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Consumer Behaviour

Notes

Caselet Self-concept and its Marketing Implications

or marketers it is important to know that consumers make purchase decisions to
support their self concept. Using research techniques to identify how customers
Fview themselves may give marketers insight into products and promotion options
that are not readily apparent. For example, when examining consumers a marketer may
initially build marketing strategy around more obvious clues to consumption behavior,
such as consumer's demographic indicators (e.g., age, occupation, income). However,
in-depth research may yield information that shows consumers are purchasing products
to fulfill self-concept objectives that have little to do with the demographic category they
fall into (e.g., senior citizen may be making purchases that make them feel younger).
Appealing to the consumer's self concept needs could expand the market to which the
product is targeted.
Source: www.knowthis.com

4.5 Summary

The personality is a dynamic concept that describes the growth and development of an
individual's whole psychological system, which includes motives, beliefs, attitudes, habits,
and overall outlook. Personality is generally believed to be consistent and enduring over
time.

It guides the behaviour of individuals chosen to achieve goals in different situations.
Personality may, however, change due to major life events such as marriage, birth, death
in family, changes in economic circumstances, and the process of ageing.
There is much controversy regarding the exact nature of personality, however, the concept
of personality is considered as very real and meaningful in everyday life. Personality
traits help describe and differentiate between individuals. There is general agreement
that personality of an individual is made up of inherited characteristics and the interaction
with environment, and moderated by situational conditions.
Various theories of personality have been proposed. Marketers have generally paid more
attention to four theories of personality. There are two basic approaches to understanding
personality: (1) all individuals have internal characteristics or traits that can be measured,
and (2) there are consistent differences between individuals on these characteristics that
can be measured.
Freud's psychoanalytic theory proposes that every individual's personality is the result of
childhood conflicts. These conflicts are derived from id, ego, and superego.
Social/cultural theories view individuals as striving to win over feelings of inferiority,
which emanate from childhood experiences in relating to others; searching for ways to
gain love, security, and relationships. Several personality types have been identified such
as sensing-thinking personality, sensing-feeling personality, intuiting-thinking
personality, and intuiting-feeling personality etc.
Self-concept theory is considered as most relevant and focuses on how the self-image of
individuals influences their purchase and other behaviour. Self-concept refers to the totality
of an individual's thoughts and feelings with regard to herself/himself as an object.

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