Consumer Motivation & Personality 2

Question 1

Personal Factors to the Consumer

Answer 1

• Age and Life Stages
• Economic Situation
• Lifestyles
• Personality and Self-Concept
• Occupation

Question 2

Personality

Answer 2

• Heredity
• Childhood experiences
• Social and environmental influences

Reflects Individual Differences
- No two individuals are exactly alike
- Allows marketers to categorize consumers into different groups

Question 3

Freudian Concepts

Answer 3

Suggests that unconscious needs or drives are at the heart of human motivation

Three Systems:
- ID: The “warehouse” of impulsive (selfish) drives and physiological needs
- Superego: Drives the individual to fulfill needs in a socially acceptable function
- Ego: The internal monitor that balances the needs of the ID and the Superego

Question 4

Neo-Freudian Theory

Answer 4

Social relationships are fundamental to personality

These relationships are formed to reduce feelings of inferiority (Alfred Adler) or tension (Harry Sullivan).

People can be classified by how they interact with others (Karen Horney):
- A compliant individual desires attention
- An aggressive individual desires admirations
- A detached person desires independence from obligation

Question 5

Personality Traits

Answer 5

Characteristics that set people apart from one another

Personality Traits:
- Innovative vs Laggards
- Open-Minded vs Close-Minded
- Conformity vs Individuality
- Novel/Complex vs Simple/Safe

Question 6

Personality Traits: Innovative vs Laggards

Answer 6

Innovators: open to new ideas and quick to try new products

Laggards: slow to adopt new innovations

Motivational factors that inspire consumer innovativeness:
- Functional factors: reflect interest in the performance of an innovation
- Hedonic factors: relate to feeling gratified by using the innovation
- Social factors: reflect the desire to be recognized by others
- Cognitive factors: express the mental stimulation experienced by using an innovation

Question 7

Levels of Innovativeness

Answer 7

Global Innovativeness:
- a trait that represents the “very nature” of consumers’ innovativeness

Domain-Specific Innovativeness:
- a narrowly defined activity within a specific domain or product category

Innovative Behavior:
- actions that indicate early acceptance of change and adoption of innovations
- being among the first to purchase new product

Question 8

Personality Traits: Open-Minded vs Close-Minded

Answer 8

Dogmatism: one’s degree of rigidity toward information contradictory to one’s beliefs and views
- Close-minded individuals

They tend to be more receptive to ads that contain appeals from authoritative figures and experts

Question 9

Personality Traits: Conformity vs Individuality

Answer 9

Inner-Directed Consumers: rely on their own inner values or standards in evaluating new products
- They are likely to be consumer innovators

Other-Directed Consumers: look to others for guidance as to what is appropriate or inappropriate
- They are unlikely to be consumer innovators

Need for Uniqueness: an individual’s pursuit of differentness relative to others
-Purchasing products that enhances one’s personal and social identity

Question 10

Personality Traits: Novel/Complex vs Simple/Safe

Answer 10

Optimum Stimulation Level (OSL): degree to which people like…
- novel, complex, unusual experiences (high OSL)
- simple, uncluttered, calm existence (low OSL)

Sensation Seeking: one’s need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences
- More willing to take risks for new experiences

Question 11

Variety & Novelty Seeking

Answer 11

Exploratory Purchase Behavior:
- Switching brands to experience new alternatives

Vicarious Exploration:
Gathering information about new product alternatives and consider buying them

Use Innovativeness:
- Using an already adopted product in a new way

Question 12

Materialism

Answer 12

The extent to which an individual is preoccupied with purchasing and showing off physical possessions
- Conspicuous Consumption

Fixated consumers tend to accumulate items that are related to their interests and show them off to people with similar interests

Willing to spend a lot of time and money searching and buying more items for their collections

Question 13

Ethnocentrism

Answer 13

Consumer’s willingness to buy or not buy foreign-made products

Question 14

The Big 5

Answer 14

Openness to Experience
(Do you want to try new things?)

Conscientiousness
(Are you organized and efficient in your work?)

Extraversion
(Are you outgoing and the life of the party?)

Agreeableness
(Are you polite and compassionate toward others?)

Neuroticism
(Are you emotional and anxious?)

Question 15

Brand Personification

Answer 15

Occurs when consumers attribute human traits or characteristics to a brand (emotional identity)

Anthropomorphism:
- attributing human characteristics to something that is not human (brands)

Question 16

Types of Self-Image

Answer 16

Actual Self-Image:
how consumers see themselves

Ideal Self-Image:
how consumers would like to see themselves

Social Self-Image:
how consumers feel others see them

Ideal Social Self-Image:
how consumers would like others to see them

Question 17

Extended Self

Answer 17

Part of self-identity which is defined by possessions that reflects the individual’s personality
- Gifts, Money, Body-Parts, Monuments, Places

Question 18

Possession & Self

Answer 18

Four ways in which consumers use brands and products to accomplish identity-relevant goals:

Self-Verification: identity expression
- I am caring, therefore I buy green products

Self-Perception: identity learning
- Nike is helping me learn that I am a daring and athletic person

-Self-Enhancement: maintain self-esteem
- Rolex takes me from feeling like an ordinary guy to a successful person

Self-Improvement: become a better person
- I bought some Columbia boots so I could prove to myself that I can be outdoorsy and hike