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Chapter 6
Personality, Lifestyles, and the Self-Concept
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, the student should be able to accomplish the following objectives.
6-1 Define personality and understand how various approaches to studying personality can be
applied to consumer behavior.
6-2 Discuss major traits that have been examined in consumer research.
6-4 Comprehend the role of the self-concept in consumer behavior.
6-5 Understand the concept of self-congruency and how it applies to consumer behavior
issues.
Lecture Example
In a crowded market, it is difficult to sell without any real product differentiation. So, when
Nestlé launched a new luxury chocolate in an already saturated market, it was but expected that
the food giant’s latest offering would be a class apart. So it was. Nestlé launched Maison Cailler,
which allowed customers to discover their “chocolate personality”; it emphasized building
“stronger relationships.” Although tasting chocolate is an innovative idea, taste is a tricky thing
Lecture Outline with PowerPoint® Slides
LO 6-1: Define personality and understand how various approaches to studying
personality can be applied to consumer behavior.
Understanding the ways in which consumers differ from each other is an important part of
determining why consumers value different things. The current chapter focuses on consumer
personality, lifestyles, and the self-concept. These concepts are often referred to as individual
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difference variables, which are descriptions of how individual consumers differ according to
specific traits or patterns of behavior. These variables have several applications in consumer
research and marketing practice.
I. Personality and Consumer Behavior [Instructor PPT Slide 4]
Personality is defined as the totality of thoughts, emotions, intentions, tendencies, and behaviors
that a person exhibits consistently as he or she adapts to the environment. This definition
highlights the cognitive (thoughts), affective (emotions), motivational (intentions), and
behavioral (behaviors) aspects that are central to personality. Personality exhibits a number of
distinct qualities, including:
• Personality is unique to an individual. Personality helps distinguish consumers based on
the specific characteristics each exhibits. Consumers differ in their personalities, although
some characteristics, or traits, may be shared across individuals.
• Specific behaviors can vary across time. Simply knowing a consumer possesses a specific
trait does not allow one to predict a particular behavior. For this reason, personality
researchers often advocate an aggregation approach in which behaviors and tendencies
are measured over time.
Q: Does an individual’s choice of music genre reflect his/her personality? Discuss how this
effects the music industry.
Marketing managers are particularly interested in how consumers differ according to their
personalities. There are many ways to discuss the concept of personality. Here, the focus is on
two popular approaches: the psychoanalytic approach and the trait approach.
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A. Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality [Instructor PPT Slide 5]
According to the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud, human behavior is influenced by an
inner struggle between various systems within the personality system. His approach,
commonly referred to as the psychoanalytic approach to personality, is applicable to both
motivation and personality inquiry. For Freud, the human personality consists of three
important components: the id, the superego, and the ego.
• The id focuses on pleasure-seeking and immediate gratification. It operates on a
pleasure principle that motivates a person to focus on maximizing pleasure and
minimizing pain. One’s id, therefore, focuses on hedonic value. Indeed, a key concept in
the id is the libido. The libido represents a drive for sexual pleasure, although some
researchers view it in slightly different ways.
Psychoanalytic Approach and Motivation Research
In the early days of consumer research, researchers applied psychoanalytic tools to try to
identify explanations for behavior. This was known as the motivational research era.
Consumer researchers in this era utilized tools such as depth interviews and focus groups to
improve their understanding of inner motives and needs. In general, the motivational
research era proved disappointing because it did not spawn any compelling, practical
consumer behavior theories or guidelines for marketing actions. Nevertheless, Freud
clearly influenced the study of personality and consumer behavior, and researchers remain
interested in deep-seated motivations.
B. Trait Approach to Personality [Instructor PPT Slides 6 and 7]
While the psychoanalytic approach helped set the groundwork for much of consumer
personality research, the trait approach to personality has received significant attention over
the past few decades, and many consumer researchers focus on this approach today. A trait is
defined as a distinguishable characteristic that describes one’s tendency to act in a relatively
consistent manner.
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Not surprisingly, there are multiple approaches available for consumer researchers.
Nomothetic versus Idiographic Approaches
The nomothetic perspective is a “variable–centered” approach that focuses on particular
variables, or traits, that exist across a number of consumers. The goal of this perspective is
to find common personality traits that can be studied across people.
Single-Trait and Multiple-Trait Approaches
With the single-trait approach, the focus of the researcher is on one particular trait. Here,
researchers can learn more about the trait and how it affects behavior. With the multiple-
LO 6-2: Discuss major traits that have been examined in consumer research.
II. Major Traits Examined in Consumer Research [Instructor PPT Slides 8–10]
One of the main challenges facing consumer researchers who want to study traits is that there are
so many traits that apply to consumer behavior. The traits that are used in consumer research are
usually very specific and tend to be studied for relatively long periods of time.
A. Many Traits Examined in CB
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Value Consciousness
Value consciousness represents the tendency for consumers to focus on maximizing what
is received from a transaction as compared to what is given. Research reveals that value
consciousness is an important concept in consumer behavior. Value-conscious consumers
can be expected to pay close attention to the resources that they devote to transactions and
to the benefits that they receive.
Materialism
Materialism refers to the extent to which material goods are important in a consumer’s life.
Materialism is seen as consisting of three separate dimensions:
Highly materialistic consumers tend to be possessive, nongenerous, and envious of other’s
possessions. Materialism tends to differ among generations, with lower materialism scores
Innovativeness
Consumer innovativeness refers to the degree to which a consumer is open to new ideas
and quick to adopt, buying new products, services, or experiences soon after they are
introduced. Innovative consumers are also generally dynamic and curious, and they are
Need for Cognition
Need for cognition refers to the degree to which consumers tend to engage in effortful
cognitive information processing. Consumers who have a high degree of this trait tend to
think carefully about products, problems, and even marketing messages. Research also
indicates that the effect of humorous advertising is impacted by the need for cognition.
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Studies also indicate that the need for cognition trait influences consumers’ reactions to ads
with sexual content.
Competitiveness
The competitiveness trait may be defined as an enduring tendency to strive to be better
than others. A competitive person is generally easy to identify; research reveals that the
trait often emerges in the following ways:
• When a consumer is directly competing with others.
Productivity Orientation
Productivity orientation represents the tendency for consumers to focus on being
productive, making progress, and accomplishing more in less time. Consumers with a high
degree of productivity orientation are able to be productive even when pursuing leisure
activities.
Other Traits Found in Consumer Research
Exhibit 6.1 highlights other traits that are often studied.
Q: What is the relevance of consumer innovativeness to marketers? Students could
be asked to rate their own levels of consumer innovativeness.
Q: Eric reads at least three online reviews before making an online purchase
decision about a particular product. In this scenario, Eric’s behavior is an example
of a person who has a: (a) high need for cognition; (b) low need for cognition.
Students can be asked to choose the right answer and explain their answer choice.
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The Five-Factor Model Approach [Instructor PPT Slide 11]
One of the most popular multiple-trait approaches found in both personality psychology
and consumer research is the five-factor model (FFM) approach. The FFM proposes that
five dominant traits are found in the human personality, including:
• Extroversion
Extroverted consumers are outgoing and talkative with others. Agreeable consumers are
kindhearted to others and sympathetic. Creative consumers are imaginative and enjoy new
ideas. Stable consumers tend to be able to control their emotions and avoid mood swings.
Hierarchical Approaches to Personality Traits
Organizing all of these traits is one of the goals of what are known as hierarchical
approaches to personality. Hierarchical approaches begin with the assumption that
personality traits exist at varying levels of abstraction. That is, some traits are specific
(bargaining proneness), and others are more broad (extroversion).
Final Thoughts on the Trait Approach [Instructor PPT Slide 12]
The trait approach in consumer research is very popular today in large part due to its ability
to objectively assign a personality trait score, from a survey for example, to a consumer. In
this way, the approach has an advantage over the psychoanalytic approach, in which
personality dimensions are assigned based on the psychologist’s subjective interpretation.
Exhibit 6.3 reveals a number of criticisms that have been leveled against trait research.
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Personology
A relatively new approach to researching consumers, which combines personality theory
and motivation, is the “personology” approach. This approach allows consumer researchers
B. Brand Personality [Instructor PPT Slides 13 and 14]
Brand personality refers to human characteristics that can be associated with a brand. Brand
personalities can be described across five dimensions, including the following:
• Competence
• Excitement
These dimensions are described in Exhibit 6.4. Brand personalities represent opportunities for
companies to differentiate their products. Accordingly, a brand’s personality may be viewed
Formation of Brand Personality
Many factors contribute to the development of a brand’s personality. In order for the
perceived personality to match the intended personality that is promoted, managers should
be sure to present a strong concept, differentiate the product well, create credible messages
about the brand, involve the consumer to a high degree, and generate a positive attitude
toward the brand.
Brand Personality Appeal
Brand personality appeal refers to a brand’s ability to appeal to consumers based on the
human characteristics associated with it. A brand’s personality should be perceived as
having strong degrees of favorability, originality, and clarity.
Personality and Brand Relationships
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The brand personality concept is especially important when one considers that consumers,
to a certain extent, have relationships with brands, and that personality traits are important
in the formation and maintenance of these relationships.
The concept of consumer–brand relationships has received considerable research attention.
Consumer researcher Susan Fournier proposes that the overall quality of such relationships
can be explained by:
• Love and Passion—A consumer may have such strong feelings about a brand that
they actually describe it by with the term love.
LO 6-3: Understand why lifestyles, psychographics, and demographics are important to the
study of consumer behavior.
III. Consumer Lifestyles, Psychographics, and Demographics [Instructor PPT Slides15 and
16]
Consumer lifestyles, psychographics, and demographics are all important variables that highlight
differences between consumers.
A. Lifestyles
Stated simply, lifestyles refer to the ways consumers live and spend their time and money.
Personality and lifestyles are closely related topics. In fact, lifestyles may be referred to as
context-specific personality traits. Importantly, lifestyles aren’t completely determined by
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and consumption, consumer lifestyles are considered an important manifestation of social
stratification.
B. Psychographics
The term psychographics refers to the way consumer lifestyles are measured. Psychographic
• Autonomous—These independent-thinking consumers strive to be upwardly mobile.
• Hedonistic—The hedonistic segment values human relationships and work.
• Conservative—Like the home-loving segment, this segment focuses largely on the
family.
There are numerous ways in which to segment consumers based on lifestyles
Specificity of Lifestyle Segments [Instructor PPT Slide 17]
The lifestyle approaches can be categorized in terms of their specificity—either narrowly
defined or more broadly defined. Generally, lifestyles are very specific.
VALS
Developed and marketed by Strategic Business Insights, VALS is a very successful
PRIZM
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Geodemographic techniques combine data on consumer expenditures and socioeconomic
variables with geographic information in order to identify commonalities in consumption
patterns of households in various regions. PRIZM is a popular lifestyle analysis technique
C. Demographics
Demographics refer to observable, statistical aspects of populations including such factors as
age, gender, or income. The study of demographics is known as demography. Demographic
variables include age, ethnicity, family size, occupation, and sometimes income.
Age
Age is important not only because of its descriptive nature, but also because consumers
who experience significant life events at approximately the same age are influenced
Ethnicity
Diversity is growing in the United States. Minority groups (such as Hispanics, African
Americans, and Asian Americans) are expected to grow considerably in the years to
come.
Income
Income is another important variable. Although it is often discussed in terms of
socioeconomic variables, it is included here because it is often present in several
popular demographic publications such as the U.S. Census.
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consider psychographic measures leads to the trap of assuming that all consumers of a
certain demographic have the exact same tastes.
Demographics and the Online World
LO 6-4: Comprehend the role of the self-concept in consumer behavior.
IV. The Role of Self-Concept in Consumer Behavior [Instructor PPT Slide 18]
The term self-concept refers to the totality of thoughts and feelings that an individual has about
him- or herself. Self-concept can also be thought of as the way a person defines or gives meaning
to his or her own identity, as in a type of self-schema.
Consumers will have a number of “concepts” about themselves that may emerge over time and
surface in different social situations.
• The actual self refers to how consumers currently perceive themselves (that is, who I am).
• The ideal self refers to how consumers would like to perceive themselves (that is, who I
would like to be in the future).
The relationship between consumer self-concept and product consumption is a two-way street.
That is, consumers express their self-concepts by purchasing and displaying various products,
while products help to define how they see themselves.
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A. Self-Concept and Body Presentation
The issue of self-concept in consumer behavior has several implications. The term self-
esteem refers to the positivity of an individual’s self-concept. Body esteem refers to the
positivity with which people hold their body image. Low body esteem can result in a number
of negative behaviors and attitudes.
Q: Does your family play a role in shaping your self-esteem? Do you feel fashion plays
an important role in shaping your body esteem?
Cosmetic Surgery and Body Modification
Because of the many ways consumers compare themselves to others, it is easy to
understand why many medical procedures that promise to improve consumers’ perceptions
of their bodies are now available. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic
Surgery, there were over 15.6 million cosmetic procedures performed in the United States
in 2014, and there was an upward trend in the percentage of procedures performed.
Body Piercings and Tattoos
Body piercings and other forms of body decorations, such as tattoos, represent other
methods of promoting one’s self-concept. Estimates vary widely, with one study revealing
that as many as 51% of teenagers and young adults have some form of body piercing.
While body piercings are popular forms of self-expression and are frequently used as
innocent methods of self-expression, research also indicates that the use of piercings can
sometimes be associated with increased levels of drug and alcohol use, unprotected sexual
activity, trait anxiety, and depression.
Q: What is your opinion on plastic surgery? Do you personally think it can increase
an individual’s self-esteem?