CHAPTER

FIVE
Personality and
Consumer
Behavior
 Introduction
• Marketers have long tried to appeal to
consumers in terms of their personality
characteristics. They have intuitively felt
that what consumers purchase, and when
and how they consume, are likely to be
influenced by their personality factors.
 Personality and
The Nature of Personality
• The inner psychological characteristics
that both determine and reflect how a
person responds to his or her environment
• The Nature of Personality:
– Personality reflects individual differences
– Personality is consistent and enduring
– Personality can change

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 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

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 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

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 Id, Superego and ego
• Freud proposed that the human
personality consists of three interacting
systems:
the id, the superego, and the ego.
• The id was conceptualized as a
“warehouse” of primitive and impulsive
drive- basic physiological needs such as
thirst, hunger and sex-for which the
individual seeks immediate satisfaction
without concern for the specific means of
satisfaction.
 Superego
• In contrast to Id, the superego is
conceptualized as the individual’s internal
expression of society’s moral and ethical
code of conduct. The superego’s role is to
see that the individual satisfies needs in a
a socially acceptable fashion. Thus, the
superego is a kind of “brake” that restrains
or inhibits the impulsive forces of the id.
 Ego
• The ego is the individual’s conscious
control. It functions as an internal monitor
that attempts to balance the impulsive
demands of the id and the sociocultural
constraints of the superego.
• Freud emphasized that an individual’s
personality is formed as he or she passes
through a number of distinct stages of
infant and childhood development.
 Neo-Freudian Personality
Theory
• Social relationships are fundamental to
personality
• Alfred Adler:
– Style of life
– Feelings of inferiority
• 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
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 Trait Theory
• Focus on measurement of personality in
terms of traits
• Trait - any distinguishing, relatively
enduring way in which one individual
differs from another
• Personality is linked to broad product
categories and NOT specific brands

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 Consumer Innovativeness

• Willingness to innovate
• Further broken down for hi-tech products
– Global innovativeness
– Domain-specific innovativeness
– Innovative behavior

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 Consumer Motivation Scales
Table 5.3 (excerpt)
A “GENERAL” CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS SCALE
1. I would rather stick to a brand I usually buy than try
something I am not very sure of.
2. When I go to a restaurant, I feel it is safer to order
dishes I am familiar with.
A DOMAIN-SPECIFIC CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS
SCALE
1. Compared to my friends, I own few rock albums.
2. In general, I am the last in my circle of friends to know
the titles of the latest rock albums.

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 Dogmatism

• A personality trait that reflects the degree

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

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 Personality and Understanding
Consumer Behavior
• 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
– less likely to be innovators

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 Need for Uniqueness

• Consumers who avoid conforming to

expectations or standards of others
• Sample Item from a consumers Need for
Uniquensess Scale
1. I collect unusal products as a way of
telling people I’M different.
2. When dressing, I have sometimes dared
to be different in ways that others are
likely to disapprove.
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 Conti…
• As far as I’M concerned, when it comes to
the products I buy and the situations in
Which I use them, Customs and rules are
made to be broken.
 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.

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 Sensation Seeking

• The need for varied, novel, and complex

sensations and experience. And the
willingness to take social and physical risks
for the sensations.

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 Variety-Novelty Seeking

• Measures a consumer’s degree of variety

seeking
• Examples include:
– Exploratory Purchase Behavior
– Use Innovativeness
– Vicarious Exploration

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 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
.

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 Cognitive Personality Factors

• Visualizers
• Verbalizers

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 From Consumer Materialism to
Compulsive Consumption
Acquire and show off Self centered and
possessions selfish

Materialistic
People

Do not get greater

Seek lifestyle full of
personal satisfaction
possessions
from possessions

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 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

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 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
• A cosmopolitan orientation would consider
the word to be their marketplace and would
be attracted to products from other cultures
and countries.

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 Brand Personality
• Personality-like traits associated with brands
• Examples
– Purdue 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

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 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.

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A Brand Personality Framework
Figure 5.12

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 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
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 Self and Self-Image
• Consumers have a
variety of enduring
images of
themselves
• These images are
associated with
personality in that
individuals’
consumption
relates to self-
image
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 One or Multiple Selves

• A single consumer will act differently in

different situations or with different people
• We have a variety of social roles
• Marketers can target products to a
particular “self”

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 Makeup of the Self-Image

• Contains traits, skills, habits, possessions,

relationships, and way of behavior
• Developed through background,
experience, and interaction with others
• Consumers select products congruent with
this image

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 Different Self-Images
Actual Self-Image • How consumers see themselves

Ideal Self-Image
• How consumer would like to see
themselves

Social Self-Image
• How consumers feel others see
them
Ideal Social • How consumers would like others
Self-Image to see them
Expected • How consumers expect to see
Self-Image themselves in the future

Out-to self
• Traits an individual believes are in
her duty to possess
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 Extended Self

• Possessions can extend self in a number

of ways:
– Actually
– Symbolically
– Conferring status or rank
– Bestowing feelings of immortality
– Endowing with magical powers

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 Altering the Self-Image

• Consumers use self-altering products to

express individualism by:
– Creating new self
– Maintaining the existing self
– Extending the self
– Conforming

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 Virtual Personality

• You can be anyone…

– Gender swapping
– Age differences
– Mild-mannered to aggressive

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