Consumer Behavior Topic 4

Personality, Self-Image and Lifestyle

Personality Traits:External – place blame outside of self (i.e., I failed because there was a problem with the exam)Internal – place blame on self (i.e., I failed because I did not study)Most studies find that people tend to place the locus of blame outside of themselves – in fact certain populations are extremely external (i.e., prisoners – they will never admit to guilt)

How personality impacts consumer behavior:There are inner psychological characteristics that determine and reflect how a person responds to his/her environment.What we know about personality:

a. it reflects individual differencesb. it is consistent and enduring - however major life events might change personality

such as the losing a loved one or a birth – psychologists maintain that 60% of personality is set at birth (i.e., is in the genes)

Theories of personality:1. Freud – developed his psychoanalytic theory of personality that includes the id,

super ego, and ego.a. id – is the warehouse of all the primitive and impulsive drives – where the

drives are stored – pure and primitive (a baby needs food NOW)b. superego – like a conscience – the internal expression of societal moral

codes and ethical values – restrains the impulsive demands of id (tells you when to wait)

c. ego – is like the executive and is a conscious control or internal monitor – it attempts to balance the impulsive demands of the id with the superego – it is the restraining influence

The problem with Freudian theories is that they are just speculations that are based on theoretical suppositions that Freud made regarding anxieties:

a. neurotic anxiety – an image from the id that the ego is afraid of – a neurotic anxiety

b. moral anxiety – being afraid of being punished by the super egop

Ideas of defense mechanisms – these are used by the ego to distort or falsify realitya. repression – Macbeth – push into the unconscious and it might emerge in a

dream or a symbolic actb. projection – attribute your own feelings/anxieties to others (i.e., unfaithful

husband assumes his wife is also unfaithful)c. rationalization – we try to justify and look for excuses so that the super ego

will approve

d. sublimation – find an alternative socially acceptable role or outlet (i.e., want to kill someone but instead draw pictures of the person dead – often artists sublimate feelings in art)

e. displacement – transfer hostility to another object/person – this can be positive if through energy into worthwhile project (i.e., angry at your boss so go home and angry at family)

f. reaction formation – manifest overt behavior that is actually the opposite of what is really felt deeply inside (unconscious – such as overt masculinity may suggest this person is questioning their own masculinity – exaggerated on the outside – also think about the bully or the extremely arrogant – often they turn out to be the most insecure

g. denial – just deny ith. identification – if feel threatened, identify with the aggressor (Patty Hearst or

other hostage situation might over time identify with the perpetrator to protect the personality from collapsing (even with groupies of rock starts – this often enhances the self image)

Developmental States – another part of Freud’s theories (remember, Freud did not test his theories)

a. oral stage – represents a crisis in weaning – if not worked out, then fixated – such as a very oral type person who is dependent, enjoys using their mouth and gets pleasure from sucking (the TV detective Kojack played by Telly Sevalis, was always sucking a lollipop; or smoking)

b. anal – main pleasure is from elimination – crisis during toilet training – if a problem, then could be stingy, overly messy or overly neat

c. phallis – discovering sexual organs(there are two other stages but they are seldom used in this field)

Other Freudian findings:In dream interpretation, Freud discusses symbols and he believed that dreams are the unconscious talking, especially if repressed – like a tunnel – for Freud a tunnel or the surf of the sea unconsciously represented sexual intercourseDreams have a code and he believed it was the analysts job to interpret this code. Some other phallic symbols included towers, umbrellas, climbing a ladder. Symbolic representation for a woman included caverns, pools, caves as the uterus.

Karl Popper, 20th century philosopher, maintained a justificationist theory of science in which he wrote that in able to be classified as scientific, it must be able to be falsified – again, this can’t be tested

What we have gained in the field from Freudian theories:a. motivation researchb. symbols – advertising and packaging fully utilizes symbolic usage (i.e., the

Marlboro cowboy – independent, individualist – the music selected for the campaign was from the movie The Magnificent Seven, which was a film about

loner cowboys who banded together to protect a town; also with soap – if female product then oval whereas if male then rectangular)

c. brand personality – marketers believe people ascribe personality-like traits to a brand which is referred to as the “brand personality” measure – there are psychoanalytic approaches to measure brand (i.e., Holiday Inn is perceived of as cheerful; IBM as equivalent to a business suit whereas Apple is associated with students)

Neo-Freudian Personality Theories – many colleagues of Freud disagreed with parts of his theories, such as his believe that personality was instinctual, so this group of psychologists/psychiatrists are referred to as neo-Freudians and they tended to believe in social relationships:a. Alfred Adler – his theories consider the different ways in which people strive

towards superiority vs. Freud’s physical gratification theories in which it was always the physical overcame inferiority

b. Karen Horney – she discusses 3 different kinds of needs – and kinds of personalities: compliant, aggressive, detached – these needs were used to measure personality.

a. If compliant, move towards others – need to be loved, appreciated b. If aggressive, move against others – need to excel, be on topc. If detached, move away from others – self-sufficient, independent.

Consumer Behaviorists are able to make a weak connection between detached needs (drink tea not coffee).

c. David McLelland – theory of motivation - 3 important social motives – need for achievement, power, affiliation. Marketing studies have connected achievement (the need to succeed) with sport and game equipment.

d. Eric Berne – wrote the best seller Games People Play – says the personality has 3 parts – Transactional Analysis – parent, adult, child and all are operating within you. If you are in the parent mode (a bit like Freud’s super ego) then tend to be critical, domineering, opinionated, protecting, compassionate, nurturing – parent ego state. If in the adult mode (a bit like Freud’s ego), tend to be rational – oriented to current realities, facts. If in the child mode ( a bit like Freud’s id) tend to be winning, manipulative, selfish, playful, mean – lack foresight, moreal judgment weak, little concern for others, curiosity, use words like “gee” and “wow”.

Transaction can be analyzed based on the ego stages behavior exchange between 2 people – the transaction. The theory says you can analyze these transactions. Theory says as long as parallel, then communication works well – adult to adult – or even child to child where both whine to one another. The trouble comes when there are cross-connections like parent to child.

Ulterior Transactions – are at 2 different levels – overt – seems like one thing but psychological/ulterior level – something else is going one – like playing with each other – flirting – determine body language – good for customer relations people (often looking for comfort).

Berne even looks at the salesperson – bypasses the adult and appeals to the child in the customer (if a daring person the salesperson may say “that one is too expensive – this one is better for you – and then the customer wants to see the more expensive one). Another game is “why don’t you…” and the customer responds “yes but…”Theories of personality have gone far beyond this today and new approaches are more quantifiable.

Trait TheoriesThese theories can be measured. 18,000 traits have been identified and measured. A trait = only distinguishing relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from another – a part o the personality that can be measured and observed.How many traits make up a personality?Raymond Cattell’s trait theory - believes 16 traits make up a personality. He created a personality inventory, a foundation for personality. For Cattell these included emotional/stable, submissive/demanding, shy/venturesome, practical/impractical, group-tied/self-sufficient, less intelligent/more intelligent.Personality Inventories exist such as MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; CPI (California Personality Inventory).

How do these theories effect Consumer Behavior? Marketers used in the 1960s – did tests with students. One of the earliest studies was a classic conducted by the researcher, Evans, in 1959 – he wanted to determine if he could use personality to predict if a person would buy a Ford of a Chevrolet. In 1960 the same method was used with 91,000 people who smoked – the smokers scored the highest on aggression and achievement needs. Another study was done on people who chewed gum – gum chewers scored high on responsibility.

When we look at all of the studies we realize personality is not very effective in predicting brand choices. At the most, personality traits represent a 10% variation in brand usage, so 90% is due to other conditions. Hence the relationship between personality and brand choice is weak.

Today most researchers do not use personality traits as their correlations are weak.Most research today has moved into the consideration of consumer innovators.

Consumer Innovators:Innovators – the first group to try something new and represent 10% of the population – marketers are extremely interested in innovators and have developed scales/traits that are helpful in describing who is an innovator. An innovator is willing to take risk. Who becomes one?

1. Consumer innovativeness scale – how receptive to new products? The scale grades receptiveness from strong to weak.Several published books have hundreds of scales for marketers (including the American Marketing Association)

2. dogmatism – Rokeach – someone who is opinionated, close-minded, ridged – not an innovator

3. inwardly directed – a study by Reisman – inner directed people find their values from within themselves (self sufficient) vs.

4. other directed – get values from others – (i.e., an ad for the Bahamas shows others having fun – would direct an other directed person to go to Bahama)

5. new relations – optimum stimulation level – some people need a lot of stimulation and there are scales to measure how much stimulation is needed – often those who require more stimulation are willing to take more tisks

Susceptibility scales measure susceptibility to interpersonal influence.There are two ways people are effected:

1. Information influence – if other people know something then may be influenced by them;2. Normative influence – want to be like somebody but not because you want

information from them but rather because you believe you’ll be rewarded if like them (i.e., join a sorority, a country club).

Normative influence has 2 parts: 1. Value expressive – something enhances your standing with others by

being similar to them2. Utilitarian – do what others do because there is both a reward and a

punishment involved (i.e., Fergie and dieting – reward is becoming slim and punishment is remaining heavy)

Scales are popular in Consumer Behavior – susceptibility to influence scales, Consumer Ethnocentrism Scale (CET scale) – won’t buy foreign made products; Consumer Discontent scale.

Marketers look for alternative measures to personality to look at self image – how do you see yourself? This may not be realistic. Personality tries to measure reality. Research suggests that there are multiple selves – that people act differently with different people and in different situations.Self image develops through interactions (social business) with others. This starts with our parents, who often “label” us (i.e, the smart child, the athletic child) and this can have a strong impact on how we develop in life. People do try to enhance or preserve our self image.

Different kinds of self image:1. actual self image – how consumers in fact see themselves2. ideal self image – how consumers would like to see themselves3. social self image – how consumers feel others see them4. ideal social self image – how consumers would like others to see them5. expected self image – how consumer expect to see themselves at some future

point in timeThere are scales to measure self image.

How does research use self image?There are different approaches:

1. discrepancy between actual self image and ideal self image – if enough discrepancy then consumer may purchase products (i.e., woman dissatisfied with weight and buy weight management products – the more unhappy you are the more you are apt to purchase – also true with health, money, sex etc.)A lot of research focuses on these dissatisfactions.

2. another stream of research does not look at discrepancy but at congruence (between image of brand and self image) – (i.e., Budweiser, BMW). Often consumers purchase a product that they believe represents their self image.

One of the earliest studies was by Birdwell on cars (perceived of as masculine, being powerful, weak) so first people rated the car and then themselves so that the research could see if there was correlation between the people’s perception of themselves and of the cars.People buy products to reinforce their image (i.e., cars, cigarettes, beer – Bud vs. Lowenbrau, whereas strong congruence with soap – dove and femininity)

Lifestyle patters are another way to understand how people make choices by identifying how they live and spend time and money. Lifestyle reflets a person’s activities, interests and opinions (AIOs).

Psychographics is an operational technique to measure lifestyles and is quantitative. It uses AIO measurements.

Personality formulas are weak in describing consumer behavior. These are no longer used even if a connection does weakly exist (i.e., aspiring is used by more compulsive people – how do we use this?). Even if you can use this, it is difficult to find the context in which to do so. How do you find compulsives? It is very hard to segment the population based on compulsiveness. It is better to attempt to use personality for insights on types like “innovators”.

Marketers use lifestyle characteristics to understand how we live and find these to be more comprehensive and useful than personality. Perhaps identify an “outdoor type” and target and audience related to this (i.e., L.L. Bean).Lifestyle is a mode of living but how do we measure AIOs?

PsychographicsThere are 2 kinds of psychographics:

1. general AIOs – perhaps study telephone useage – cell vs. digital2. specific AIOs – study only Verizon digital users

Consumers decide to what extent they agree with the statements (from strongly to weakly) – and consider activities (including hobbies, work, community, sports, clubs, religious) interests in life (family, home, job) opinions (politics, economy).

For example an old study was done on moviegoers and their AIOs to determine values such as car usage, entertainment, smoking, drinking, religious beliefs. It was found that non-moviegoers were more conservative.

Why are lifestyles so useful? Marketers will portray a group of users in an ad and the viewer may identify with them.

Pepsi users tend to be young and fun.

Lifestyle traits are from marketers, not psychologists.

Psychographics relate lifestyle to products to get a picture of what kind of person uses a particular product. Lottery ticket buyers fall into two categories:

1. bingo players (married women over 50 who do no work outside the home, who like to have fun, enjoy entertainment, and are impulsive)

2. younger people under 34 who are risk takers and live for today – are self indulgent and like to gamble.

Neither group has high income. People without money tend to gamble. The people who are least likely to gamble are those with a higher education.

These psychographic studies are long with anywhere from 100 to 200 questions. An analysis is done of the answers this describes the person who uses the product.

Another way to measure lifestyle traits other than psychographics is by using a purchasing inventory. This technique looks at the products purchased by the consumer and determines brand “clusters” (i.e., people who buy Jack Daniels are either people who drive expensive cars, wears suits and have a high income OR wear denim and drive trucks).

An Oil of Olay users product inventory list included cat food, hair color, X-lax, Excedrin, Tylenol, Revlon, Tequilla, brake liners and mufflers, Vaseline – this describes an older woman who is concerned about aging (colors hair uses makeup) is probably not wealthy because purchases drug store cosmetics instead of department store and replaces mufflers and brake liners instead of buying new cars.

Also scanners at the cash register records what is purchased and provides the marketer a great deal of information about you – frequency of use, quantity used.

With lifestyle information, the marketer can:1. determine a creative strategy and positioning – how do they want the product

perceived? (i.e., a car that is practical and economical vs. luxurious) – positioning can provide or change an image through advertising

2. help select media options – if young and fun may choose Playboy vs. Reader’s Digest