Page 60 - DMGT506_CONSUMER_BEHAVIOUR

Unit 4: Consumer Personality

It would be useful to consider the cultural backdrop. A debit card personality is a "spend Notes
within your means" type - that's an axiom that has been hammered in through several
mythical stories in the culture. It reflects the mindset of the traditional housewife who
runs her family within a budget. A credit card is more in tune with the "immediate
gratification" subculture derived from the West. Such a marketing context is unique to an
emerging market-life India.
Marketers can add a trick or two to their marketing communications strategy by identifying
the vast difference in the product personality of the debit and credit card. Our analysis of
marketing communications by these financial services brands led us to believe that both
the products have the same or similar activation and usage strategies which does not
differentiate the benefits well enough for the consumer.
However, Bank of America in the US has run a successful programme for debit cards,
Keep-the-Change, where any leftover change in the bill (on use of debit cards) is credited
back to the account as savings. The inherent product personality of the debit card described
above is well-reflected in the marketing communications strategy and is extremely
synergistic. Citibank runs 'Thank You Rewards' for their credit card customers where they
drive usage and reward them with aspirational gifts.
When the brand personality framework is fused seamlessly with the marketing
communications strategy, the benefits are multi-fold for marketers. They need to carefully
get this in place for short-term brand adoption while enhancing the brand value over the
long term.
Question
Does brand personality help in success of the brand?

Source: www.thehindubusinessline.com
4.4 Self and Self-image

Self-concept theory is viewed as most relevant and a popular approach for marketers as it
focuses on how the self-image of individual consumers influences the purchase behaviour.
Self-concept is defined as ‘the totality of the individual’s thoughts and feelings having reference
to herself/himself as an object’. Each one of us has a self-concept. Every individual sees herself/
himself as having certain attributes and qualities and values them. According to one popular
model proposed by M. Joseph Sergy, there are four specific types of self-images. Accordingly,
what consumers buy or own is a reflection of what they think and believe who they are. This
represents their actual self, what they would like to be is their ideal self, how they feel others see
them is their social self and how they would like others to see them is their ideal social self.
Research has identified one more kind of self-image, expected self, which means how consumers
expect to see themselves sometime in the future. The expected self seems to take a position
somewhere between actual self and ideal self. From marketers’ point of view, expected self is
more valuable than other types of self-concepts as it offers them opportunity to design products
and promotions appealing to consumers and providing genuine opportunity to change their
self-image.

According to H R Markus and S Kitayama, it is useful to categorise self-concepts in two kinds
(1) independent (separateness) and (2) interdependent (connectedness).
An independent self-concept predominantly reflects Western cultural belief that individuals are
basically separate. It is characterised by emphasising personal goals, characteristics, achievements
and desires. Such individuals are individualistic, autonomous, egocentric, self-reliant and self-
contained. Their definition of themselves focuses on what they have done, what they possess
and their personal traits that make them different from others.

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