Consumer Behavior

Course Assignment
Instructions:
1. All questions should be answered in hand writing only.
Computer prints are not allowed.
2. The last date for submission of your assignments is 31 May
2023 (Wednesday).
3. You can use online reference materials and text books to
answer the questions.

Assignment Questions
1. Define consumer behavior. What is the role of consumer
behavior in marketing strategy?
2. Explain consumer motivation and describe Maslow’s
theory of motivation.
3. What is meant by personality? Explain the theories of
personality in the context of consumer behavior.
4. What is the role of social class in marketing? How is it
measured?
5.  Explain the difference between culture and sub-culture.
What is the role of culture in consumer behavior?
3......persenality can be described as the psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how
a personresponds to his or her environment. Although personality tends to be consistent and enduring, it
may changeabruptly in response to major life events, as well as gradually over time
Three theories of personality are prominent in the study of consumer behavior: psychoanalytic theory,
neo-Freudian theory, and trait theory. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory provides the foundation for the study
of motivational research, which operates on the premise that human drives are largely unconscious in
nature andserve to motivate many consumer actions. Neo-Freudian theory tends to emphasize the
fundamental role ofsocial relationships in the formation and development of personality. Alfred Adler
viewed human beings asseeking to overcome feelings of inferiority. Harry Stack Sullivan believed that
people attempt to establishsignificant and rewarding relationships with others. Karen Horney saw
individuals as trying to overcome feelingsof anxiety and categorized them as compliant, aggressive, or
detached.
Trait theory is a major departure from the qualitative or (subjective) approach to personality
measurement. Itpostulates that individuals possess innate psychological traits (e.g., innovativeness,
novelty seeking, need forcognition, materialism) to a greater or lesser degree, and that these traits can be
measured by specially designedscales or inventories. Because they are simple to use and to score and can
be self-administered, personalityinventories are the preferred method for many researchers in the
assessment of consumer personality. Product
and brand personalities represent real opportunities for marketers to take advantage of consumers’
connections to various brands they offer. Brands often have personalities
—some include “human like” traits and even gender. These brand personalities help shape consumer
responses, preferences, and loyalties.Each individual has a perceived self-image (or multiple self-
images) as a certain kind of person with certain traits,habits, possessions, relationships, and ways of
behaving. Consumers frequently attempt to preserve, enhance,alter, or extend their self-images by
purchasing products or services and shopping at stores believed to beconsistent with the relevant self-
image(s) and by avoiding products and stores they perceive are not. With thegrowth of the Internet,
there appear to be emerging virtual selves or virtual personalities. Consumer experienceswith chat
rooms sometimes provide an opportunity to explore new or alternative identities

1,Marketers are interested in understanding how personality influences consumption behavior because
suchknowledge enables them to better understand consumers and to segment and target those
consumers whoare likely to respond positively to their product or service communications
2, Consumer Innovativeness & Related Personality Traits:-
Marketing practitioners try to learn all they can about
consumer innovators those who are
open to ideas and to be among the firstto try new products, services, or practices
–for the market responseof such innovators is often a critical indication of the eventualsuccess or failure
of a new product or service.Personality traits that have been useful in differentiating
betweenconsumer innovators and no-innovators include
consumer innovativeness, dogmatism, social character, need for uniqueness, optimum stimulation level,
sensation seeking, and varietys seeking.
the concept of brand personality has attained enormous importance within the successful
management of brands. With a view to better satisfy their customers’ needs and to establish long-
term consumer-brand relationships, Companies position their brands with unique personalities [1].
Brand personality is a concept within the field of relational marketing and it is defined as a set of
human characteristics associated to a brand

Consumer can thereby identify himself in relationship to a brand based on the congruency between his
own personality and the personality characteristics attributed to the brand. Personality is an
important factor in the consumer’s choices of brands. The brands chosen by consumers are generally
in congruence with their own personalities. Therefore, brand personality proffers the functions of
self-symbolization and self-expression

Consumers purchase products to reflect their personality. The type of house, clothes, furniture,
appliances, automobiles, jewelry people buy indeed reflect their personalities. Ali, Babak &
Seied [6] simply described personality as the kind of behaviour that people have in front of the
others and their reactions which are shown in the society. Also, Sagini &Haridas [7] defined
Personality as what a person actually is. It also includes his thoughts, feelings and behaviour,
and that this overt behaviour is due to his interaction with the society and other fellow human
beings

4, What is the role of social class in marketing? How is it measured?

Social class is used to understand consumer behavior, including segmenting strategy, preferences,
and decision. I
The conceptualization of social classes is through structure and process approaches. Social classes
and socioeconomic status are often used interchangeably. Social classes is reflection of the
differentiation of classes in a hierarchical manner and the socio-economy of a person. Class
structure is analyzed using the socioeconomic status such as through income, occupation, and
education

Social Class:
Social class is the division of members of a society into a hierarchy of distinct social classes,exists in all
societies and cultures. Social class usually is defined by the amount of status thatmembers of a
specific class possess in relation to members of other classes. Social classmembership often serves as
a frame of reference (a reference group) for the development of consumer attitudes and behavior

The measurement of social class is concerned with classifying individuals into social classgroupings.
These groupings are of particular value to marketers, who use social classification asan effective
 means of identifying and segmenting target markets. There are three basicmethods for measuring
social class: subjective measurement, reputational measurement, andobjective
measurement. Subjective measures rely on an individual’s self
-perception;
reputational measures rely on an individual’s perceptions of others; and objective measures
use specific socioeconomic measures, either alone (as a single variable index) or in combinationwith
others (as a composite-variable index). Composite-variable indexes, such as the Index of Status
Characteristics and the Socioeconomic Status Score, combine a number of socioeconomic factors to
form one overall measure of social class standing.Class structures range from two-class to nine-class
systems. A frequently used classificationsystem consists of six classes: upper-upper, lower-upper,
upper-middle, lower-middle, upper-lower, and lower-lower. Profiles of these classes indicate that the
socioeconomic differencesbetween classes are reflected in differences in attitudes, in leisure
activities, and inconsumption habits. This is why segmentation by social class is of special interest to
marketers.In recent years, some marketers have turned to geodemographic clustering as an alternative
toa strict social class typology. Geodemographic clustering is a technique that combinesgeographic
and socioeconomic factors to locate concentrations of consumers with particularcharacteristics.
Particular attention currently is being directed to affluent consumers, whorepresent the fastest-
growing segment in our population; however, some marketers are findingit extremely profitable to
cater to the needs of nonaffluent consumers.Research

The measurememnts of social Class:

1. There is no general agreement as to how to measure social class.2. The result is a wide variety of
measurement techniques, which may be classified intosubjective measures, reputational measures,
and objective measures.
Subjective Measures:


In the subjective approach to measuring social class, individuals are asked to estimatetheir own social
class positions.


The resulting classification of social class membership is based on the participants’ se

lf-perceptions or self-images.


Social class is treated as a “personal” phenomenon, one that reflects an individual’s

sense of belonging or identification with others.


This feeling of social-group membership is often referred to as class consciousness.



Subjective measures of social class membership tend to produce an overabundance of people who classify
themselves as middle class.

Moreover, it is likely that the subjective perception of one’s social class membership, asa reflection of
one’s self
-image, is related to product usage and consumptionpreferences.
Reputational Measures:


In this form, selected community informants make initial judgments concerning thesocial class
membership of others within the community, rather than themselves.


This gives researchers a better understanding of the specific class structures of thecommunities being
studied.


Consumer researchers, however, are more concerned with understanding markets andconsumers than
social structure.


This method is often considered impractical

Objective Measures:


Objective measures consist of selected demographic or socioeconomic variablesconcerning the

individual(s) under study.


These are measured through questionnaires of factual questions.



The most frequently used questions are about occupation, amount of income, andeducation.


Sometimes geodemographic data in the form of zip codes and residence-neighborhoodinformation is

added.


Socioeconomic measures of social class are important when segmenting the market.Marketers match the
socioeconomic profiles of their target audience with the audienceprofiles of selected media.


Marketing managers who have developed socioeconomic profiles of their targetmarkets can locate these
markets (i.e., identify and measure them) by studying thesocioeconomic data periodically issued by
the United States Bureau of the Census andnumerous commercial geodemographic data services.

Socioeconomic audience profiles are regularly developed and routinely made availableto potential
advertisers by most of the mass media.


These objective measures of social class fall into two basic categories, single variableand composite
variable

working class cosumers:



Although many marketers go after the affluent, the size and income of the nonaffluentgroup make them
an important target market.


Lower-income, or downscale, consumers are households earning $30,000 or less.



Downscale consumers are more brand loyal than wealthier consumers because they canless afford to
make mistakes in switching to unfamiliar brands.
Middle Class consumers:


It is not ea
sy to define the borders of what is meant by “middle class.”

Though other measures are possible (such as those earning between $25,000 and$75,000) the upper
boundary of being middle class is about $85,000.


For many marketers “middle class” can be thought

of as including households that rangefrom lower-middle to middle-middle class.


Because technological and luxury products are becoming more affordable to this class, it
is even more difficult to define “middle class.”

There is mounting evidence that the “middle class” is disappearing in America.

This is not true in other countries where the middle class is increasing
The techno-class consumers:


Techno is a new basis of class standing



The degree of literacy, familiarity, and competency with technology, especiallycomputers and the Internet
sets the standard for this class.


Those who are unfamiliar or lack computer skills are being referred to as “technologicalunderclassed.”

These extraordinary stories of entrepreneurial and technological accomplishments,

when coupled with a general sense of not wanting to be left out of the “sweep of computer technology”
have propelled parents to seek out computer training for their
children, even their infant children.


Fifty-five-year-old professionals, who were initial

ly reluctant to “learn computers,” arenow seeking “personal computer training.”

Consumers throughout the world have come to believe that it is critical to acquire afunctional
understanding of computers in order to ensure that they do not becomeobsolete, or hinder themselves
socially or professionally.


It appears that those without necessary computer skills will increasingly find themselves
to be “underclassed” and “disadvantaged.”

5, Explain the difference between culture and sub-culture. What is the role of culture in consumer
Referance
https://www.scribd.com/doc/143945042/Ch-04-Personality-and-Consumer-Behavior
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
320420113_Impact_of_Personality_Factors_on_Consumer_Buying_Behaviour_Towards_Textile_M
aterials_in_South_Eastern_Nigeria
https://www.scribd.com/document/145264730/Social-Class-in-consumer-behavior