Chapter 3

Consumer Motivation and Personality

Motives: an internal energizing force that directs a
person’s behavior toward satisfying needs or
achieving goals.

Some motives are stronger than others.

Motivation is the driving force that impels people

to act.
Motives have a major impact on products selection.
Personality: consists of the inner psychological characteristics that determine
and reflect how we think and act, and form an individual’s distinctive character:

Consumers often purchase brands that reflect their personalities.

Brand personification: when consumers attribute human traits to a brand.

A brand personality provides an emotional identity for a brand, which

produces sentiments and feelings toward it among consumers. i.e. exciting,
sophisticated, warm etc.

Brand personification is a form of anthropomorphism: refers to attributing

human characteristics to something that is not human.
 The Dynamics of Motivation
•Needs:
- Physiological need: needs that are innate,
biological, and primary.

- Psychological needs: needs that are inherited

or learnt from surroundings. i.e. self-esteem,
affiliation, prestige, power, and achievement.
- Goals: are sought after results of motivated behavior,
and all human behaviors are goal oriented.

- Generic goals: outcomes that consumers seek in

order to satisfy physiological and psychological needs.

Product-specific goals: are outcomes that consumers

seek by using a given product or service.
Example: a student telling his parents he wants
to become an architect is expressing a general
goal. But stating that he wants to study
Architecture in Harvard is stating a specific goal.
 Need Arousal
Most of individual’s needs are dormant much of the time.

Triggering a need requires stimuli.

Most of the physiological cues are involuntary. But they arouse needs
that cause uncomfortable tensions until they are satisfied.

In cognitive arousal, random thoughts can lead to a cognitive

awareness of a need to act.

For instance, fast food ads are usually broadcasted on TV and radio
during lunch time.
Without cues, consumers’ needs may remain
dormant. Creative marketing message arouses
needs.

Needs are never fully satisfied

New needs emerge as old ones are satisfied.

 Frustration and Defense Mechanisms

Frustration is the feeling that results from failure to

achieve a goal.

Defense mechanisms are cognitive and behavioral

ways to handle frustration.

People cope with frustration differently. Some

switch to another goal immediately to reach
fulfillment.
Defense mechanisms include aggression,
rationalization, regression, withdrawal, projection,
daydreaming, identification, and repression.
Aggression: aggressive behaviors to protect their
ego. Physical or oral. (abusive children in schools,
broken homes for example)
Rationalization: people inventing plausible reasons
for being unable to attain goals (i.e. not having
enough time)
Regression: an individual may react in immature
behaviors.

Withdrawal: simply withdrawing from the situation.

Projection: taking one’s own unacceptable qualities

or feelings and ascribing them to other people. This
reduces anxiety.
Daydreaming: attaining imaginary gratification or unfulfilled needs.

Identification: unifying with other persons or situations that they

consider relevant. The unconscious modeling of one's self upon
another person's character and behavior.

Repression: Repression acts to keep information out of conscious

awareness. However, these memories don't just disappear; they
continue to influence our behavior.

For example, a person who has repressed memories of abuse suffered

as a child may later have difficulty forming relationships.
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in
psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his
1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in
Psychological Review.

Maslow subsequently extended the idea to

include his observations of humans' innate
curiosity.
The theory states that the process of needs’
satisfaction is gradual, in the sense that once the
needs in the bottom of the hierarchy are met, the
individual is motivated to fill the need in the
higher level.

Physiological needs: first most basic needs.

Primary needs required for survival. Examples are
food, water, air, shelter, and clothing.
Safety needs: needs that are concerned with
security, but also the avoidance of emotional harm.
For example: stability, routine, familiarity, and
control over one’s life. Saving accounts, health
insurance, and carbon monoxide detectors are all
examples of products satisfying these needs.

Social needs: requirements for affection,

friendships, and sense of belonging.
Egoistic needs (self-esteem):
- Inward: needs that are concerned with ego
issues such as self-acceptance, self-respect,
personal satisfaction.

- Outward: needs for recognition and

distinction. Examples are prestige, reputation,
status, recognition.
Needs for self-Actualization: individual’s desire
to fulfill their potential-to become everything
they are capable of becoming. For example: a
research scientist striving to find a new drug for
cancer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=RmHkwDRslps
 Theories of personality
Personality consists of the inner psychological
characteristics that determine how we think and act.

Inner characteristics: specific traits and mannerisms that

distinguish one individual from other individuals.

The deeply ingrained characteristics influence the

consumer’s choices in products, response to promotional
messages, and how, when, where they consume these
products.
 The Facets of Personality
Personality reflects individual differences: inner
characteristics are of a unique combination. i.e. high vs.
low consumer ethnocentrism.

Personality is consistent and enduring: therefore

marketers segment markets according to personality
traits.

Personality may change: although it is enduring, but

under certain circumstances, personalities do change.
 Freudian Theory
Fraud developed a topographical model of the
mind, whereby he described the features of mind’s
structure and function.

In this model the conscious mind (everything we

are aware of) is seen as the tip of the iceberg.

Within the unconscious mind a source of a

primitive wishes and impulse are repressed.
 Freud found that some events and desires were often too
frightening or painful for his patients to acknowledge.

For the most part, negative parental relationships would

result in agonizing memories that would affect behavior
on the long-run.

Freud believed such information or memories are locked

away in a region he called the unconscious mind. This
happens through the process of repression.
Sigmund Freud emphasized the importance of
the unconscious mind, and a primary
assumption of Freudian theory is that the
*unconscious mind governs behavior to a
greater degree than people suspect.

Indeed, the goal of psychoanalysis is to make the

unconscious conscious. (projective techniques)
Freud assumed the id operated at an unconscious level
according to the pleasure principle. The id comprises of
biological instincts or drives.

The ego develops from the id during infancy. The ego’s goal
is to satisfy the demands of the id in a safe and socially
acceptable way.

In contrast to the id, the ego follows the reality principle as

it operates in both the conscious and unconscious mind.
The superego develops during early childhood and is
responsible for ensuring moral standards are followed.

The superego operates on the morality principle.

The superego can make a person feel guilty if rules are not
followed.

When there is conflict between the goals of the id and

superego, the ego mediates this conflict.
 Examples
• Id: Sally was thirsty. Rather than waiting for the server to refill her
glass of water, she reached across the table and drank from Mr.
Smith’s water glass, much to his surprise.
• Ego: Sally was thirsty. However, she knew that her server would
be back soon to refill her water glass, so she waited until then to
get a drink, even though she really just wanted to drink from Mr.
Smith’s glass.
• Super Ego: Maggie couldn’t remember the answer to test
question #12, even though she had studied. Nate was the
smartest kid in the class, and from where Maggie sat, she could
see his answers if she turned her head slightly. When the
invigilator turned her back, Maggie almost cheated, but her
conscience stopped her because she knew it was wrong. Instead,
Maggie took a guess at the answer and then turned in her paper.
• The id, ego and superego work together in
creating a behavior.
• The id creates the demands, the ego adds the
needs of reality, the superego adds morality to
the action taken.
 Karen Horney
Neo-Freudian Theory
She focused on the basic anxiety and studied the impact of child-parent
relationships on the individual’s desires to reduce feelings of anxiety.

What’s the difference between fear and anxiety?

She proposed three personality groups:

a) Complaint individuals: are those who move toward others and wish
to be loved, wanted, and appreciated.

b) Aggressive individuals: those who move against others and desire to

excel and win admiration.
c)Detached individuals: those who move away from
others and seek independence, self-reliance, self-
sufficiency, and freedom from obligations.

The CAD test (Compliance, aggressive, detached) was

developed based on Horney’s theory by researchers.

The test uncovered a number of tentative

relationships between college students’ scores and
their product and brand usage patterns.
 Trait Theory
Trait theory focuses on empirical measures of
personality in terms of specific psychological
characteristics.

It is measured through high versus low scores.

The theory consists of three traits:
a)Innovativeness: how receptive a person is to new
consumer-related experiences or the early purchase of
new products.

b)Materialism: the degree of consumer’s attachment to

worldly possessions.

c)Ethnocentrism: the consumer’s likelihood to accept or

reject foreign-made products.
 Personality Traits and Consumer Behavior
Consumer innovators and innovativeness:

Innovativeness: is the degree of a consumer’s willingness to adopt new

products shortly after the products are introduced.

-Innovators are the first to try the new products because they are
always open to new ideas.

-They contribute to the acceptance of new products because they

spread positive word of mouth.

-
-Four motivational factors that inspire consumer innovativeness:
a)Functional: interest in the performance of an innovation

b)Hedonic: related to feeling content by using the innovation

c)Social: the desire to be recognized by others because of one’s

pursuit of innovations

d)Cognitive: express the mental stimulation experienced by using

an innovation
 • Dogmatism:
-Dogmatism is the degree of rigidity- the opposite of
being open-minded toward information and opinions
contradictory to one’s beliefs.

-A person who is dogmatic approaches the unfamiliar

with discomfort and aggression.

-In contrast, a person who is less dogmatic approaches

contradictory beliefs with openness and consideration.
-Highly dogmatic consumers tend to be more
receptive to ads displaying authoritative figures
such as celebrities and experts.

-Less dogmatic consumers are more receptive to

ads displaying facts and statistics, and product
information.
• Social character: inner versus other directedness :

-Inner directed consumers rely on their own inner values

or standards in evaluating new products and are likely to
be consumer innovators. Therefore, they are receptive to
ads that stress product features and personal benefits.

-Other-directed consumers look to others for guidance as

to what is appropriate and accepted. Therefore, they
prefer ads that highlight social acceptance.
 • Need for Uniqueness

-Consumer need for uniqueness refers to individual’s pursuit of

distinction relative to others. This is achieved through the acquisition
of unique consumer goods to enhance one’s personal and social
identity.

-Consumers with high need for uniqueness adopt new products and
brands quicker than others. (innovators).

They prefer creative products that counter conformity and are outside
group norms.
• Optimum situation level OSL: (complexity and lifestyle)
- OSL is the degree to which people like complex, novel, and
unusual experiences.
- High OSL prefers risk, new products, innovation.

- OSL also reflects the desired level of lifestyle stimulation.

- High OSL tend to feel bored and constantly look for novelty.

- This influences their product choices in that they constantly

seek new products.
 • Need for Cognition NFC: (thinking and internet)

-NFC measures a person’s craving for or enjoyment of

thinking.

-Consumers who are high NFC responds to ads that are

rich in product-related information and description.

-Low NFC consumers are attracted to ads that contain

celebrities or interesting backgrounds.
-NFC is also related to the level of internet usage.

-High NFC consumers are more likely to search

online for product information and are very
focused with their search.

Whereas low NFC consumers tend to be distracted

while looking up information online.
 • Visualizers versus verbalizers

-Some people prefer the written words to secure

information, whereas others prefer images.
-Verbalizers prefer promotional messages
containing a lot of written words and content.
- Visualizers are more interactive with images and
pictures.
 •Consumer Materialism
- Materialism refers to the extent to which an
individual is preoccupied with purchasing and
showing off with physical possessions that are mostly
nonessential and often conspicuous luxury goods.

-High materialists define themselves by acquiring

possessions. They value buying and showing off their
belongings.
-They are observed to be selfish, self-centered,
and seldom happy with their belongings.

-Low materialists are often interested in seeking

fulfilling experiences and enjoying them, they
don’t define themselves through their
possessions.
 •Fixated Consumption
-Refers to collectors and hobbyists tendency to
accumulate items that are related to their interests
and show them off to friends and others with similar
interests.

-They have a huge passion for a particular category,

willingness to invest a lot of money to purchase the
item, and spending a lot of time searching and buying.