1. Personality and Consumer Behavior
Chapter 5
Personality and Consumer Behavior

2. What is Personality?
The inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment.

3. The Nature of Personality
Personality reflects individual differences
Personality is consistent and enduring
Personality can change

4. 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

5. Freudian Theory Id Superego Ego
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

6. 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

7. Horney’s CAD Theory
Using the context of child-parent relationships, individuals can be classified into:
Compliant individuals
Aggressive individuals
Detached individuals

8. Trait Theory Orientation is primarily quantitative or empirical
Trait theorists concerned with the construction of personality tests that enable them to pinpoint individual differences

9. Personality and Consumer Diversity
Some specific consumer traits are of particular interest to marketers:
Consumer Innovativeness
Cognitive Personality Factors
Consumer Materialism, Fixated Consumption Behavior, and Compulsive Consumption
Consumer Ethnocentrism

10. Distinguishing Innovators from Non-Innovators
Some traits that have been useful are:
Consumer Innovativeness
Dogmatism
Social character
Optimum stimulation level
Variety-novelty seeking

11. Dogmatism
Consumers low in dogmatism (open-minded) are more likely to prefer innovative products to established or traditional alternatives
Highly dogmatic consumers tend to be more receptive to ads for new products or services that contain an appeal from an authoritative figure

12. Social Character
Inner-directed people seem to prefer ads that stress product features and personal benefits
Other-directed people prefer ads that feature an approving social environment or social acceptance

13. Optimum Stimulation Levels (OSL)
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.

14. Variety-Novelty Seeking
A personality trait similar to OSL, which measures a consumer’s degree to variety seeking

15. Forms of Variety-Novelty Seeking
Exploratory Purchase Behavior
Vicarious Exploration
Use Innovativeness

16. Cognitive Personality Factors
Need for cognition
A person’s craving for enjoyment of thinking
Visualizers versus verbalizers
A person’s preference for information presented visually or verbally

17. Need for Cognition (NC)
Consumers high in NC are more likely to respond to as rich in product-related information or description
Consumers low in NC are more likely to be attracted to background or peripheral aspects of an ad

18. From Consumer Materialism to Compulsive Consumption
The extent to which a person is considered “materialistic”
Fixed consumption behavior
Consumers fixated on certain products or categories of products
Compulsive consumption behavior
“Addicted” or “out-of-control” consumers

19. Materialistic People Value acquiring and showing-off possessions
Are particularly self-centered and selfish
Seek lifestyles full of possessions
Have many possessions that do not lead to greater happiness

20. Fixated Consumers Have a deep interest in a particular
object or product category
Have a willingness to go to considerable lengths to secure items in the category of interest
Have the dedication of a considerable amount of discretionary time and money to searching out the product

21. Compulsive Consumption
Consumers who are compulsive buyers have an addiction; in some respects, they are out of control and their actions may have damaging consequences to them and to those around them.

22. Consumer Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentric consumers feel it is wrong to purchase foreign-made products
They can be targeted by stressing nationalistic themes

23. Issues in Brand Personality
Brand personification
Product personality and gender
Personality and color

24. A Brand Personality Framework
Sincerity
Excitement
Competence
Sophistication
Ruggedness
Down-to-earth
Honest
Wholesome
Cheerful
Daring
Spirited
Imaginative
Up-to-date
Reliable
Intelligent
Successful
Upper class
Charming
Outdoorsy
Tough

25. Different Self-Images
Actual Self-Image
Ideal Self-Image
Ideal Social
Self-Image
Social Self-Image
Expected
Self-Image

26. Extended Self
Modification or changing of the self by which consumers use self-altering products or services to conform to or take on the appearance of a particular types of person (e.g., a biker, a physician, a lawyer, a college professor).

27. Role
A pattern of behavior expected of an individual in a specific social position, such as mother, daughter, teacher, lawyer. One person may have a number of different roles, each of which is relevant in the context of a specific social situation.

28. Ways Possessions Can Extend the Self
Actually
Symbolically
By Conferring Status
By Bestowing Feelings of Immortality
By Endowing With Magical Powers

29. Vanity and Consumer Behavior
Vanity has been investigated in terms of
Physical Vanity
Achievement Vanity