2. Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
3.1 To understand how motives, needs, and goals shape consumer
behavior.
3.2 To understand the systems of classifying needs.
3.3 To understand the impact of hidden motives on consumer behavior.
3.4 To understand why and how consumers use technology.
3. Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
3.5 To understand personality development.
3.6 To understand how personality traits shape consumer behavior.
3.7 To understand brand personification.
3.8 To understand the impact of self-image on consumer behavior.
13. Frustration and Defense
Mechanisms
Frustration is the feeling that
results from failure to achieve a
goal, and defense
mechanisms are cognitive and
behavioral ways to handle
frustration.
17. Need Illustrative Characteristics Promotional Applications
Achievement:
accomplish tasks, succeed, and
overcome obstacles.
Do the best and work hard in any
undertaking. Be able to do things better than
others.
Messages that encourage and illustrate success(e.g.,
advertising education).
Exhibition:
shock or thrill others and be the center
of attention.
Tell amusing jokes at parties. Say things that
others regard as witty and clever.
Messages showing attention from others when they
notice one’s possessions (e.g.,expensive cars).
Affiliation:
spend time, form strong friendships
and attachments with others.
Be loyal to and share things with friends.
Help friends in trouble. Be confided in by
others and told about their troubles.
Messages showing people enjoying themselves in
large groups (e.g., vacations, shopping situations).
Power/Dominance:
control, influence, and lead others.
Seek leadership in groups. Supervise and
direct the actions of others.
Messages showing actual or symbolic dominance
(e.g., being a chief executive; owninga powerful car).
Change:
seek new experiences and avoid
routine.
Doing new and different activities, like
eating in new restaurants, going on trips, and
avoiding conventional situations.
Messages stressing novelty, uniqueness, and breaking
with routines (e.g., adventure travel and active
vacations).
Order:
keeping things neat and organized.
Planning and organizing the details in any
undertaking. Setting definite times for
activities.
Promoting devices that save space and keep things
firmly in place (e.g., dividers and organizers for
closets, drawers, and garages).
Murray’s Psychogenic Needs
22. Discussion Questions (1 of 2)
• What are three types of products related to more then
one level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
• For each type of product, consider two brands. How do
marketers attempt to differentiate their product from
the competition?
24. Motivational Research
A “term of art” that refers to
qualitative studies conducted by
Dr. Ernest Dichter in the 1950s
and 1960s, which were designed
to uncover consumers’
subconscious or hidden
motivations in the context of
buying and consumption
25. Examples of Insights
• Cigarettes and life savers – sexual symbolism
• Convertible cars – surrogate mistresses
• Baking cakes – reproductive yearnings
28. Motives for Online Interactions
• Interest in buying and comparing products’
features
• Personalizing products is fun
• Desire for good customer service
• Win prizes and receive free samples
30. Personality
• Heredity and early childhood experiences?
• Social and environmental influences?
• Unified whole versus. specific traits
• Reflects Individual Differences
• No two individuals are exactly alike
• Personality enables marketers to categorize consumers
into different groups
• Consistent and enduring, but can change
34. Personality
Traits
• Innovators or laggards
• Close-minded vs. Open-minded (Dogmatism)
• Conformity vs. Individuality (Inner- vs. Other-directed; Need for
uniqueness
Table 3.3 High Need for Uniqueness
• When I travel, I’m always seeking out unusual gifts for myself.
• I’m happy when other people tell me that my taste is ”different” and
”uncommon.”
• I work at maintaining my own unique persona.
• Some of my acquaintances think I’m somewhat of a weirdo in my
seeking to be different.
• Standing out and being different is important to me.
• I stop buying brands when everyone starts to buy them.
• Being different is my own personal trademark.
35. Other Personality Factors
• Optimum stimulation level (OSL)
• Sensation seeking, Novelty seeking
• Need for Cognition
• Visualizers versus. Verbalizers
• Materialism
• Compulsions and Fixations
• Ethnocentrism
39. Discussion Questions (2 of 2)
• How are possessions an extension of the self?
• How do consumers use self-altering products?
• What are the two types of vanity? How does
vanity shape consumption behavior?
This chapter begins with a discussion of consumers’ needs and motivation and then describes how consumers’ personalities influence their buying behavior.
It also introduces idea about how marketers give brands human-like traits and discusses how a consumer’s self-image can affect his/her consumption behavior.
Unfulfilled needs create psychological tension and drives that make people take action.
Needs are circumstances in which something is necessary or requires some course of action. Unfulfilled needs form motivational desires that impel consumers to purchase goods and services. Desired outcomes create tensions which consumers strive to relieve by forming goals and acting in a way that will fulfill needs.
Brand personification occurs when consumers attribute human traits or characteristics to a brand. Brand personification is a form of anthropomorphism, which refers to attributing human characteristics to something that is not human. Mr. Clean is one of America’s most beloved and instantly recognized “persons.” The brand and mascot are owned by Procter & Gamble and used for positioning and marketing cleaning solutions and related items. Like the products that bear his name, Mr. Clean is strong, tenacious, competent, durable, and friendly.
Marketers may make consumers more aware of unfelt or dormant needs. Needs do not change, but the ways in which consumers satisfy needs change.
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. 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 are the sought-after results of motivated behavior, and all human behavior is goal oriented. There are two types of goals: Generic goals are outcomes that consumers seek in order to satisfy physiological and psychological needs. Product-specific goals are outcomes that consumers seek
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.
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. Creative marketing messages arouse needs by stimulating a psychological desire or imbalance in consumers’ minds. The goal then becomes to act on the desire, and reduce the felt imbalance by buying products.
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.
Goals and needs cannot exist without the other. People can be less aware of their needs than their goals, though.
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.
In the context of shopping, mothers and daughters shop for different reasons. Mothers tend to be more purposeful; daughters enjoy social shopping and consider shopping recreation.
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.
Frustration is the feeling that results from failing to achieve a goal.
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. Perhaps you can identify a time when you used a defense mechanism when reacting to a difficult situation. Marketers often depict frustrating situations in ads and describe how their products relieve them.
The ad provides an example of daydreaming.
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).
Henry Murray prepared an extensive list of psychogenic needs in 1938, which represented the first systematic approach to the understanding of nonbiological human needs. Murray believed that needs can be interrelated, can support other needs, and can conflict with other needs. He also believed that environmental circumstances strongly influence how psychogenic needs are displayed in behavior. Murray organized his needs into five groups: ambition, materialistic, power, affection, and information needs.
The Container Store Facebook ad appeals to the Need for Order.
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, clothing, and sex—all biogenic needs) 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 (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.
The ad for Party Squashers appeals to safety and security needs.
Even though Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is not perfect and cannot really be validated, it has been useful for marketers in Western cultures to use segments that are based on different types of dissatisfaction to motivate desired behavior.
To answer this question, think of products that provide safety and shelter but may also vary in price. For the second part of this question, you might want to consider companies that market coats and jackets. Some will emphasize different needs than the coat will meet and these unmet needs will exist in several layers of the hierarchy.
Motives are hypothetical constructs (they cannot be seen or touched, handled, smelled, or otherwise tangibly observed) so no single measurement method can be considered a reliable index of motivation.
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 (i.e., to discover underlying motives).
Dr. Dichter applied Freud’s psychoanalytical techniques to the study of consumer buying habits and used qualitative research to figure out why consumers did what they did. Many of the surprising explanations were grounded in sex.
Many qualitative methods also are termed projective techniques because they require 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 into (or onto) the ambiguous stimuli.
Marketers are particularly interested in bloggers and other individuals who post comments online because they can influence others.
Several studies investigated the motivations of consumers to interact with brands on the Internet.
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 ad a unified whole or as specific traits, researchers agree that: (1) personality reflects individual differences; (2) personality is generally consistent and enduring; and (3) although it is enduring, personality can sometimes change.
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.
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-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 admirations, 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.
The CAD scale is a personality test based on 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.
Four motivational factors for Innovativeness:
1. Functional factors reflect interest in the performance of an innovation.
2. Hedonic factors relate to feeling gratified by using the innovation.
3. Social factors reflect the desire to be recognized by others because of one’s pursuit of innovations.
4. Cognitive factors express the mental stimulation experienced by using an innovation.
Levels of innovativeness
1. Global innovativeness—a trait that exists independent of any product-related context and represents the “very nature” of consumers’ innovativeness
2. Domain-specific innovativeness—a narrowly defined activity within a specific domain or product category
3. 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).
Dogmatism is one’s degree of rigidity—the opposite of being open-minded—toward information and opinion contradictory to one’s beliefs and views (i.e., closed-mindedness). Dogmatic individuals are less likely to be innovators.
Social character describes an individual’s inner or other-directedness. 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 consumer 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.
Optimum stimulation level (OSL) is the degree to which people like novel, complex, and unusual experiences (i.e., high OSL) or prefer a simple, uncluttered, and calm existence (i.e., low OSL).
Sensation seeking is one’s need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take risks for the sake of such experiences.
Variety and novelty seeking consists of: 1. Exploratory purchase behavior includes switching brands to experience new, different, and possibly better alternatives. 2. Vicarious exploration consists of gathering information about new and different product alternatives and contemplating buying them.
3. Use innovativeness means using an already adopted product in a new or novel way.
Need for cognition (NFC) measures a person’s craving for or enjoyment of thinking.
Marketers care about different personality traits because they affect consumption behavior. For example, Duralee appeals to a consumer’s need for uniqueness.
Novelty seekers like to explore different purchases, explore purchases vicariously, and like to use an adopted product in a new or novel way.
Need for cognition (NFC) measures a person’s craving for enjoyment of thinking. People high in NFC respond to ads that contain a lot of product-related information and descriptions.
Verbalizers prefer promotional messages containing a lot of written, textual, and verbal information. Visualizers are more receptive to pictorial images, and include: 1. Object visualizers, who encode and process images as a single perceptual unit. 2. Spatial visualizers, who process images piece by piece.
Materialism gauges the extent to which an individual is preoccupied with purchasing and showing off physical possessions that are mostly nonessential and often conspicuous luxury goods.
Compulsive shoppers purchase items they do not need or end up using. Fixated consumers are collectors and hobbyists who tend to accumulate items that are related to their interests and show them off to people with similar interests. They have a passion and interest in the category, they are willing to invest a lot of effort in adding to their collections, they are willing to spend a lot of time and discretionary income searching and buying more items for their collections, and they are aggressively competitive at auctions.
Ethnocentrism is the consumer’s willingness to buy or not buy foreign-made products.
Anthropomorphism is 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.
A product’s personality frequently endows products and brands with gender. Consumers also associate some brands with geographic locations.
Consumer behavior researchers identified four components of self-image:
1. Actual self-image is the way consumers see themselves;
2. Ideal self-image is how consumers would like to see themselves;
3. Social self-image is how consumers feel others see them; and
4. Ideal social self-image is how consumers would like others to see them.
Possessions represent an extension of the self:
1. Actually, by allowing the person to do things that otherwise would be very difficult or impossible to accomplish (e.g., problem solving by using a computer).
2. Symbolically, by making the person feel better (e.g., being considered the “best dressed” at work).
3. Conferring status or rank, for example, among collectors of rare works of art because of the ownership of a particular masterpiece).
4. Feelings of immortality because of leaving valuable bequests after death.
Consumers use self-altering products to express their new selves or take on the appearances of particular types of people (e.g., a military person, physician, business executive, or college professor).
Researchers discovered two types of vanity: (1) physical vanity, which is excessive concern with or inflated view of one’s physical appearance; and (2) achievement vanity, which is excessive concern with or inflated view of one’s personal achievements.
Vain consumers: (1) are a lucrative market for personal care and beauty products; (2) welcome promotional messages showing that they attract others’ attention; and (3) are receptive to promotional messages featuring personal achievement.
Sometimes consumers wish to change or improve their selves, 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.
