Chapter 3: Consumer Motivation and Personality
Learning Objectives
3.1 To understand the dynamics of motives, needs, and goals and how they shape consumer
behaviour.
3.2 To understand motivation theories and their applications to consumer behaviour.
3.3 To understand how to identify and measure motives.
3.4 To understand the scope of personality and theories of its development.
3.5 To understand how innovativeness and other personality traits influence consumer
behaviour.
3.6 To understand the personification of products and brands and its strategic applications.
3.7 To understand self-image and its impact on consumer behaviour.
The Dynamics of Motivation
Motivation: The force that drives an individual to do something.
- Drives consumers to buy & is triggered by psychological tension caused by unfulfilled
needs.
- Personality characteristics guide the goals that people set & the course of action they
take to attain these goals.
The Motivation Process
Needs
o Physiological Needs: Innate (biogenic). Fulfilling them sustains biological existence
Eg: Food, water, air, shelter, clothes, sex
o Psychological Needs: Learned from parents, social environment & interactions with
others
Eg: Needs for self-esteem, prestige, affection, power
Goals
The sought-after results of motivated behaviour & all human behaviour is goal oriented.
o Generic goals: Outcomes that consumers seek in order to satisfy physiological &
psychological needs.
o Product-specific goals: Outcomes that consumers seek by using a given product/ service
Motivations: Technology Use
Motivations of Bloggers (1) self-expression
(2) documenting one’s life (Eg: keeping a diary)
(3) identifying other influential bloggers
Need Arousal
- Caused by biological (internal) stimuli, emotional or cognitive processes, or stimuli in
the outside environment (external). Eg: decrease in body temp., need of warmth
- Most of the physiological cues are involuntary, but they arose needs that cause
uncomfortable tension until they are satisfied.
- In cognitive arousal, random thoughts can lead to cognitive awareness of need to act
Selecting Goals
- People with different needs may seek fulfilment by selecting the same goal, and people
with the same needs may seek fulfilment via different goals
- Factors:
1) Personal Experience and knowledge
2) Physical capacity
3) Cultural norms and values
4) Goal accessibility
- Toward/ away the object/ condition
- Motivation to select goals:
Approach Objects (positive outcomes)
Avoidance Objects (negative outcomes)
Needs and Goals
Needs and goals are
interdependent
Needs are never fully
satisfied
New needs emerge as
old ones are satisfied
Success and failure
influence goals
Frustration and
Defense Mechanism
###Frustration and Defense Mechanism
Frustration is the feeling that results from failure to achieve a goal
Defense mechanisms are cognitive and behavioural ways to handle frustration.
The barrier that prevent achievement of goal may be personal or an obstacle in the
physical or social environment
Less adaptive individuals may regard their inability to attain goal as a personal failure.
Such people are likely to adopt defense mechanism to protect their egos from feelings
of inadequacy.
Systems of Needs
Psychogenic Needs: Murray and Edwards
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self-Actualisation
(Self-fulfillment)
Ego Needs
(Prestige, status, self-esteem)
Social Needs
(Affection, friendship, belonging)
Safety and Security Needs
(Protection, order, stability)
Physiological Needs
(Food, water, air, shelter, sex)
Trio of Needs
1) Power: An individual’s desire to control his or her environment (Includes person/object)
- Appear closely to ego needs, increase self-esteem when exercise power
2) Affiliation – Influenced by friendship, acceptance & belonging
3) Achievement – Often regard personal accomplishment as an end in itself
The Measurement of Motives
Self-reporting
Self-reported measures of motives consists of written statements which ask respondents
to indicate how relevant each statement is to them.
Reflect how they wish to be perceived, not who they are
Qualitative Research
To delve into the consumer’s unconscious or hidden motivations
Projective techniques: require respondents to interpret stimuli that do not have clear
meanings, based on the assumption that the subjects will “reveal” or “project” their
subconscious, hidden motives on the ambiguous stimuli.
Findings: Highly dependent on the training & experience of analyst; represents what the
analyst thinks they imply
Storytelling
Word Association
Thematic Apperception Test
Drawing Pictures
Photo Sorts
Motivational Research
Qualitative research conducted by Dr. Ernest Dichter
Based on Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality
Unconscious needs are at the heart of human motivation and personality
Drives are likely to be biological and sexual
Modern motivational research includes many qualitative methods & procedures and is
well established in consumer research (psychology, sociology, anthropology)
Nature and Theories of Personality
The inner psychological characteristics (the specific qualities, attributes, traits, factors &
mannerisms that distinguish one individual from other individuals) that both determine and
reflect how we think and act.
1) Personality reflects individual differences;
2) Personality is generally consistent and enduring;
3) Although it is enduring, personality can sometimes change.
Theories of Personality
1. Freudian theory
- Unconscious needs or drives, especially sexual & other biological drives, are at the
heart of human motivation & personality
- Freud’s three interacting system:
I. Id – The warehouse of primitive & impulsive drives (basic physiological needs) for
which the individual seeks immediate satisfaction without concern for the specific
means of satisfaction
II. Superego (A kind of “brake” that restrain the impulsive force of id) –
The individual’s internal expression of society’s moral & ethical codes of “proper”
or “correct” conduct
III. Ego – The individual’s conscious control that functions as an internal monitor that
attempts to balance the impulsive demands of the id & the sociocultural
constraints of the superego
2. Neo-Freudian personality theory
- Social relationships are fundamental to the formation and development of
personality.
- 3 personality groups:
o Compliant individual (Move towards others, want to be loved, wanted &
appreciated)
o Aggressive individuals (Move against others, desire to excel & win admiration)
o Detached individuals (Move away from others, seek independence, self-reliance,
self-sufficiency & freedom from obligations)
3. Trait theory
- Trait: Any distinguishing, relatively enduring way which one individual differs from
another
- Focuses on the identification and quantitative measurement of personality in terms
of specific psychological characteristics
- Consumers’ personality is described in terms of particular combination of traits.
- Provides number of personality traits that make up the personality of the individual.
Personality Traits and Consumer Behaviour
o Innovativeness: Degree of consumer willingness to adopt a product
o Dogmatism
o Social Character
o Need for Uniqueness
o Optimum Stimulation Level (OSL)
o Sensation-seeking
o Variety and Novelty-seeking
o Need for Cognition
o Visualizers vs Verbalizers
o Materialism
Brand Personification and Brand Personality
Brand personification occurs when consumers attribute human traits or characteristic
to a brand.
Brand personality provides an emotional identity for a brand
Anthropomorphism – Attributing human characteristic to something that is not human.
Relationship between brand personality and two human characteristics:
- Attachment anxiety: The degree to which people are concerned about whether
they are worthy of love
- Avoidance anxiety: One’s view of others in the context of attachment
Self and Self-image
The self represents a person as a whole. It includes an individual’s personality, personal
beliefs and feelings, experiences and the regulatory self.
Self-image – The way a person views him/herself.
Consumers offer select product that are consistent with their self-image.
Four aspects of self-image are:
1. Actual self-image — how consumers see themselves
2. Ideal self-image — how consumers would like to see themselves
3. Social self-image — how consumers feel others see them
4. Ideal social self-image — how consumers would like others to see them
