Chapter 3: Consumer Motivation and Personality

Main objective of Marketer is to identify and satisfy needs. Marketers do not create needs rather they make
consumers aware of unfelt or dormant needs.

Motivation - The driving force within individuals that impels them to act. Unfulfilled needs form motivational
desires that impel consumers to purchase goods and services. Needs are circumstances in which something is
necessary or requires some course of action. Desired outcomes create tensions which consumers strive to relieve by
forming goals and acting in a way that will fulfill needs.

Marketers may make consumers more aware of unfelt or dormant needs. Needs do not change, but the ways in
which consumers satisfy needs change.

Needs:

1. Biogenic Needs - are innate or physiological needs (biogenic, primary), which sustain our biological
existence. They include the need for food, water, air, protection of the body from the outside environment
(i.e., clothing and shelter), and sex.
2. Psychogenic Needs - are learned from our parents, social environment, and interactions with others.
Among many others, they include the needs for self-esteem, prestige, affection, power, learning, and
achievement.

Goals - The sought-after results of motivated behavior, and all human behavior is goal oriented

1. Generic - are outcomes that consumers seek in order to satisfy physiological and psychological needs.
Product-specific goals are outcomes that consumers seek
2. Product-specific - by using a given product or service. When a consumer states they want a pair of jeans,
they have stated a generic goal. When they announce they really want a pair of Calvin Klein jeans, then
they have stated product-specific goals.

Need arousal – Needs can be aroused by internal stimuli found in the individual’s physiological condition,
emotional or cognitive processes, or stimuli in the outside environment. Many promotional messages are cues
designed to arouse consumer needs.

1. Psychological Arousal – Any physical stimuli felt by the consumer hinting towards an urge to fulfill a
need
2. Substitute goals can be used to get rid of tension when a primary goal cannot be attained. Over time, a
substitute goal may become a primary goal.

Factors while selecting Goals: personal experiences & knowledge, physical capacity, cultural norms and values &
goal accessibility

Purchase-related goals usually satisfy more than one need. And, for any given need, there are many different and
appropriate goals. The goals that individuals select depend on those individuals’ personal experiences and
knowledge, physical capacity, prevailing cultural norms and values, and the goal’s accessibility in the individuals’
physical and social environments. The goal object has to be both socially acceptable and physically accessible. The
motivation to select goals can be either positive or negative. We may feel a driving force toward some object or
condition or a driving force away from some object or condition.

Positive outcomes that we seek are called approach objects; negative outcomes that we want to prevent are called
avoidance objects.

Factors that motivate shopping

1. Seeking specific goods – going to supermarket to buy foods

Human needs are not ever fully satisfied. Higher-order needs emerge as lower-order needs are fulfilled. Individuals
who reach their goals usually set new, higher goals for themselves.

Cannot attain Goals?

1. Substitute - Substitute goals can be used to get rid of tension when a primary goal cannot be attained. Over
time, a substitute goal may become a primary goal.
 2. Frustration - Frustration is the feeling that results from failing to achieve a goal.
3. Defense mechanisms - Defense mechanisms are cognitive and behavioral ways to handle frustration.
Defense mechanisms are used when people cannot cope with frustration. They are often developed to
protect one’s ego from feelings of failure when goals are not achieved. Marketers often depict frustrating
situations in ads and describe how their products relieve them. (Aggression, Rationalization, Regression,
Projection)

Classifying Needs - Psychologists seem to agree about physiological needs, but they do not agree about how to
define and categorize psychological (or psychogenic) needs (needs with nonphysical origins).

1. Murray’s Psychogenic Needs

Psychologist Abraham Maslow formulated a theory of human motivation based on the notion that there is a
hierarchy of human needs which rank in order of importance from lower-level (biogenic) needs to higher-level
(psychogenic) needs. Individuals seek to satisfy lower-level needs before higher-level needs. The needs appear to be
mutually exclusive, but there is some overlap.

Maslow maintained that physiological needs (primary needs which are required to sustain biological life, including
food, water, air, shelter, are the first and most basic level of human needs. After physiological needs have been
satisfied, safety and security needs (physical safety, order, stability, routine, familiarity, and control over one’s life
and environment) become the driving force behind an individual’s behavior. The third level of Maslow’s hierarchy
consists of social needs, such as love, affection, belonging, and acceptance. When social needs are more or less
satisfied, egoistic needs 1clothing, and sex—all biogenic needs) (inwardly directed: needs for self-acceptance, self-
esteem, success, independence, and personal satisfaction; outwardly directed: needs for prestige, reputation, status,
and recognition from others) become operative. The fifth level, self-actualization need, refers to an individual’s
desire to fulfill his or her potential—to become everything that he or she is capable of becoming.

Motivational Research - Researchers usually rely on a combination of research techniques when trying to establish
the presence and/or the strength of various motives, e.g. Responses to questionnaires or survey data (i.e., self-
reports of opinions and behaviors) and insights from focus group sessions and depth interviews (to learn underlying
motives)

Projective Technique – (qualitative) it requires 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)

Storytelling - consists of having customers tell real-life stories regarding their use of the product under study
Role-Playing - Respondents are placed within a purchase situation and are asked to act out assigned roles
Sentence completion - respondents are asked to complete a sentence upon hearing an opening phrase

Motives and Technology - Marketers are particularly interested in bloggers and other individuals who post
comments online because they can influence others

Motives for online interaction - Interest in buying and comparing products’ features, personalizing products is fun,
desire for good customer service, win prizes and receive free samples & wearable fit bands motivate exercise

Personality Development - Personality represents inner psychological characteristics. It determines how we think
and act. Therefore, marketers use it for market segmentation and to design promotional strategies

Although research does not agree regarding the role of heredity and early childhood experiences on personality
development vs. the role of broader social and environmental influences or on whether personality should be viewed
as a unified whole or as specific traits, researchers agree that:

1. Personality reflects individual differences

Although personality is generally pretty consistent and enduring, special life events like marriage, the birth of a
child, the death of a loved one, or a job change can change someone’s personality

Three Approaches to Personality Can Change:

1
Inwardly directed ego needs reflect an individual’s need for self-acceptance, self-esteem, success,
independence, and personal satisfaction.
Outwardly directed ego needs include the needs for prestige, reputation, status, and recognition from others
Freudian concepts - Freudian theory suggests unconscious needs or drives are at the heart of human motivation.
Neo-Freudian theory suggests social relationships are fundamental to the formation and development of personality.
Trait theory takes a quantitative approach to personality as a set of psychological traits. A trait is any distinguishing,
relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from another. According to Freud, human personality
consists of these three systems, the id, super ego and the ego. The Id is the “warehouse” of primitive drives, basic
physiological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sex. The superego drives the individual to fulfill their needs in a
socially acceptable function. Finally, the ego is the internal monitor that balances the needs of the id and the
superego

Neo-Freudian premises - Neo-Fruedians believe social relationships are fundamental to personality (vs. Freud’s
theories, which were based heavily on development). These relationships are formed to reduce feelings of inferiority
(Adler) or tension (Sullivan). Furthermore, people can be classified as to how they interact with others – are they
compliant, aggressive, or detached (Horney). A compliant individual desires attention, an aggressive desires
admiration, and a detached person desires independence and freedom from obligation. What is particularly
interesting is how research has shown that these different personality groups differ in their brand usage.

Measuring distinct traits – CAD – Compliant, aggressive and detached (Horney’s Theory)

Personality Traits - Are characteristics that set people apart from one another, and are measured through self-
administered questionnaires to pinpoint individual differences in terms of high vs. low scores on specific traits.

1. Innovators vs laggards – Those who are open to new ideas in trying new products to those who are the last
a. Functional factors reflect interest in the performance of an innovation.
b. Hedonic factors relate to feeling gratified by using the innovation.
c. Social factors reflect the desire to be recognized by others because of one’s pursuit of innovations.
d. Cognitive factors express the mental stimulation experienced by using an innovation.
Levels of innovativeness:
e. Global innovativeness—a trait that exists independent of any product-related context and
represents the “very nature” of consumers’ innovativeness
f. Domain-specific innovativeness—a narrowly defined activity within a specific domain or product
category
g. Innovative behavior—actions or responses that indicate early acceptance of change and adoption
of innovations (e.g., being among the first to purchase new and different products or services).
2. Open vs Closed Minded - Dogmatism is one’s degree of rigidity, the opposite of being open-minded
toward information and opinion contradictory to one’s beliefs and views
3. Conformity vs individuality - Inner-directed consumers rely on their own inner values or standards in
evaluating new products and are likely to be consumer innovators. Conversely, other-directed consumers
look to others for guidance as to what is appropriate or inappropriate and are unlikely to be innovators.
Need for uniqueness is defined as an individual’s pursuit of differentness relative to others that is achieved
through the acquisition of consumer goods in order to enhance one’s personal and social identity.
4. Optimum stimulation level (OSL), Sensation seeking vs novelty seeking, Need for Cognition, Visualizers
vs. Verbalizers, Materialism, Compulsions and Fixations and Ethnocentrism

Anthropomorphism - attributing human characteristics to something that is not human. Brand personification
occurs when consumers attribute human traits or characteristics to a brand. A brand personality is an emotional
identity for a brand

Brand Personification – Communicating human features of a brand in advertising

Brand Personality – Provides an emotional identity for a brand, which produces sentiments and feelings towards
the brand amongst consumers. A product’s personality frequently endows products and brands with gender.
Consumers also associate some brands with geographic locations.

Attachment and avoidance anxiety – The degree to which people are concerned about whether they are worthy of

love & one’s view of others in the context of attachment

Underlying dimensions of brand personality: Excitement, sophistication, affection, popularity and competence

Self-Perception – Self Images:

 Actual self-image – the way consumers see themselves

Alerting the self - Sometimes consumers wish to change or improve themselves, as with Snapchat pictures with
filters. Vanity reflects one’s self-image. Physical vanity is an excessive concern with or an inflated view of one’s
physical appearance. Achievement vanity is an excessive concern with or inflated view of one’s personal
achievements.