Personality and Self-Concept

We are posed with the question:

"What interests a marketer more- personality or self- concept?"

We all come in different shapes and sizes, we all have different likes and dislikes, whats right for one person may not be right for another. there will be things that i like that you wont have any interest in whatsoever and vice versa. i have my own thoughts and ideas, and you have yours.
The idea that a marketer can use personality to influence buyer behaviour is a concept that baffles me as i dont quite see how it is possible because i consider each individual to be different from the other and that is what makes each of us unique. however it is a concept the marketer believes in, it just proves to be a difficult one.


Personality Defined:

"A persons unique make up, which consistently influences the way the person responds to his or her environment." (Solomon, 1999)

"Character, nature, temperament, make-up, persona, identity" (oxford dictionary)

"Those inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment" (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2004)

Many marketers believe that a consumers personality does influencce
the types of brands of products purchased. the type of make-up or clothing that a person purchases, and the social activities they take part in reflects their personality characteristics.

Hollander researched further into personality and came up with 4 different concepts of personality: (KC Williams 1981 pg133)

1. External- How a person interacts with others
2. Internal- Combination of values and attitudes
3. Dynamic- How they behave in new situations e.g social adjustments
4. Consistent- Their characteristic style

Although this is a good way of breaking down and separating the different aspects of personality into a persons actions and a persons feelings and behaviour, I feel a better way to relate personality to consumer behaviour is through a brand personality framework created by J. Aaker 1994:





The idea is that the marketer will be able to then vaguley aim a product at a person using the above framework. A product that is seen to be sincere will appeal to those with the personality traits; down-to-earth, honest, wholesome and cheerful. A product that is seen to be sophisticated will appeal to the upper class and a charming personality: this advert sprung to mind when i thought of sophistication:

Self-Concept:

"People see themselves as they imagine others see them" (Solomon, 2001). This quote suggests that we as consumers believe that it is not us as people that another person can see but its our personal possessions and the things we have that they see to make assumptions about us, therefore making our material possessions portray who we really are- Newcomb defined self-concept as "the individual as perceived by that individual in a socially determined frame of reference".

Willaim James (1890) argued that "self concept derives from social comparisons with others- peers, family, reference groups." This suggests that we as people feel the need to meet the standards of others if not better ourselves to feel satisfied with ourselves, or to feel that we can be accepted. Therefore when it comes to a consumer purchasing a product the thoughts going through their head isn't necessarily "do I like this, do I need this, do I want it" the thought will be " will other people like this, if I have this what will other people think of me".

Self-concept is made up of three elements:

Self Image- The kind of person we think we are
Ideal Self- The kind of person we would like to be
Self-Esteem- The extent to which we like ourselves.

Self concept does not necessarily reflect reality: take a look at the picture below:


The truth about self concept comes from the belief in the beholders mind, a person will see what they want to see, what their head tells them is true even though others on the outside can see differently. The best example of self-concept and self-image is the advert for anorexia and bulimia. the most painfully thin girl can look at herself in the mirror and still see herself as being overweight. These girls will never see the truth about themselves, no matter how many people tell them otherwise.
This stems from the pressures from the world of media portraying "the ideal" as a beautiful slim woman with no flaws whatsoever- an unrealistic but very much sought after image. So much so that girls as young as 8 years old are found to have eating disorders with the aspiration of looking like what is being portrayed to them on a daily basis. So its no wonder self esteem will in turn be affected. This is why advertising plays a key role in how consumers will react towards products- by creating something that a person aspires to have- the thing they are aspiring towards has to be realistic. This is why dove have created their campaign for real beauty.

Trying to help women around the world change their opinion of the definition "real beauty".
Dove's aim is to realistically portray women by showing them in their true natural form!

Self-esteem is how much a person likes themselves. Marketing Communications can influence a consumers level of self esteem . Exposure to ads can trigger a process of social comparison,where the person tries to evaluate his or her self by comparing it to the people depicted in artificial images. This form of comparison appears t be a basic human motive and many marketers have tapped into this need by supplying idealised images of happy, attractive people who just happen to be using their products.