INTERNAL INFLUENCES III: MOTIVATION &

PERSONALITY
MOTIVATION
Motivation: Driving force within individuals that impels them to action, inner state that energizes activates or
moves & that directs or channels behaviour towards goals
Goals: Ends or aspirations that direct action
Motive has three main elements: triggering of a behaviour, general direction of that behaviour & its persistence
until satisfaction is achieved
Motive is often stimulated by processes similar to problem recognition (perception of a discrepancy between a
desired state & an actual state)
Motives cannot be seen & so must be inferred from
behaviour

MODEL OF MOTIVATION
Iterative process – whether or not a goal is fulfilled as
first intended may lead to the creation of more goals
(fulfilment of one goal typically creates the next desire)
N.B. Different individuals will take different paths to get
to a goal

NEEDS
Innate/Primary Needs: Biogenic needs required to sustain life
Acquired/Secondary Needs: Psychogenic needs acquired or learned from culture & environment
N.B. Secondary needs are learnt

MOTIVATIONAL CONFLICT
Having a variety of motivations/goals will lead to motivational conflict
Motivational Conflict: Outcome of different motives driving consumers to opposite behaviours
Approach-Avoidance Desired goal has a negative consequence E.g. ‘Big night’ leading to not-
Conflict (consumer faces both positive & negative so-well the day after
consequences in the purchase of a particular
product)

Approach-Approach Decision between two desired but mutually E.g. Two good holiday
Conflict exclusive outcomes destinations but can’t do both
Advertising timed to appear when this conflict
will arise or delayed payment system that allows
purchase of both are potential solutions
Avoidance-Avoidance Must decide between undesirable options E.g. Both banks have high fees
Conflict but need to select one

INTRINSIC VS. EXTRINSIC

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION Driven by internal goal (e.g. personal satisfaction, enjoyment, sense of
achievement, curiosity, understanding, peace & mastery)
‘Push’ factors
EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION Driven by external goal (e.g. public recognition, payment, grades, fear of
punishment, rewards)
‘Pull’ factors
How should products be positioned differently based on different motivation sources?

INCENTIVES
TED talk in lecture
 Discussion about motivation & how performance on a task is a function of the motivations behind it
 Rewards narrow focus (however this encourages thinking too much ‘inside the box’ & limits creativity)
  Task is mechanical vs. cognitive (mechanical tasks – higher reward =higher performance, however for
cognitive tasks, higher reward = poorer performance)

Assumption that a price reduction will increase sales (price reduction is an extrinsic reward)
 Need to appeal to the intrinsic motivation within the consumer
 Millennial generations indicate they are increasingly concerned about social issues (these relate to
intrinsic more than extrinsic motivations)

MANIFEST/LATENT MOTIVES
Manifest Motives: Motives that are known & freely admitted
Latent Motives: Motives that either are unknown to the individual or are such that the individual is reluctant to
admit them

EXAMPLE (purchase a Louis Vuitton Handbag)

Manifest Motives Latent Motives
High-quality well made product Expensive bag & will make the person look rich
Made by a reputable & trustworthy brand Brand symbolises wealth/success (will feel
Experience superior customer service & after-sales important/respected)
service Preferred brand with celebrities so will be special
N.B. Consumers may not always be aware of all the motives behind their behaviour (subconscious influences)

IMPLICATIONS
Consumers don’t buy products they buy motive satisfiers (e.g. solutions to problems, tension reducers etc.)
Marketers must ask what is the underlying need that is going to be satisfied (is this extrinsic or intrinsic?)
Challenge for marketers ⇒ cannot infer motives from observable behaviour
Must use information about latent motives in a productive manner (may not always want to advertise this
attribute)

PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES FOR LATENT MOTIVES

o Association techniques – e.g. word association & successive word association (tap semantic memory
more than motives & are used for brand name & advertising-copy tests)
o Completion techniques – e.g. sentence completion & story completion (examining responses for themes
& key concepts used)
o Construction techniques – e.g. picture interpretation, role play & third person (same as completion)

CLASSIFYING MOTIVES
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Macro-theory designed to account for most human behaviour in general terms, stipulating a natural progression
from physiological needs to higher, self-actualisation needs
Self-Actualisation: These needs involve the desire for self-fulfilment or becoming all that one is capable of
becoming, this level of needs is only activated when all others have been satisfied
Examples:
o Protect our kids poster campaign
– appealing to safety need
o Bacardi add – appealing to social
need
o Oak chocolate milk add –
appealing to physiological
o Sparkling water add (on a boat) –
appealing to ego
o Employer-sponsored wellness
programs add – self-actualisation
o Mercedes-Benz add – ego needs

Limitations of Maslow’s hierarchy:

Maslow’s theory was developed during a time of less globalism & cultural diversity
 o Sequence/priority (some needs don’t just disappear when another earlier need is removed)
o Cultural issues
o Individual differences
N.B. Avoid discussing having to satisfy one need before you can progress to the next

Maslow’s theory has been extensively used in marketing to conceptualise/define customer needs and assist
market segmentation based upon consumer needs

MCGUIRE’S PSYCHOLOGICAL MOTIVES

Maslow’s model might not always be the most appropriate model, McGuire developed a more specific
classification system (can help marketers isolate motives likely to be involved in various consumption situations)
Identified 16 motives & classified these into four categories
Cognitive Motives Person has a drive to adapt to the environment or
achieve a sense of meaning
Affective Motives To reach satisfying feelings & attain personal goals
Preservation Motives Strive to maintain equilibrium/stability
Growth Motives Strive for personal development
These four categories can be further divided depending on whether:
o The behaviour is actively initiated or is in response to the environment (passive)
o The behaviour helps the individual to achieve a new internal state or a new external state (outcomes are
internal to the individual or focused on relationship with the environment)

APPLICATION TASK
Tiffany & Co. advertisement (two adds, one depicting an engagement ring & woman with a man whereas the
other a woman by herself depicting as a working lady with nice jewellery)
 Woman by herself = ego
 Woman with man = social

MARKETING STRATEGY
View consumers as buying solutions to problems or motive satisfiers rather than products – marketers must
discover the motives that their products/brands can satisfy & develop their marketing mix based on such
If more than one motive is apparent, the product must provide more than one benefit & advertising must
communicate this
Overall campaign should try to position the product in the schematic memory of the target market in a manner
that corresponds with the target market’s manifest & latent motives for purchasing the product

PERSONALITY
The inner characteristics that both determine & reflect how a person responds to his or her environment
Encompasses people’s behaviour & experience of the world
Reflects individual differences
Relatively stable & enduring tendencies
Can change with dramatic events

TRAIT THEORY
Factor analytic perspective – all have some traits but in different amounts
Imprinted in childhood & are stable over the course of one’s life but can change or be modified (serious events,
illness or intervention)
Measure traits to identify individual differences & predict behaviour
Orientation is primarily quantitative
Single-Trait Theories: Theories that emphasise one personality trait as being of overwhelming importance
 Materialism (seeing possessions as particularly important to one’s identity) is an example relevant to CB
Multi-Tait Theories: Theories that describe personality as the compound sum of several identifiable traits
 E.g. Low level of source trait of dominance could account for the surface traits of deference &
cooperativeness

FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY

More recent approach to illustrate multi-trait personality theory
Model identifies five traits that are said to be formed by genetics & early learning, these then manifest into
behaviours which are triggered by situations
Everyone can be described relative to the proportions of each five factors present (will vary among each person)
1) Neuroticism (N) – low emotional stability
2) Extraversion (E)
3) Openness (O)
4) Agreeableness (A)
5) Conscientiousness (C)

OTHER TRAITS RELEVANT TO CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Materialism:
High Low
Attracted to idea of pampering self & keeping things Not attracted by possessions
to oneself More attracted to experiences
Attains value from acquiring & displaying possessions More connections to people
Seeks/has lifestyle full of possessions Inclined towards downsizing
This consideration is important for marketers attempting to sell hedonic vs. utility products
Consumer innovativeness
Consumer ethnocentricism – Dick Smith products or Chevrolet add
Variety-novelty seeking
These traits manifest in positioning products

PSYCHOANALYTIC (FREUDIAN) THEORY

Personality formed in early childhood
Unconscious forces direct thoughts & behaviour
THREE LAYERS OF PERSON (TRIPARTITE MODEL)
Id Primitive & instinctual need to seek satisfaction & avoid pain
Ego Conscious control that seeks to balance & resolve conflict between id &
superego
Superego Internal expression of society’s moral & ethical codes that seeks pleasure in
socially acceptable manner

JUNGIAN THEORY
Greater focus on adult development, the unconscious & archetypes
Personal Unconscious Previous experiences now repressed, forgotten, suppressed or ignored
Collective Unconscious Latent memory traces or archetypes inherited form ancestral past
Archetypes Characters, images or events that reoccur across story, song, myth & art
Example archetypes include: hero, creator, explorer, rebel, jester, lover, carer, citizen, innocent, ruler, sage,
wizard

APPLICATION TO MARKETING
Every individual has some personality traits/aspects they would like to improve – this is open to influence by
marketers
Insight into an individual’s personality through their use of social networking may provide insight into how to
attract consumers’ attention by matching personality traits to marketing communication
Purchases & possession, reflect, extend & project the ‘self’
 E.g. Armani suit confers feeling of power & status
 E.g. Computer crash feels like loosing part of self
 E.g. Owning a surf-board says ‘I am a surfer’

Freud acknowledges that it is not about mindless hedonism but products helping to define us
Sex sells

These archetypes are present in advertising

 Detergent add for kids clothes uses mother/carer archetype
  North Face add uses the explorer archtetype

Brand Personality: Set of human characteristics that become associated with a brand
o Transferring personality attributes to products/brands (e.g. positioning products as sophisticated)
o Projection of traits onto products
o Consumers tend to purchase products that match closely with their own as they perceive it or that
strengthen an area in which they feel weak
N.B. Some brands have developed characters that exhibit their own distinctive personalities such as McDonald’s
‘Ronald McDonald’ whilst others use celebrity endorsers