exercise 2
Chapter 7: Personality, lifestyles, and values
Dr. Jennifer Houston MAR4503
personality
One of the most famous theories of personality is that of Sigmund Freud, who believes that much of our personality stems from a fundamental conflict between our drive to gratify physical needs and the necessity to function as a responsible member of society
A person’s personality is their unique psychological makeup and how it consistently influences the way a person responds to his or her environment
These underlying characteristics, coupled with situational factors, are parts of the puzzle of what determine human behavior
Consumer behavior on the couch: Freudian theory
Freudian theory revolves around three systems that are a component of our personality:
The id, which operates on the pleasure principle & immediate gratification The superego, our conscience The ego, which operates according to the reality principle and is the mediator between the id and superego
Consumer behavior on the couch: Freudian theory
Most Freudian application to marketing relates to a product’s supposed sex symbolism/sex appeal
In the 1950’s, motivational research borrowed Freudian ideas to understand the deeper meanings of products and advertisements
Neo-Freudian theories
Karen Horney – believed people move toward others (compliant), away from others (detached), or against others (aggressive)
Carl Jung – pioneer of analytical psychology; believed that the cumulative experiences of past generations shape who we are today
We share a collective unconscious that are inherited
Shared memories create archetypes, or universally recognized ideas and behavior patterns
Young & Rubicam uses the archetypes to guide brands and make decisions
Freud’s work had a huge influence on subsequent theories of personality
Brand archetypes (based in Jungian theory)
Trait theory
The most widely used approach to measuring personality traits is the Big Five dimensions of personality
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a Jungian-based, trait-measuring personality inventory that rates individuals’ personalities across 4 dimensions
Trait theories of personality focus on the quantitative measurement of personality traits, which are identifiable characteristics that define a person
The big five personality dimensions
The Myers-Briggs typology
Applying Trait theories to consumer research
The trait theory of personality can be used to pinpoint the specific personality traits & tendencies of segmented markets
General use of personality testing to predict consumer behavior has had mixed success
Some personality tests are not particularly valid in their measurements of consumers personality (like the MBTI)
Personality tests may not be designed for the context of marketing and be hard to generalize into consumer behavior
Tests may not be administered correctly, or may make ad-hoc changes that skew what the tests are measuring
Brand personality
It is increasingly common for marketers to think carefully about brand personality as they embrace the communications approach known as brand storytelling
Reader-response theory
Underdog brand biographies
Marketers may use anthropomorphism – the attribution of human characteristics to objects or animals – to develop a brand personality and elicit consumer responses/feelings
Forging a successful brand personality is often key to building brand loyalty and creating brand resonance in the consumer-product bond
A product that creates and communicates a distinctive brand personality stands out from its competition and inspires years of loyalby
Today, thousands of brands borrow personality traits of individuals or groups to convey an image they want customers to form of them
A brand personality is the set of traits people attribute to a product as if it were a person
Lifestyles and consumer identity
The term lifestyle defines a pattern of consumption that reflects a person’s choices of how to spend their time and money, and plays a key role in defining consumer identity
There are all kinds of subcultures whose group members share a passion for a celebrity or activity, with each lifestyle subculture exhibiting their own unique set of norms, vocabulary, and product insignias
In traditional societies, class, caste, village, or family largely dictate a person’s consumption options
In a modern consumer society, each of us is free to select the set of products, services, and activities that define our self and, in turn, create a social identity we communicate to others
Lifestyles and consumer identity
Marketers also think about lifestyle in terms of how much time we have available to do what we’d like and what we choose to do with our leisure time
A lifestyle marketing perspective recognizes that people sort themselves into groups based on things they like to do, how they like to spend their leisure time, and how they chose to spend their disposable incomes
A goal of lifestyle marketing is to allow consumers to pursue their chosen ways to enjoy their lives and express their social identities
People, products, and settings combine to express a consumption style
Product complementarity and co-branding
We get a clearer picture of how people use products to define lifestyles when we see how they make choices in a variety of product categories
A lifestyle marketing perspective implies that we must look at patterns of behavior to understand the consumer
Many products and services seem to ‘go together’, usually because the same type of people tend to select them
Therefore, an important part of lifestyle marketing is to identify the set of products and services that customers associate with a specific lifestyle
Marketers who understand these cross-category relationships may pursue co-branding strategies and team up with other companies to promote two or more items
Product complementarity occurs when the symbolic meaning of different products relate to one another
Consumers use these ests of products we call a consumption consellation to define, communicate, and perform social roles
psychographics
Psychographics involves the use of psychological, sociological, and anthropological factors to determine how the market is segmented by the propensity of groups within the markets
Marketers can develop products to appeal to different buyer personas
How do we perform a psychographic analysis?
Psychographic studies take several different forms:
Lifestyle profiles – differentiating between users and non-users
Product-specific profiles – identifying a target group and then profiling those consumers on product-relevant dimensions
General lifestyle segmentation study – placing a large sample of respondents into homogenous groups based on similarities
Product-specific segmentation study – tailoring questions to a product category
How do we perform a psychographic analysis?
Typically, the first step in conducting a psychographic analysis is to determine which lifestyle segments yield the bulk of customers for a particular product (80/20 rule)
Psychographic techniques help marketers identify their heavy users, and marketers use the results of these studies to
Define the target market
Create a new view of the market
Position the product
Better communicate product attributes
Develop product strategy
Market social and political issues
Most contemporary psychographic research attempts to group consumers according to some combination of three categories of variables:
Activities
Interests
Opinions
values
In many instances, values are universal
What sets cultures apart is the relative importance, or ranking, of these universal values
This set of rankings constitutes a cultures value system
It is usually possible to identify a general set of core values that uniquely defines a culture
The process of learning the beliefs and behaviors endorsed by one's own culture is enculturation
The process of learning the value system and behaviors of another culture is acculturation
A value is a belief that some condition is preferable to its opposite
People can have similar values and belief systems, but for very different reasons
materialism
Our possessions play a central role in our lives, and our desire to accumulate them shapes our value systems
Materialism refers to the importance people attach to worldly possessions
Materialists are more likely to value possessions for their status and appearance-related meanings
One important dimension for materialists today is provenance – knowing exactly where a product comes from, or is curated
Minimalism – the opposite of materialism – is trending with things like the tiny house movement, living off the grid, and decluttering becoming increasingly popular
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