Chapter 3

Personality and
Consumer Behavior

Copyright 2007 by Prentice Hall

 Chapter Outline
• Personality Theories
• Cognitive Personality Factors
• Consumption
• Product Personality
• The Self and Self-Image
 What Is Personality
• The inner psychological characteristics
that both determine and reflect how a
person responds to his or her
environment
 Many Sites Offer Free
Personality Tests

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Copyright 2007 by Prentice Hall 5-4

The Nature of
Personality
• Personality reflects individual
differences
• Personality is consistent and enduring
• Personality can change
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 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
Figure 5.2 A Representation of the
Interrelationships Among
the Id, Ego, and Superego
 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
 Table 5.1
Snack Food Personality Traits
Potato Chips:
Ambitious, successful, high achiever, impatient

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
• We seek goals to overcome feelings of
inferiority
• We continually attempt to establish
relationships with others to reduce tensions
• Karen Horney was interested in child-parent
relationships and desires to conquer feelings
of anxiety. Proposed three personality
groups
– Compliant move toward others, they desire to be
loved, wanted, and appreciated
– Aggressive move against others
– Detached move away from others
Group Discussion 1
Question
Describe each product’s personality using Freudian Theory.
Group Discussion 1
Question
Describe each product’s personality using Freudian Theory.
 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
 Trait Theory
Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
• Innovativeness • The degree to which
• Dogmatism consumers are
• Social character receptive to new
• Need for uniqueness products, new
services, or new
• Optimum stimulation
practices
level
• Variety-novelty
seeking
 Trait Theory
Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
• Innovativeness • A personality trait that
• Dogmatism reflects the degree of
• rigidity a person
Social character
displays toward the
• Need for uniqueness unfamiliar and toward
• Optimum stimulation information that is
level contrary to his or her
own established
• Variety-novelty
seeking beliefs
 Trait Theory
Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
• Innovativeness • Ranges on a continuum
• Dogmatism from inner-directedness
• to other-directedness
Social character
• Inner-directedness
• Need for uniqueness
– rely on own values when
• Optimum stimulation evaluating products
level – Innovators
• Variety-novelty seeking • Other-directedness
– look to others
– less likely to be
innovators
 Trait Theory
Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
• Innovativeness • Consumers who
• Dogmatism avoid appearing to
• conform to
Social character
expectations or
• Need for uniqueness standards of others
• Optimum stimulation
level
• Variety-novelty
seeking
 Table 5.4 Excerpt
A Sample Items from a Consumer’s Need for
Uniqueness Scale
1. I collect unusual 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
3. When products or brands I like become extremely
popular, I lose interest in them
4. As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to the
products I buy and the situations in which I use them,
custom and rules are made to be broken
5. I have sometimes purchased unusual products or
brands as a way to create a more distinctive personal
image
 Trait Theory
Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
• Innovativeness • A personality trait that
• Dogmatism measures the level or
• amount of novelty or
Social character
complexity that
• Need for uniqueness individuals seek in their
• Optimum stimulation personal experiences
level • High OSL consumers tend
• Variety-novelty seeking to accept risky and novel
products more readily
than low OSL consumers.
 Trait Theory
Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
• Innovativeness • Measures a consumer’s
• Dogmatism degree of variety
• Social character seeking
• Need for uniqueness • Examples include:
• Optimum stimulation – Exploratory Purchase
level Behavior
– Use Innovativeness
• Variety-novelty
– Vicarious Exploration
seeking
Cognitive Personality Factors
• Need for cognition (NC)
– A person’s craving for enjoyment of
thinking
– Individual with high NC more likely to
respond to ads rich in product information
• Visualizers versus verbalizers
– A person’s preference for information
presented visually or verbally
– Verbalizers prefer written information over
graphics and images.
 Discussion Question
• How does NC and visualizer/verbalizer
affect advertisers?
• Which media is best for each group?
 Group Discussion 2
QUESTION
Describe Meta Quest 3 product’s personality based on
Trait Theory.
From Consumer Materialism
to Compulsive Consumption
• Consumer materialism
– The extent to which a person is considered
“materialistic”
• Fixated consumption behavior
– Consumers fixated on certain products or
categories of products
• Compulsive consumption behavior
– “Addicted” or “out-of-control” consumers
 Table 5.6 Sample Items to
Measure Compulsive
Buying
1. When I have money, I cannot help but spend part
or the whole of it.
2. I am often impulsive in my buying behavior.
3. As soon as I enter a shopping center, I have an
irresistible urge to go into a shop to buy something.
4. I am one of those people who often responds to
direct mail offers.
5. I have often bought a product that I did not
need, while knowing I had very little money left.
 Consumer Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentric consumers feel it is

wrong to purchase foreign-made
products
• They can be targeted by stressing
nationalistic themes
Consumer Ethnocentrism
 Brand Personality
• Personality-like traits associated with brands
• Examples
– Nike and athlete
– BMW is performance driven
– Levi’s 501 jeans are dependable and rugged
• Brand personality which is strong and
favorable will strengthen a brand but not
necessarily demand a price premium
A Brand Personality Framework
Figure 5.8
 Group Discussion 3
QUESTION
Describe these brands’ personalities. Do they have a gender?What
personality traits do they have?
 Group Discussion 3
QUESTION
Describe these brands’ personalities. Do they have a gender?What
personality traits do they have?
 Product Personality Issues
• Gender
– Often used for brand personalities
– Some product perceived as masculine (coffee,
shoes) while others as feminine (bath soap,
shampoo)
• Geography
– Actual locations
– Fictitious names also used such as Hidden Valley and
Bear Creek
• Color
– Color combinations in packaging and products
denotes personality
Marketers
often use a
fictitious
location to
help with
personality.
 Table 5.10 The Personality-like Associations of Colors

• America’s favored color

• IBM holds the title to blue
Commands • Associated with education, banking
BLUE
• Men seek products packaged in blue
respect, authority • Low-calorie, skim milk

Caution, novelty, • Eyes register it faster

• Stops traffic
temporary,
YELLOW • Sells a house
warmth

Secure, natural, • Good work environment

• Associated with vegetables and chewing gum
relaxed or easy-
• Canada Dry ginger ale sales increased when it
GREEN going, living changed sugar-free package from red to green
things and white
 Human, exciting, • Makes food “smell” better
hot, passionate, • Coffee in a red can perceived as “rich”
RED strong • Women have a preference for bluish red
• Men have a preference for yellowish red
• Coca-Cola “owns” red
Powerful, • Draws attention quickly
ORANGE
affordable, informal
Informal and • Coffee in a dark-brown can was “too
BROWN
relaxed, masculine, strong”
Goodness, purity, • Suggests reduced calories
chastity, • Pure and wholesome food
WHITE cleanliness, • Clean, bath products, feminine
delicacy,
refinement
• Powerful accessories
BLACK • High-tech electronics
Sophisticated
• Suggests premium price
SILVER, GOLD
Regal, wealthy
5 - 35
Financial Services Firms Often Feature
Blue and Green on Their Sites

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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 individual’s
consumption relates to self-image
 The Marketing Concept
Issues Related to
Self and Self-Image
• One or multiple • A single consumer will
act differently in different
selves
situations or with
• Makeup of the different people
self-image • We have a variety of
• Extended self social roles
• Altering the self- • Marketers can target
products to a
image
particular “self”
 The Marketing Concept
Issues Related to
Self and Self-Image
• Contains traits, skills, habits,
• One or multiple
possessions, relationships
selves and way of behavior
• Makeup of the self - • Developed through
image background, experience,and
interaction with others
• Extended self
• Consumers select products
• Altering the self-
congruent with this image
image
 Different Self-Images

Actual Self-
Ideal Self-Image
Image

Ideal Social Social Self-

Self-Image Image

Expected
Self-Image
 The Marketing Concept
Issues Related to
Self and Self-Image
• One or multiple • Possessions can extend
selves self in a number of ways:
– Actually
• Makeup of the – Symbolically
self-image – Conferring status or rank
• Extended self – Bestowing feelings of
• Altering the self- immortality
– Endowing with magical
image
powers
 The Marketing Concept
Issues Related to
Self and Self-Image
• One or multiple • Consumers use self-
selves altering products to
• Makeup of the express individualism
self-image by
– Creating new self
• Extended self – Maintaining the existing
• Altering the self - self
image – Extending the self
– Conforming