THE ROLE THAT PERSONALITY AND

MOTIVATION PLAY IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: A

CASE STUDY ON HSBC

persuaded to buy a company’s product or


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.

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