Self-Image

&
Personality

I.
The simplest sentence.
The most complex
creation.
Symbolic Consumption

 The process through which consumers- on

the basis of symbols-buy, consume and
dispose of products.

 Semiotics- the study of signs and their

meanings.
 Assists marketers in uncovering hidden signs
and meanings in consumer experiences.
Signs and their influence

 Three categories:
– Icons – visual representations , direct
communication
– Indexes – easily recognizable property of the idea
 Communicate something about the quality of the idea
– Symbols
 Learned associations between the signifier and the
signified
 Blue (signifier) Freshness
(signified)
 Hotel Suite ----- Beer? Brandy and wine?
Self-Image / Self-concept

 Consumers are engulfed in multiple role identities.

 Harshesh Patel
– Son
– Brother (Elder Younger) to (Brother/Sister)
– MBA student
– Prospective or existing beloved for someone
– Project leader
– Class Topper
– A swaminarayan believer
– Member of Nature Club
Self-Image / Self-concept

 Considerations while purchasing

– How the purchase suits our image of ourselves
– How others will react to us
 Termed as reflective evaluation
Self-Image / Self-concept

 Self-Image is a configuration of beliefs

related to the self.
 Consumer
Self-Image

Private Public
Self-Image Self-Image

Actual Ideal Social Ideal Social

Self-Image Self-Image Self-Image Self-Image

Self- Self- Social Social Approval

Consistency Consistency Motive
Esteem
Motive Motive
Motive
Self-Image / Self-concept

 Actual Self
– Private Self; ‘Who I am’; personal identity
 Ideal Self
– How consumers would like to be
– Under confident Self-confident
– Simple sexy/glamorous
– Motivates behavior through ‘self-esteem motive’: buying a
product that has an image consistent with consumers’ ideal
self-image makes them ‘feel good’ about themselves.
Self-Image / Self-concept

 Social Self
– How we believe people think of us.
– Influences behavior through the ‘social
consistency motive’.
 Ideal Social Self
– How consumers would like others to see them.
– Affects behavior through the ‘social approval
motive’.
Self-Image / Self-concept

 Self-Image Congruence
– When self-image matches brand-user image.
Relevant issues in self-image

 Gender roles and self-image

 Body image
– Body cathexis
 People tend to be satisfied with a particular physical
feature or body part.
Implications for the marketer from the
study of self-imagery

 Create advertising to appeal to the consumer’s

actual, ideal, social or ideal social self-image as
appropriate
 Position products to enhance self-imagery congruity
 Enhance or adjust to gender typing of products or
services.
 Positioning of body-related products as per body
cathexis.
Personality

 Personality
 Personality
 Personality
 Personality
Personality

 Refers to an individual’s response

tendencies across situations and over time.
– Gizmo-freaks (technological innovators?)
– ‘hep’ and ‘trendy’ (fashion innovators?)
Personality

 Freudian Theory
– One’s adult personality arises from a fundamental
conflict between a person’s desire to gratify his or
her physical needs and the necessity to function
as a responsible member of the society.

– This struggle is carried out in the mind among

three systems.
Topographical Model
Personality

 Id
– Oriented towards immediate gratification
– Pleasure principle- behavior should result into
maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain.
– Selfish and illogical
– Present from birth, instinctive
Personality

 Super ego
– Counterweight to the id
– Person’s conscience
– Internalizes society’s rules and prevents the id
from ‘going overboard’.
 Ego
– Mediates between the id and super ego.
– Referee between virtue and vice.
– performs a balancing act
– Reality principle – through which it will try to gratify the id
that will be acceptable to the outside world.
– Operates at an unconscious level.
– The ego relies on symbolism in products to strike a balance
between the id and super ego.
Personality

 Ego
– The person channels his or her unacceptable
desire into acceptable outlets by using products
that signify these underlying desires.
Personality

 Freud laid emphasis on the sexual aspects of

personality.
 Freudian theory also hints that the ego relies
on the symbolism in products to compromise
between the demands of the id and the
prohibitions of the superego.
 A Scenario
– You’re all ready to go, you’ve set yourself a goal
in your head and you’re saying ‘Right, this is the
first day of the rest of my life’ , clench your fists
and say ‘I’m going to do it this time!’ Then a few
days later you don’t reach your goal and say ‘Oh
well, I knew it wouldn’t work anyway, but I gave it
my best shot.’
 Id: ‘I want to reach that goal‘
Super-Ego: ‘We’ve been here before and it’s sure to fail,
look at everything we have to do to reach that goal, it’ll be
too hard’
Id: I don’t care I want to have it!
 Ego: Okay, let’s plan this, we all want the same goal but
we have to take it easy.
 Super-Ego: ‘Ego, we have failed in the past what’s the
point of even trying.’
 Ego: Let’s just try again, we’ve had some success in the
past.’
Id: ‘Yeah, yeah, knock yourself out, go for it.
 A FEW DAYS LATER
– Super-Ego: ‘Oh well, I knew it wouldn’t work anyway,
but I gave it my best shot.’
– Id: ‘Of course you did, you thought about it really hard,
you did lots of good work (Sarcastic tone), you didn’t
take any bloody action but you did think about it really
hard, it’s a shame it didn’t work out, I still want it.
– Ego: This is another thing that’s going to dent my
confidence in the future, maybe I should hold back a
bit more and listen to the Super-Ego.
Personality

 Carl Jung (Jungian theory)

– A disciple of Freud, but was not ready to accept
Freud’s assessment of the sexual content of
personality.
– He developed his own method of psycho-therapy
called analytical psychology.
Personality

 Jungian Theory
– People are shaped by the cumulative experiences
of past generations.
– The collective unconscious, a store house of
memories inherited from our ancestral past.
– These shared memories create archetypes
(universally shared ideas and behavior patterns.)
– E.g. old wise man, earth mother, caring mother
nature, forgiving God.
Personality

 Trait Theory
– Focus on the quantitative measurement of traits –
identifiable characteristics that define a person.
– E.g. Extroversion (degree of out-going ness)
– Innovativeness (trying out new things)
– Materialism (emphasis on acquiring and owning things)
– Self-consciousness (monitor and control the image of the
self that is projected to others).
– Need for cognition (think about things)
General Personality Traits and their
effects on CB

Trait Effect
Compliance Reluctance to make decisions

Aggressiveness Preference for products with high status and success

High need for cognition Tendency to respond to advertising with quality arguments

Low need for cognition
Need for achievement
Impulsiveness
Tendency to respond to advertising featuring attractive endorsers.
Tendency to prefer products and services that serve to get the job
done and achieve excellence in task achievement.
Tendency to buy products and services driven by emotions rather
than utilitarian need

Attention to social comparison Tendency to choose brands preferred by others.

Example of personality traits

(Arnould et al., 2005)

Brand Personality

 Extent to which a consumer holds strong,

favorable and unique associations with the
brand.
Brand Action Trait Inference

Brand uses continuing character Familiar, comfortable

Brand frequently available on deal Cheap

Brand offers line extensions Versatile, adaptable

Brand offers 5 year warranty Reliable, dependable

Brand speaks to the consumer Warm

Dimensions of Brand Personality

Brand Personality

Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Ruggedness

•Down to earth •Daring •Reliable •Upper Class •Outdoorsy

•Honest •Spirited •Intelligent •Charming •Tough
•Wholesome •Imaginative •Successful •Stylish
•Cheerful •Up-to-date
Lifestyles

 How a person lives.

 Determined by the person’s past experiences, innate

characteristics and current situation.

 It is a function of inherent individual characteristics that have

been shaped and formed through social interaction.

 An individual’s desired lifestyle influences his or her needs and

desires, and thus, purchase and use behavior.
Lifestyles

 Refers to a pattern of consumption reflection a

person’s choices of how he or she spends time
and money.

 One’s lifestyle represents the way one has

elected to allocate income, both in terms or
relative allocations to different products and
services, and to specific alternatives within these
categories.
Lifestyle and the consumption process

Lifestyle Determinants Lifestyle Impact on behavior

•Demographics How we Live Purchases
•Subculture •Activities •How
•Social Class •Interests •When
•Motives •Likes/ Dislikes •Where
•Personality •Attitudes •What
•Emotions •Consumption •With whom
•Values •Expectations
•Household Life Cycles •Feelings Consumption
•Culture •Where
•Past Experiences. •With whom
•How
•When What
Lifestyles

 Psychographics
– Use of psychological, sociological and
anthropological factors to determine how the
market is segmented.
– Separation of consumers into categories based
on differences in choices of consumption activities
and product usage.
– Demographics – Who buys; Psychographics –
Why?
Lifestyles

 Psychographic research
– AIOs
 Group consumers according to some combination of
three categories of variables – activities, interests, and
opinions.
 Lifestyle is indicated by discovering how people spend
their time, what they find interesting and how they view
themselves and the world around them, as well as their
demographic information.
Lifestyle Dimensions (AIOs)

Activities Interests Opinions Demographics

Work Family Themselves Age
Hobbies Home Social issues Education
Social Events Job Politics Income
Vacation Community Business Occupation
Entertainment Recreation Economics Family size
Club Memberships Fashion Education Dwelling
Community Food Products Geography
Sports Media Future City size
Shopping Achievements Culture Stage in life cycle
Uses of Psychographic Segmentation

 To define the target market

 To create a new view of the market
 Positioning
 To better communicate product attributes
 To develop overall strategy
 To market social issues.
VALS 2

 Values and Lifestyles

– Segmentation system, developed by SRI,
California.
– 39 items (35 psychological and 4 demographic) to
divide members into groups.
VALS 2

 Key to the VALS 2 system are three self-

orientations
– Principle orientation
 Purchase decisions guided by a belief system that they
are not concerned with the views of others.
– Status orientation
 Decisions based on the perceived opinions of their
peers.
– Action orientation
 Have an impact on the world around them.
VALS 2

 Actualizers
– Successful consumers with many resources
– Open to change
VALS 2

 Fulfilleds
– Satisfied, reflective and comfortable
– Practical and value functionality

 Achievers
– Career oriented and prefer predictability over risk

 Experiencers
– Impulsive, young and enjoy risky experiences.
VALS 2
 Believers
– Strong principles and favor proven brands

 Strivers
– Similar to achievers, with fewer resources, very concerned about the
approval of others.

 Makers
– Action oriented and tend to focus their energies on self-sufficiency.

 Strugglers
– At the bottom of the economic ladder.
– Limited ability to acquire anything beyond the basic goods needed for
survival.
 Some personalities are attracted to exercise
connecting them to another person or to
many people. Others are motivated by the
privacy of exercising alone. Efficiency
motivates some, while others are attracted to
exercise offering a mind/body or spiritual
dimension.
 Being surrounded by nature and using their
observational and navigational skills are
requirements for some personalities, while
others crave the familiarity of consistent
places and routines, allowing for mental drift.
Detailed instructions and exercising
"correctly" inspires some while others resist
an imposed structure in favor of physical
activity through "play.”
 Most advertising for fitness-related activities
doesn't appear to be speaking to anyone's
motivations. It doesn't emphasize the ease of
maintaining a routine, and it doesn't
emphasize the play element.
References
 Lindquist, Jay D. & Sirgy, M. Joseph; Shopper, Buyer and Consumer Behavior
– Theory and Marketing Applications; 2 ed., biztantra.

 Hawkins, Del I., Best, Roger J., Coney, Kenneth A. & Mookerjee, Amit;
Consumer Behavior, 9th ed, TMH, New Delhi.

 Solomon, Michael R., Consumer Behavior, 5th ed., PHI, New Delhi.

 Loudon, David L. & Della Bitta, J.; Consumer Behavior, 4th ed., TMH, New
Delhi.