Personality and the Self-concept in Relation to Mobile Phones - Assignment Example

Personality and self-concept and consumer behaviour 1. Individual characteristics that determine mobile phone usage Consumer behavior is said to be how and why consumers make some buying decisions. Marketers always try their best to understand the behavior of consumers so that they can device the suitable marketing decisions to increase their sales and brand loyalty. Beside the personal traits, there are several other characteristics of the individual consumer that determine their decision to buy or not to the mobile phones. These characteristics include: The need to be unique A customer may want to get a phone that is unique from the rest so as to stand out from the crowd. Such customers don’t put a lot of importance in what other people will say regarding their possession or their appearance. They strive tortures, be unique through searching for mobile phones that are unique in their features, functionality, capacity and the design so as to suit their uniqueness needs (Shah A, 2010) . Personal motives A customer may decide to by a particular type of phone simply because they believe that this phone will satisfy a particular need or will enable then to further their goals. For example, a student may decide to go for a phone that is internet enabled so that they will be conduct research work right from their phones. A traveler may decide to go for a phone that has MP3 features which will keep them busy as they travel from one place to another (Karanja D,2011) . Perception The decision to buy a particular phone may be greatly influenced by their perception of that type of phone. If there several phones in a shop and one is made in china and the other one is made in America, the one made in America is likely to have a higher price than the one made from China. As a result, the phone made in America is likely perceived to be of higher quality and more valuable as compared to the China made handset even if both phones will serve the same purpose for the consumer (Reddy P 2012). Social Class The desire to buy a particular type of phone can be greatly influenced by the social class that a consumer belongs to. Particular phones may be perceived to be used by a particular group of members and for this reason, consumers may purchase a particular phone as they perceive it as part of their social class or they believe that buying a particular phone will take them to a higher social class (Shah A, 2010). Culture Consumers may some particular consumer behavior from the culture that they belong to. Owning a cell phone may be viewed as being normal in one culture and may be viewed as extra ordinary in another culture. The consumer’s ethnic background as well as their geographical location greatly determines one culture and sets out what is acceptable as well as unacceptable buyer behavior(Reddy P 2012). Social factors Consumer’s mobile phone usage can be influenced by social factors such as their social roles, status, family and groups that they belong to. Those groups could be membership groups or reference groups. A consumer may decide to purchase or not to purchase a particular type of phone because of the opinion of the members of these groups regarding that type of phone or they may purchase a particular type of phone so as to fit in a particular group. Family members could also strongly influence consumer behaviour. The buyer could be influenced by his or her family of orientation who are the buyer’s parents from whom the buyer acquires orientation towards economics, politics, and sense of love, self work, ambition and religion. The buyers’s spouse and children make up the family of procreation. A customer may decide to buy or not to buy a particular phone based on what their family members will take it (Shah A, 2010). 2. Why marketers should understand how personal traits affect consumer’s behavior In the past, marketers have not placed a lot of emphasis on the personal traits of consumers. However, the best way to distinguish customer is through understanding their needs. Therefore, the best marketer is that one who takes an individual approach for each customer based on their needs. Marketing efforts should be based on what the customer wants rather than what the marketer has. Beside the marketer knowing what the customer wants, they have to sell it to the customers in the right way. In order to do this, they have to begin by “seeing through the eyes of the customer”. In the past, marketers have rarely segmented their markets based on the personal traits of the consumers an omission that has a great potential. If marketers wish to build strong relationships with their customers and touch their hearts, they have to be considerate of the human nature of their customers (Myers S.D, Sen S & Alexandrov,2010). Understanding personality traits will have important implications to the marketers. To begin with it gives the marketers an opportunity to conduct personal advertisements. Getting your advertisement message to the customer becomes easier when the message in the advert is in accordance to the preference of the consumer. Since personal traits are better predictor as compared to demographic characteristics, it provides a great opportunity to the marketer to optimize their resources as well as segment their markets. Also, it has been noted that different products will appeal to different customers. These differences are brought about by the difference in the personality traits of the customers. Therefore, if a marketer is in a position to understand the personality traits of their consumers, they will be able to develop a wide range of products base on their customers’ needs. Past researches have indicated that brand personalities appeal to different customers and it is for this reason that sports brand adverts will appeal to extroversion computer brands will appeal to cognition and intelligence while the luxury brand advert will appeal to self-centrism. Also studying personality traits will help marketers device their adverts as they will evoke different attitudes. For the example, for extroverts, they will prefer transformational adverts as opposed to informational adverts for products while conscientious customers will prefer adverts that have additional information. Also understanding personality traits of customer will enable marketers to plan ahead as they will predict with some level of certainty what kind of customers are likely to buy a particular product (Fitzjkenny ,2012). 3. Why trait theory is a popular approach of understanding consumer behaviour According to Myers et al, 2010, as compared to other theories, traits theory is a more implementable theory of personality as it enables quantitative measurement of traits as well as easy identification of distinct characteristics and features that define a person. For instance, one can be identified distinctively by their level of being socially outgoing, a trait known as extraversion. Trait theory brings out specific traits that are relevant to consumer behaviour which include self consciousness, the need for cognition, innovativeness and materialism. Innovativeness is the extent to which a consumer is willing to try new things while materialism is the importance that a consumer places on owning or acquiring. The need for cognition on the other hand is extent to which a consumer thinks about a particular product and makes an effort to process brand information and self-consciousness is the extent to which the consumer intentionally monitors the image that others portray about them. Therefore, the trait theory aims at identifying dimensions that makes up a consumer’s personality. For this reason, traits theory makes it possible for comparisons to be made of different market segments. The traits theory tries to describe people in relation to their predisposition on a number of adjectives. The table below shows 16 personality traits on which an individual can be described. The marketers can then use these traits to investigate the profiles of their consumers and those of their competitors (Myers et al, 2010). 4. The makeup of Self image Self image is closely linked to the personality of an individual as consumers tend to purchase products while patronizing personalities or images that are in line to their own images to retailers. Each and every consumer has their own image of themselves as being a particular type of person. Each person has a unique self image and consumers symbolically evaluate products and services in relation to their conformity with their personal images and pictures of who they are. Some products suit a consumer self image while others are just strange. There are four dimensions of self-image which include actual self-image, ideal self image, social self image and ideal social image. Actual self image refers to how an individual view himself/herself, social self-image refers to how other individuals view them, ideal self image on the other hand refers to how individuals would rather see themselves and ideal social image refers to how consumers would rather others view them (Solomon, Michael R, 2003). . Research indicates that marketers identified to other self-image namely expected self image and “ought to self”. Expected self image is basically how a consumer would want to view themselves at some later predetermined future while “ought-to self” refers to characteristics or features that a consumer believes it is their duty to acquire. Consumers are likely to choose different self images to guide their consumer behavior. Self image has significant impacts to the marketers. Consumption of particular products is basically defined self image and for this reason, there is relationship between what a consumer buys and their values and attitudes. Self image congruency model indicates that consumers will only purchase those products that match their attributes and indicates that there is cognitive matching between the self image of the consumer and their personal attributes (Fitzjkenny,2012). 5. How personality and self concept betters marketing of products like perfume and cars Personality indicates differences in individuals in that each person has their own unique personality. Cars and perfume are luxury goods and personality is very important to marketers of these products as it helps them to segment their consumers into different categories based on their unique traits. The marketer could be able to customize the vehicles and the perfume so as to suit an individual’s characteristics. Since personality is consistent, marketers of this luxury goods can be able to influence the responses of their customers and even try to capture the relevant traits that are dominant in the target market segment. For example, if the target group comprise of people who are open to experience, (people who always want creative and innovative ways of conducting a particular task) the marketers of these luxury goods could device their marketing adverts so as to provide experience for this group. If the target market comprise of Conscientious consumers who are detail oriented as well as achievement oriented, the marketer should ensure that they give vey informational adverts which explain in details what the product will offer to this consumers. Also ability of identifying the consumer’s personality traits enable the marketer to develop effective marketing strategies for each market segments. Beside the consumer’s personality, brands are also said to have personalities. Brand equity is the degree to which a consumer holds favourable association in regard to a particular product. Ability to create and effectively communicate a unique brand personality is the main way that a marketer of these luxury goods can compete well with their competitors (Philip, n.d) . Self concept on the other hand is closely related to personality of a person and it relies heavily on its personality. It refers to the attitude that one has towards oneself. This concept is based on actual self and the ideal self. In general, consumers purchase what product that they feel will fulfill their actual image. For this reason, marketers of cars as well as perfume should aim to ensure that all the feature of their products can match perfectly with the self image of their consumers. Purchasing of these luxury goods so as to achieve the self image of consumers could be advantageous to the marketer as it could lead to compulsive consumer buyer behavior. In relation to marketing, self concept is very important as they can use it to appeal to the buyers to buy the cars or the perfume that they feel will symbolically represent their ideal self image that they could be trying to get. Self concept is also beneficial o the marketer in relation to brand recall as consumers keep coming for those cars or perfume that constantly match with their self image and improve their self esteem and even their ideal self (Hawkins et al, 2003). References Philip Tapsell (n.d) Personality and Self Concept Retrieved on 21st March 2012 from http://perceptionofthecustomer.blogspot.com/2010/04/personality-and-self-concept.html Shah A (2010) Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior Retrieved on 21st March 2012 from http://ezinearticles.com/?Factors-Affecting-Consumer-Behavior&id=4602848 Myers S.D, Sen S & Alexandrov(2010) the moderating effect of personality traits on attitudes toward advertisements: a contingency framework Retrieved on 21st March 2012 from http://perceptionofthecustomer.blogspot.com/2010/04/personality-and-self-concept.html Karanja D (2011), Factors Influencing Consumer Choice Retrieved on 21st March 2012 from http://www.ehow.com/info_8468828_factors-influencing-consumer-choice.html Reddy P (2012) The Factors Affecting Consumer's Choice of Mobile Phones Retrieved on 21st March 2012 from http://www.ehow.com/list_7640797_factors-consumers-choice-mobile-phones.html Fitzjkenny (2012) understanding consumer behavior on 21st March 2012 from http://fitzjkenny.hubpages.com/hub/understandingconsumerbehaviour Solomon, Michael R (2003). Consumer Behavior. New York: Prentice Hall 6th Edition. Hawkins, Delbert, Best, Roger, Coney, Kenneth. Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin 9th Edition, March 2003. Read More