2/18/2022

1

Chapter 7:
Personality, Lifestyles, and Values

Learning Objective:

7.1 A consumer’s personality influences the way he or she responds to marketing stimuli.

7.2 Brands have personalities.

7.3 A lifestyle defines a pattern of consumption that reflects a person’s choices of how to
spend their time and money.

These choices are essential to define consumer identity.

7.4 It can be more useful to identify patterns of consumption than knowing about individual
purchases when crafting a lifestyle marketing strategy.

7.5 Psychographics go beyond simple demographics to help marketers understand and reach
different consumer segments.

7.6 Underlying values often drive consumer motivations.

1

2

2/18/2022

2

What is personality?

• Personality is a person’s unique psychological make-up

• It consistently influences the way a person responds to their environment

• Our personality tends to stabilize when we reach adulthood.

Personality Theories – Freudian Theory:

• An adult’s personality stems from the fundamental conflict between a person’s desire to
gratify physical needs and the necessity to function as a responsible member of the society.

• This struggle plays out in the mind among 3 systems.

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory (Additional Reading):

Immediate
gratification

Person’s
Conscience

Mediator

pleasure principle:
Our basic desire to
maximize pleasure
and avoid pain guides
our behavior.

moral principle:
To do what society
says we should do in
the situation.

Reality principle: Finds ways to gratify the
id that the outside world will find
acceptable.

3

4

2/18/2022

3

How is Freud’s work relevant to Consumer Behavior (Marketing)?

• Highlights the potential importance of unconscious motives that guide our
purchases.

• Consumers cannot necessarily tell us their true motivation when they choose products

• Implies that there is a possibility that ego (mediator) relies on symbolism in
products to compromise between the demands of the id (i.e., engage in
pleasurable acts) and the prohibitions of the superego (follow society’s rules).

• Consumers channel their unacceptable desires to acceptable outlets when
they use products that signify their underlying desires.

• Product symbolism and motivation: the product may symbolize a consumer’s socially
unacceptable true goal.

Motivational Research and Consumption Motives:

Masculinity

Eroticism/ Romance

Rewards

Additional Reading:
how meat and masculinity have been intertwined over the years in society and marketing
communications

5

6

2/18/2022

4

Product Symbolism: Commercial

Personality Theories – Neo Freudian Theories:

• Alfred Adler: Prime motivation of any individual is to overcome inferiority relative to others

• Harry Stack Sullivan: Personality evolves to reduce anxiety in social relationships

• Karen Horney: Three interpersonal orientation:
• Compliant (people moving towards others; are dependent on other people for love and affection)
• Aggressive (people moving against others; are motivated by the need for power)
• Detached (people moving away from others; are self-sufficient and independent)

• Carl Jung: Developed method of psychotherapy known as analytical psychology
• Cumulative experience of past generation shape who we are today
• We share a collective unconscious – store house of memories we inherit from ancestors
• Shared memory create archetypes – universally recognized ideas or behavior pattern.

7

8

2/18/2022

5

Personality Theories – Neo Freudian Theories: Archetypes

Additional Reading:
Traits and brand examples of 12 archetypes

Personality Theories – Neo Freudian Theories: Archetypes – The Hero
• Main motivation: Prove their worth through courage and determination.
• Work hard to have the skills they deem requirements; Take pride that their work rate sets them apart from the rest.
• Need to meet challenges head-on.
• Want to save the day to prove their worth to themselves and the world.

The Hero Brand In Action – Nike

9

10

2/18/2022

6

Personality Theories – Trait Theory:

• Trait theory focuses on the quantitative measurement of personality traits.

• Personality traits: identifiable characteristics that define a person
• For instance, we might say that someone is an introvert or an extrovert

• Consumer researchers have looked at many personality traits to establish
linkages to product choice :

• Innovative – likes to try new things
• Materialistic – places emphasis on acquiring and owning products
• Self-conscious – conscious about the image they convey; monitor and control the image

of the self that they projects to others
• Need for cognition – degree to which a person likes to think about things and by

extension, expends the necessary effort to process brand information
• Frugal – have a tendency to deny short-term purchases and to make do with what they

already own

Personality Theories – Trait Theory – Big 5 Personality:

Trait Description
Example of Measurement
Items (agree/disagree)

Openness to experience
The degree to which a person is
open to new ways of doing
things

Love to think up new ways
of doing things

Conscientiousness
The level of organization and
structure a person needs

Am always prepared

Extroversion
How well a person tolerates
stimulation from people

Talk to a lot of different
people at parties

Agreeableness
The degree to which we defer to
other people

Take time out for others

Neuroticism (emotional
instability)

How well a person copes with
stress

Get upset easily

11

12

2/18/2022

7

Personality Theories – Trait Theory – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator:

Trait Level 1 Level 2

Focus of Attention Introversion Extraversion

Information Processing
Sensing – take in information in a
sequential, step-by-step manner

Intuition – take in
information in a snapshot or
big-picture manner

Decision making
Thinking – step back from the
situation and take an objective
view

Feeling – Step into the
situation and take a
subjective view

Dealing with outer
world

Judging – a systematic approach
to meeting deadlines and
achieving objectives

Perceiving – a spontaneous
approach to meeting
deadlines and achieving
objectives

Personality Trait and Brand Image:
• Use of standard personality trait measurements to predict product choices has met with mixed success

• Personality traits are better predictors of type of media one may watch

• TV shows you watch offer marketers insight into your personalities and type of brands you are likely to prefer
based on the match between your dominant personality trait and the brand image

Rebels who do not like
authority

Ford F150

13

14

2/18/2022

8

Objective 2:

Brand have personalities.

Brand personality: set of traits people attribute to a product as if it were a person

• Giving a product a rich background to involve customers in its history and/or experience

• Based on reader-response theory – focuses on the role of the reader in interpreting a story
rather than just relying upon the author’s version

Brand Personality – Brand Storytelling:

15

16

2/18/2022

9

• Popular genre of brand story telling
• Different ways to achieve this –

• Positioning the brand as the underdog: Include details about a brand’s humble origins
and how it defied the odds to succeed

• E.g., Nentucky Nectars
• Partnering with individuals with underdog stories

• Resonates with consumers because they can identify with these struggles

Brand Storytelling: Underdog brand positioning

• Sometimes the best brand storytelling comes from the customers

Brand Personality – Brand Storytelling:

17

18

2/18/2022

10

Brand Personality – Anthropomorphism:

Refers to the tendency to attribute human characteristics to objects or animals

Brand Personality – Anthropomorphism:

Brand Persona (Personification) Brand Metaphors

19

20

2/18/2022

11

Brand Personality – Brand Action:

Brand Action Trait Inference

Brand is repositioned several times or
changes slogan repeatedly

Flighty

Brand uses continuing character in
advertising

Familiar, comfortable

Brand charges high prices and uses
exclusive distribution

Snobbish, sophisticated

Brand frequently available on deal Cheap, uncultured

Brand offers many line extensions Versatile, adaptable

• Consumers just infer things about a brand’s personality from the brand’s behavior/ action in
the marketplace

Doppleganger Brand Image:

• Doppleganger brand image: one that looks like the original but is in fact a critique of it
• When brands don’t live up to their claims or seem unauthentic
• Consumers rebel by attacking the brand by creating doppleganger brand image

21

22

2/18/2022

12

Objective 3:

• A lifestyle defines a pattern of consumption that reflects a person’s choices
of how to spend his or her time and money.

• These choices are essential to define consumer identity.

vs.

Lifestyle Marketing:

• Lifestyle marketing perspective recognizes that people sort themselves into groups on
the basis of their lifestyles

• the things they like to do
• how they like to spend their leisure time
• how they choose to spend their disposable income

• Lifestyle marketing: a marketing technique where a product is branded and marketed
such that it is perceived to possess aesthetics, ideals, and aspirations that the targeted
audiences identify with

• revolves around an ideology that gives meaning and purpose to why it exists.

• A goal of lifestyle marketing is to allow consumers to pursue their chosen ways to enjoy
their lives and express their social identities.

• position their brand to fit into their customer’s lifestyle or position their brands as mean to achieve a
desirable lifestyle

Additional Reading:
• How Nike & Lululemon use lifestyle brand to cement their positions
• More information on Lifestyle Marketing

23

24

2/18/2022

13

Objective 4:

Identifying patterns of consumption can be more useful than knowing about
individual purchases when organizations craft a lifestyle marketing strategy.

Product Complementarity and Consumption Constellation:
• Product complementarity – occurs when symbolic meanings of different products relate to

one another.

• Complementary good: a product or service that adds value to another. They are two goods
that the consumer uses together.
• e.g.: cereal and milk, or chips and salsa

• On occasion, the complementary good is absolutely necessary.
• e.g., gasoline and a car

• Other times it simply adds value to the initial product
• pancakes and maple syrup

25

26

2/18/2022

14

Co-Branding Strategies:

• Co-branding strategies – a strategic marketing and advertising partnership between two
brands wherein the success of one brand brings success to its partner brand, too.

• Co-branding can be an effective way to build business, boost awareness, and break into
new markets.

• For a partnership to truly work, it must be a win-win for all players in the game.
• Both audiences need to find value

Objective 5:

Psychographics go beyond simple demographics to help marketers
understand and reach different consumer segments.

27

28

2/18/2022

15

Psychographics:
• Psychographics involve the use of psychological, sociological, and anthropological factors to determine how

the market is segmented by the propensity of groups within the market and their reasons for making
particular decisions.

• Sometimes it is called lifestyle segmentation.

• These go beyond surface characteristics to investigate consumers motivation for purchasing and using
products

• Demographics helps us understand “who” buys a product,
• Psychographics help us understand “why”.

• Group customers based on combination of three categories of variables (AIO):
• Activities (how they spend time)
• Interests (what they find interesting and important)
• Opinions (how they view self and the world around)

• Marketers create a profile of customers who resemble each other based on these categories which helps them
target the group they are interested in.

• Help marketers to identity their heavy users.
• They can better understand how they relate to the brand and benefits they derive from it.
• Knowing what their target segment is interested in helps them identify where and how to best target these segments.

Psychographics: AIO Dimensions

Table 7.6 AIO Dimensions

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 membership Fashion Education Dwelling

Community Food Products Geography

Shopping Media Future City size

Sports Achievements Culture Stage in life cycle

Source: William D. Wells and Douglas J. Tigert, “Activities, Interests, and Opinions,” Journal of Advertising Research
11 (August 1971): 27–35. © 1971 by The Advertising Research Foundation. Used with permission.

29

30

2/18/2022

16

Application of Psychographic Analysis:

• Define target market

• Create a new view of market

• Position the product

• Better communicate product attributes

• Develop product strategy

• Market social and political issues

Lifestyle segmentation system: VALS

• Innovators: take-charge, sophisticated, curious

• Thinkers: reflective, informed, content

• Achievers: goal-oriented, brand conscious, conventional

• Experiencers: trendsetting, impulsive, variety seeking

• Strugglers: nostalgic, constrained, cautious

• Believers: literal, loyal, moralistic

• Strivers: contemporary, imitative, style conscious

• Makers: responsible, practical, self-sufficient

• The Values and Lifestyles System (VALS2) is based on segments grouped by self-orientation and resources.
• Self-orientation: based on ideals, achievement, and self-expression.
• Resources (income, education, energy levels, eagerness to buy) range from high to low.
• The current scale uses a battery of 39 items (35 psychographic +4 demographic)
• Arrange vertically by resource & horizontally by self-orientation

http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/presurvey.shtml

31

32

2/18/2022

17

Look through on your own

Objective 6: Consumer values and motivation

• Underlying values often drive consumer motivations.
• A value is a belief that some condition is preferable to its opposite.

• Consumers purchase many products and services because they believe these products will help to attain a value-
related goal.

• Two people can believe in and exhibit the same behaviors (e.g., vegetarianism), but their
underlying belief system may be quite different (e.g., animal activism versus health
concerns).

• In today’s climate, importance of values also manifest in activities like boycott and
buycott.

33

34