Consumer Behavior,

Ninth Edition

Schiffman & Kanuk

 Personality Theories
 Cognitive Personality Factors
 Consumption
 Product Personality
 The Self and Self-Image

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 The inner psychological characteristics that
both determine and reflect how a person
responds to his or her environment

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 Personality reflects individual differences
 Personality is consistent and enduring
 Personality can change

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 Freudian theory
 Unconscious needs or drives are at the heart
of human motivation

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 Freudian theory
 Unconscious needs or drives are at the heart
of human motivation
▪ Id
▪ Warehouse of primitive or impulsive (spontaneous) needs (i.e.
thirst, hunger, sex) 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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 Freud believed that the id, ego, and superego
are in constant conflict and that adult
personality and behavior are rooted in the
results of these internal struggles throughout
childhood.
 He believed that a person who has a strong
ego has a healthy personality and that
imbalances in this system can lead to
neurosis (what we now think of as anxiety
and depression) and unhealthy behaviors.
 An individual’s personality is formed as he/she
passes through a number of distinct stages of infant
and child hood development
 Oral
 Anal
 Phallic
 Latent
 genital

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 Oral (0 – 1.5 years of age): fascination (Fixation) on all
things oral. If not satisfactorily met there is the probability
of developing negative oral habits or behaviors.
 Anal (1.5 to 3 years of age): As indicated this stage is
primarily related to developing healthy toilet training
habits.
 Phallic (3 – 5 year of age): The development of healthy
substitutes for the sexual attraction boys and girls have
toward a parent of the opposite gender.
 Latency (5 – 12 years of age): The development of healthy
hidden sexual feelings for the opposite sex.
 Genital (12 – adulthood): All tasks from the previous four
stages are combined into the mind allowing for the
beginning of healthy sexual feelings and behaviors.
 Human drives are largely unconscious and
that consumers are primarily unaware of their
true reasons for buying what they buy

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 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
 Many criticized his theories for being overly
focused on sexuality
 Lack of empirical data
 Instead of taking a strictly biological
approach to the development of personality
neo Freudian theorists focused more
holistically on how the social environment
and culture influence personality
development
 Neo-Freudian personality theory
 Social relationships (socio-cultural environment)
are fundamental to the formation and
development of personality

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 Adler proposed the concept of the inferiority
complex,
 He also believed in the importance of social
connections, seeing childhood development as
emerging through social development rather than via
the sexual stages outlined by Freud.
 From these ideas, Adler identified three fundamental
social tasks that all of us must experience:
 occupational tasks (careers),
 societal tasks (friendship), and
 love tasks (finding an intimate partner for a long-term
relationship).
 One of Jung's major contributions was his idea of the
collective unconscious, which he deemed a "universal" version
of Freud's personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or
memory traces, that are common to all of us
 Jung also proposed the concept of the persona, referring to a
kind of "mask" that we adopt based on both our conscious
experiences and our collective unconscious.
 Jung believed this persona served as a compromise between
who we really are (our true self) and what society expects
us to be; we hide those parts of ourselves that are not
aligned with society’s expectations behind this mask.
 Horney’s theories focused on "unconscious
anxiety," which she believed stemmed from early
childhood experiences of unmet needs, loneliness,
and/or isolation.
 Proposed three personality groups
 Compliant: move toward others, they desire to be loved,
wanted, and appreciated
 Aggressive: move against others, they desire to win and
excel admiration
 Detached: move away from others, they desire
independence, self-reliance, self-sufficiency and
individualism or freedom from obligations

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 Compliant: prefer name-brand products:
Bayer Aspirin
 Aggressive: prefer old spice deodorant over
others because of its masculine image
 Detached: prefer to be heavy tea drinkers
because their desire not to conform/ not to
be like other people. They tend not to be
brand loyal as well
 Trait theory
 Quantitative approach to personality as a set of
psychological traits
 Focus on psychological characteristics
 Trait - any distinguishing, relatively enduring way
in which one individual differs from another (i.e.
self-confidence, self-esteem, impulsivity etc.)
 Personality is linked to how consumers make their
choices or to consumption of a broad product
category - not a specific brand
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Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
 Innovativeness  The degree to which
consumers are receptive
to new products, new
services, or new
practices

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Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
 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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Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
 Social character  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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Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
 Need for uniqueness  Consumers who avoid
appearing to conform
to expectations or
standards of others

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Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
 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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Consumer Innovators
And Noninnovators
 Variety-novelty seeking  Measures a consumer’s
degree of variety seeking
 Examples include:
 Exploratory Purchase
Behavior
 Use Innovativeness
 Vicarious Exploration

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 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.

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 Visualizers versus verbalizers
 A person’s preference for information
presented visually or verbally
 Verbalizers prefer written information
over graphics and images.

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 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
 Can lead to Oniomania
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 Consumer materialism can lead to consumer
dreaming
 Ethnocentric consumers feel it is wrong to
purchase foreign-made products
 They can be targeted by stressing
nationalistic themes
 Opposite of ethnocentric consumers are
called cosmopolitan consumers

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 Personality-like traits associated with brands
 Examples
 Purdue and freshness
 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

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A Brand Personality Framework
Figure 5.8
 Gender
 Often used for brand personalities
 Some product 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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 Table 5.10 The Personality-like Associations of Colors
• America’s favored color
• IBM holds the title to blue
• Associated with club soda
• Men seek products packaged in blue
BLUE Commands • Houses painted blue are avoided
• Low-calorie, skim milk
respect, authority • Coffee in a blue can perceived as “mild”

Caution, novelty, • Eyes register it faster

• Coffee in yellow can perceived as “weak”
temporary, • Stops traffic
YELLOW
warmth • Sells a house

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 and
things 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

ORANGE
Powerful, •Draws attention quickly
affordable, informal
Informal and •Coffee in a dark-brown can was “too
BROWN
relaxed, masculine, strong”
nature
Goodness, purity, •Men seekreduced
•Suggests productscalories
packaged in brown
chastity, cleanliness, •Pure and wholesome food
WHITE
delicacy, •Clean, bath products, feminine
refinement,
formality
Sophistication, •Powerful clothing
BLACK power, authority, •High-tech electronics
mystery
SILVER, Regal, wealthy, •Suggests premium price
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 Self-image: A person’s perceptions of his/her
self
 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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 Actual Self-
Ideal Self-Image
Image

Ideal Social
Social Self-Image
Self-Image

Expected
Self-Image

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  Actual Self-Image
 How you see your self
 Ideal Self-Image
 How you would like to see yourself
 Social Self-Image
 How you think others see you
 Ideal Social Self-Image
 How you would like others to see you
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 Expected Self-Image
 How you expect to be in the future
 “Ought-to” Self
 The qualities that you think you should possess

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 Issues Related to
Self and Self-Image
 One or multiple  A single consumer will act
selvesimage 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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 Issues Related to
Self and Self-Image
 Makeup of the self -  Contains traits, skills, habits,
image possessions, relationships and way
of behavior
 Developed through background,
experience,and interaction with
others
 Consumers select products
matching with this image

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 Issues Related to
Self and Self-Image
 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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 Issues Related to
Self and Self-Image
 Altering the self -  Consumers use self-
image altering products to
express individualism by
 Creating new self
 Maintaining the existing
self
 Extending the self
 Conforming

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