Chapter 6
Personality and Lifestyles
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Global Edition 9e
Michael R. Solomon
6-1
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education
Chapter Objectives
When you finish this chapter, you should understand
why:
• A consumer’s personality influences the way he or she
responds to marketing stimuli.
• Consumers’ lifestyles are key to many marketing
strategies.
• Psychographics go beyond simple demographics to help
marketers reach different segments.
• Identifying patterns of consumption is superior to
knowledge of individual purchases when a marketer
crafts a lifestyle marketing strategy.
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Personality
• Personality: a person’s unique psychological
makeup and how it consistently influences
the way a person responds to his/her
environment
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Freudian Systems
Personality = conflict between gratification
and responsibility
• ID: pleasure principle
• Superego: our conscience
• Ego: mediates between id and superego
• Reality principle: ego gratifies the id in such a
way that the outside world will find acceptable
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Freudian Systems (continued)
Marketing Implications:
• This ad focuses on the
conflict between the id
and the superego
• Ads often times use
symbolism to motivate
product purchases
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Motivational Research
and Consumption Motives
• Power-masculinity- • Status
virility • Femininity
• Security • Reward
• Eroticism • Mastery over
• Moral purity- environment
cleanliness • Disalienation
• Social acceptance • Magic-mystery
• Individuality
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Motivational Research
• Criticisms
• Invalid or works too well
• Too sexually based
• Appeal
• Less expensive than large-scale surveys
• Powerful hook for promotional strategy
• Intuitively plausible findings (after the fact)
• Enhanced validity with other techniques
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Neo-Freudian Theories
• Karen Horney
• Compliant versus detached versus aggressive
• Alfred Adler
• Motivation to overcome inferiority
• Harry Stack Sullivan
• Personality evolves to reduce anxiety
• Carl Jung
• Developed analytical psychology
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Carl Jung,
Father of Analytical Psychology
• Disciple of Freud
• Established concept of collective unconscious
• Explained the creation of archetypes
• Old wise man
• Earth mother
• Young & Rubicam uses the concept of archetypes
in its BrandAsset® Archetypes model
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Figure 6.1 BrandAsset Valuator Archetypes
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Figure 6.1 BrandAsset Valuator Archetype
(continued)
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Trait Theory
• Personality traits: identifiable characteristics
that define a person
• Traits relevant to consumer behavior:
• Innovativeness
• Materialism
• Self-consciousness
• Need for cognition
• Frugality
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Problems with Trait Theory
• Prediction of product choices using traits of
consumers is mixed at best
• Scales not valid/reliable
• Tests borrow scales used for mentally ill
• Inappropriate testing conditions
• Ad hoc instrument changes
• Use of global measures to predict specific
brand purchases
• “Shotgun approach” (no thought of scale
application)
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Brand Personality
• Brand personality: set of traits people attribute
to a product as if it were a person
• Brand equity: extent to which a consumer holds
strong, favorable, and unique associations with
a brand in memory—and the extent to which
s/he is willing to pay more for the branded
version of a product than for a nonbranded
(generic) version
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Lifestyles
• Lifestyle defines a pattern of consumption
reflecting a person’s choices of how one
spends time and money
• Lifestyle marketing perspective: people sort
themselves into groups on the basis of:
• What they like to do
• How they spend leisure time
• How they spend disposable income
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Lifestyles as Group Identities
• Forms of expressive symbolism
• Self-definition of group members = common
symbol system
• Terms include lifestyle, taste public, consumer
group, symbolic community, status culture
• Each person provides a unique “twist” to be
an “individual”
• Tastes/preferences evolve over time
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Building Blocks of Lifestyles
• Product usage in desirable social settings
• Consumption style
• Patterns of behavior
• Co-branding strategies: brands team up with
other companies to promote their products
understand this
• Product complementarity: symbolic
meanings of different products relate to one
another
• Consumption constellations: define,
communicate, and perform social roles
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Figure 6.2 Consumption Style
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Discussion
• What consumption
constellation might
characterize you and
your friends today?
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Psychographics
• Psychographics: use of psychological,
sociological, and anthropological factors to:
• Determine market segments
• Determine reasons for choosing products
• Fine-tune offerings
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Forms of Psychographic Analysis
Lifestyle profile
Product-specific profile
General lifestyle study
Product-specific study
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AIOs
• Grouping consumers according to:
• Activities
• Interests
• Opinions
• 80/20 Rule: lifestyle segments that produce
the bulk of customers
• Heavy users and the benefits they derive from
product
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Table 6.3 Lifestyle Dimensions
Activities Interests Opinions Demographics
Work Family Themselves Age
Hobbies Home Social issues Education
Social events Job Politics Income
Vacation Community Business Occupation
Entertainment Recreation Economics Family size
Club membership Fashion Education Dwelling
Community Food Products Geography
Shopping Media Future City size
Sports Achievements Culture Stage in life cycle
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Psychographic Segmentation Uses
• To define target market
• To create new view of market
• To position product
• To better communicate product attributes
• To develop product strategy
• To market social/political issues
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Figure 6.3 VALS2TM
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Discussion
• Construct separate advertising executions
for a cosmetics product targeted to the
Belonger, Achiever, Experiencer, and Maker
VALS types.
• How would the basic appeal differ for each
group?
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Global Psychographic Typologies
• Global MOSAIC (Experian’s Mosaic® USA is a household-
based consumer lifestyle segmentation system that classifies all
U.S.) identifies segments across 19 countries: There are 631
MOSAIC types which can be segmented into 14 common lifestyles.
These lifestyles can classify the roughly 800 million people who produce
80% of the world’s GDP. For marketers, this means that we can identify
similar consumers worldwide.
• The Paris-based Research Institute on Social Change
(RISC) measures lifestyles/sociocultural change in 40+
countries
• Exploration/Stability
• Social/Individual
• Global/Local
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Discussion
• Extreme sports. Day trading. Blogging.
Vegetarianism. Can you predict what will be
“hot” in the near future?
• Identify a lifestyle trend that is just surfacing
in your universe.
• Describe this trend in detail, and justify your
prediction.
• What specific styles and/or products are part
of this trend?
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Geo-demography
• Geo-demography involves using data on
consumer expenditures and other
socioeconomic factors with geographic
information about the areas in which people live
to identify consumers who share common
consumption patterns
• “Birds of a feature flock together”
• Can be reached more economically (e.g.,
90277 zip code in Redondo Beach, CA)
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Discussion
• Geodemographic techniques assume that
people who live in the same neighborhood
have other things in common as well.
• Why do they make this assumption, and how
accurate is it?
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Food Cultures
• Food culture refers to patterns of food and
beverage consumption that reflects the
values of a social group
• Differences in international food cultures:
• In China, milk chocolate has less milk
• In United States, Campbell’s soup is saltier
than in Mexico
• In Germany, food must be healthier
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Figure 6.4 European Food Cultures
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PRIZM by Claritas, Inc.
• 66 clusters of U.S. zip codes
• Example: “Young Influential,” “Money and
Brains,” “Kids and Cul-de-Sacs”
• Ranked by income, home value, and
occupation
• Maximize effectiveness, cost-efficiency, and
impact of marketing communications
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Table 6.4 Comparison of PRIZM Clusters
Furs and Station Wagons Tobacco Roads
New money, parents in 40s and 50s Racially mixed farm town in South
Newly built subdivisions with tennis courts, Small downtowns with thrift shops, diners,
swimming pools, gardens and laundromats; shanty-type homes without
indoor plumbing
High Usage Low Usage High Usage Low Usage
Country clubs Motorcycles Travel by bus Knitting
Wine by the case Laxatives Asthma medicine Live theater
Lawn furniture Nonfilter cigarettes Malt liquors Smoke detectors
Gourmet magazine Chewing tobacco Grit magazine Ms. Magazine
BMW 5 Series Hunting magazine Pregnancy tests Ferraris
Rye bread Chevrolet Chevette Pontiac Bonneville Whole-wheat bread
Natural cold cereal Canned stews Shortening Mexican foods
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Behavioral Targeting
• Behavioral targeting refers to the serving of
customized ads (primarily online) based on the
prior activity on those sites by the target
• Data collected are anonymous but still privacy
proponents express concern
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Chapter Summary
• Consumer personality influences the way one responds
to marketing stimuli
• Lifestyles are an important aid to many marketing
strategies
• Psychographics go beyond simple demographics to help
marketers understand different consumer segments
• Identifying patterns of consumption are valuable
components of a lifestyle marketing strategy
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education
6-36
