Psychological State of Consumer Behaviour - Personality and Lifestyle - Literature review Example

Psychological State of Consumer Behaviour – Personality and Lifestyle Student’s Name Course: Tutor’s Name Date Brief background of the researched articles This report will review existing literature sources and determine the differences and similarities between the perspectives held by the academic community regarding the issue. The report has identified six articles, which it uses for the analysis of how personality and lifestyle affect consumer behaviour. The papers identified for review are authored by Akin (2011), Hema, Bekkapa and Somashekhar (2012), Sathish and Rajamohan (2012), Steinman (2012), and De Mooij and Hofstede (2011). The report concludes by noting that effective positioning of products/services to match personality and lifestyle segments will depend on how well marketers define the targeted market, create new strategies for product/service positioning, use the right marketing channels for positioning purposes, and effectively communicate the product/service attributes to the consumer markets. The scope and objectives of the reviewed articles This report focuses on what selected literature sources have to say regarding the effects that psychological factors namely personality and lifestyle has on consumer behaviour. The objective of the report is to reveal what different theorists and scholars consider relevant personality and lifestyle factors that affect consumer behaviour. As indicated in the introductory segment, five peer reviewed journal articles were selected for use in this report. The reviewed papers have different perspectives on how personality and lifestyle affects consumer behaviour, with the likes of Akin (2011), indicating that personality perceptions that consumers have affect their attitudes and behaviours towards a product or service. Steinman (2012) on the other hand argues that there needs to be congruence between consumers’ personalities and brand personalities for marketers to build successful consumer-brand relationships. On their part, Sathish and Rajamohan (2012) argue that understanding consumer lifestyles will enable markers position new products/services, reposition existing product/service, develop new product/service concepts, and create effective promotion strategies. Hema et al. (2012) and De Mooij and Hofstede (2011) however argue that such as extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness and self-monitoring have been linked to consumer behaviours such as purchasing, compulsive buying, brand preference, risk-taking, fear appeals and risk-taking. Methodology followed in collecting information in reviewed articles This report adopted a structured approach to find and identify suitable literature sources for review. Using Google scholar, the report adopted a concept-centric approach to find peer reviewed articles that addressed how personality and lifestyle affected consumer behaviour. Keywords such as “the effect of personality and lifestyle on consumer behaviour’, the effect of personality factors on consumer behaviour’ and ‘lifestyle effects on consumer behaviour’ were used. About 30 articles were identified as relevant, but were later narrowed down to approximately 19 articles. Out of the 19, six articles were identified for review based on relevance of content to the psychological factors (personality and lifestyle) identified for discussion in the report. The remaining 13 were further reduced to 10 articles which were used to support theoretical discussions or propositions in the report. Another three articles were found by reviewing citations of the 5 articles which had been selected for review. The articles had to contain evidence-based, conceptual, or incidence/prevalence evidence. In most of the articles used, the assessment tools were behavioural, with specific attention to how consumer lifestyles and personalities affected how they behaved when purchasing products or services. The foregoing method of finding articles is referred to as the backwards search approach (Levy & Ellis 2006). The inclusion criteria for articles included those that discussed consumer behaviour, and specifically the relationship between the psychological factors of personality and lifestyle to consumer behaviour. The exclusion criteria used in the article selected included papers that were not written in English, those that were not peer reviewed, and those that had been written in the early 1990s. Major findings of the articles Hema et al. 2012; De Mooij & Hofstede (2011) The main findings in Hema et al. (2012) and De Mooij and Hofstede (2011) is that personality characteristics such as extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness and self-monitoring have been linked to consumer behaviours such as purchasing, compulsive buying, brand preference, risk-taking, fear appeals and risk-taking. Notably, while one’s lifestyle may change depending on changing circumstances (e.g. when one gets wealthier or poorer), one’s personality is enduring. De Mooij and Hofstede (2011, p. 187) specifically point out that one’s personality is consistently the same as seen in their behaviours, and that “behaviour that changes with the situation is viewed as hypocritical or pathological”. In their findings, De Mooij and Hofstede (2011) indicate that consumers project their own personality likings onto a brand. In other words, if a consumer deems a brand image not to fit their personality, they would not purchase it. However, they are more likely to make a decision to purchase an item (even for the first time) if they deem the brand personality of that product or service to be consistent with their own personality. Steinman (2012) On his part, Steinman (2012) found out that particular brands are associated with a set of human characteristics. For example, consumers may describe a car brand as sporty, trustworthy and eccentric. A tablet user may describe his or her preferred brand as dedicated, while a soft drink may be described as enjoyable and principled. Whenever consumers talk about their favourite brands, Steinman (2012, p. 76) notes that they talk of such brands “as if they were animate objects”. Brands may therefore act as self-expression mechanisms for different consumers since every brand personality conveys a symbolic meaning to different consumers. The relevance of personality on consumer behaviour according to Steinman (2012) is therefore embedded in the relationship that the consumer establishes with the brand. However, the existence of such a relationship highly depends on whether the product or service represented in a brand appeals to a consumer’s personality. The argument that “consumers often imbue brands with human personality traits” appears in several research papers including Aaker (1997, p. 347). Akin (2011) Akin (2011) found out that when it becomes hard for consumers to differentiate products’ emotional factors, especially in an increasingly competitive environment, consumers increasingly trust the brand personality of the product or service. In a study involving cell phones, Akin (2011) found out that true to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, personality is a product of the struggle of three forces namely, superego, ego and id. The id was according to Freud, the genesis of urges such as sex and aggression, and operates on pleasure principles (Akin, 2011). The foregoing means that people seek pleasure but do their best to avoid tension. Society limits the id because although someone would want to seek instant gratification, societal norms do not allow him/her. Consequently, the ego kicks in and helps people to deal with the reality of their surroundings through realistic thinking (Akin 2011). By operating on reality principles, the ego helps a person postpone the urge for instant gratification. The superego on the other hand represents the moral individual, and is shaped by the concepts of what is right and wrong as indicated in societal values. It will therefore suppress the id, and influence the ego. The relevance of the id, ego and superego in personality and lifestyle is that the ego, which acts as the rational part of one’s personality, is depleting. In other words, sometimes consumers will make irrational purchase decisions, which would be ‘uncharacteristic’ of what would be expected of them. The foregoing is also supported in literature (Baumeister 2002; Baumeister et al. 2007; Novemsky et al. 2007; Tice et al. 2007). Sathish & Rajamohan (2012) Some of the lifestyle predictors that marketers should be on the lookout for include: the product and services that people consume; people’s interests, activities and opinions; their value systems; their self-conception and personality traits; and their responses and attitudes towards specific products or services (Sathish & Rajamohan 2012).Using the aforementioned lifestyle predictors, a US-based research firm was for example able to identify five lifestyle categories among women. They include: the contented housewife who is simple and a probable source of brand loyalty; the chic suburbanite woman who is educated, genteel and more likely to try out new products and/or services; the elegant socialite who is stylish and goes for quality (she is rarely moved by price bargains); the militant mother who is unhappy, spends time watching TV and thus could be a good target for TV ads that promise to add joy to her life; and the old-fashioned traditionalist who spends most of her time in the kitchen, has little or no education, and spends her spare time watching TV (Sathish & Rajamohan 2012). Men’s lifestyles were segmented into: self-made businessmen; successful professionals; devoted family men; frustrated factory workers; and the retiring homebodies (Sathish & Rajamohan 2012). While the above lifestyles are by no means standard in every consumer market, the US-based researchers found that each lifestyle segment (both female and male) behaves differently while making purchase decisions. Implication for consumer behaviour theories and practices from reviewed articles Consumer behaviour theories seek to understand influences that impact how individual consumers spend their money, time and effort on consumption-related items (Hema et al. 2012). In other words, the theories try to understand what consumers buy, when, where and why they buy it; how often consumers buy and use a product or service, how they evaluate their purchase, and how they discard a used product. The argument that there is a relationship between one’s behaviour and their personality provides the link between personality (and lifestyle) and consumer behaviour (Hema et al. 2012). Though not a standard definition, the term personality refers to the stable behavioural patterns and a regular internal state of a person, which predicts how he/she behaves (De Mooij & Hofstede 2011). Personality is hence cited as relevant in predicting behaviour, and several researchers (Hema et al. 2012; De Mooij & Hofstede 2011) have drawn a link between consumer behaviour and personality. From the reviewed articles, it would appear that consumer behaviour theories need to address lifestyle groups more, especially through psychographic segmentation. In such a case, the marketers would need to: define the targeted market; create a new strategy for presenting a product/service in the market; position the product/service; and communicate the product/service attributes. Consumer behaviour theories will also need to demystify the connection between personalities and the effect that such personalities have on consumer behaviour. In a consumption environment, consumers select products or service brands which they perceive as having a similarity to their lifestyle identities as have been implied in the reviewed literature sources. In other words, individual consumers will go for products that will fit into, or enhance their lifestyles. Some consumers, in an effort to actualise their lifestyles, will also choose a product or service that represents the desired need. A woman who desires to dress elegantly will for example go for designer clothes, shoes, makeup and accessories. The foregoing argument is further supported by Krishnan (2011) who argues that consumer behaviour can be predicted by an understanding of how consumers represent the world to themselves, and in particular how their lifestyles are. The same author thus concludes that there is a causal effect of consumers’ lifestyles and this consumption behaviour. Such a conclusion is not indicated in the reviewed articles. Limitations of reviewed articles with references There is need to investigate the relationship between the Freudian theory and consumer behaviour, and apart from Akin (2012), none of the five other reviewed articles have done that. According to Akin (2011), Freud’s psychoanalysis theory indicated that personality is divisible into three components namely an ego, a superego and an id. Freud further indicated that one’s personality is determined by how the three components interact (Akin 2011). Freud’s theory has been criticised for failing to consider the sociological and historical conditions that affect personality types, but as Mulyanegra and Anderson (2009) note, the theory remains popular. Other theories have made an attempt to explain personality differences and in recent times, Costa and McCrae (2006) examined a personality scale that was created by Norman (1963), and came up with a NEO Personality Inventory. In the inventory, five personality dimensions namely agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience were identified (Akin 2011; Mulyanegra & Anderson 2009). Notably, the effect that personality (and lifestyle) has on the psychological state of consumers has not been agreed upon by different researchers and theorists. The effect of personality and lifestyle on consumer behaviour is thus not as clear as many marketers would prefer it to be. Drawing from literature (Aaker 1997; Harman 2013) notes that although the conceptualisations about brand personality and human personality are similar, they differ in how they are formed. Notably, human personality is based on a person’s behaviours, beliefs, attitudes, physical characteristics and demographic characteristics, while brand personality is formed based on a branded product or service coming into contact with the consumer. The challenge to marketers therefore is to use strategies that infuse personality traits into a brand. Such strategies according to Aaker (1997) could range from personifying a product or service by creating user imagery to any other form of anthropomorphisation, where human characteristics are given to products or services. Some of the indirect ways that marketers can use to infuse personality traits into a product or service include pricing, branding, product associations, symbols, logos, distribution and advertising among others. Pricing can for example determine whether a product is perceived as blue collar or high class. According to Verma and Hanspal (2000) psychology and demographics (psychographics) is a good representation of lifestyle and consists of activities, interests and opinions (AIO) that interest different consumers. According to Tan (2010, p. 2911), it is the AIO that drives the “needs, decisions and choices as lifestyle reflects the highest level of choice in a hierarchy of decision”. Once marketers understand the lifestyles represented in their target consumer market, they can position new products/services, reposition existing ones, develop new product/service concepts, and create new product/service opportunities, in a manner that appeals to different lifestyles. Indeed, several authors (Jay 2011; Roy & Goswami 2007; Tan 2010) underscore the importance of marketers understanding their customers by arguing that such understanding enhances how they (marketers) communicate to and serve the consumer market. Conclusion From the reviewed literature, it appears that what affects consumer behaviour is a much debated issue. However, it would appear that no single theory can completely account for consumer behaviour. This report, through a review of literature, has investigated how personality and lifestyle affects consumer behaviour, and has established that separately, the two have implications on consumer behaviour. While personality was found to be enduring, lifestyle was found to change with time, and depending on prevailing conditions. This notwithstanding, the report indicates that marketers can take advantage of personality differences in the consumer market to position their products/services in a manner that appeals to different personality types. The report further establishes that sometimes, consumers will make irrational purchase decisions, which is something that marketers should be prepared to capitalise on. In regard to lifestyle, the report underscores the importance of marketers understanding the lifestyles represented in their target consumer market. Such understanding can enable marketers to position new products/services, reposition existing ones, develop new product/service concepts, and create new product/service opportunities in order to appeal to different lifestyle segments represented. It is however important to note that to effectively succeed in positioning products to match personality and lifestyle segments, they (marketers) need to define the targeted market, create new strategies with which to present their products/services in the market, use the right marketing channels to position the products/services in the target market, and effectively communicate the product/service attributes to the consumer markets. References Aaker, J 1997, ‘Dimensions of brand personality,’ Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 347-356. 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Norman, W T 1963, ‘Toward an adequate taxonomy of personality attributes: replicated factor structure in peer nomination personality ratings,’ Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 66, 574-583. Novemsky, N, Wang, J, Dhar, R & Baumiester, R 2007, ‘The interaction of ego-depletion and choice,’ Manuscript submitted for publication, pp. 1-30. Roy, S & Goswami, P 2007, ‘Psychographics and its effect on purchase frequency – a study on college goers of Kolkota, India,’ Journal of Indian Institute of Management, vol. 34, pp. 63-93. Sathish, S & Rajamohan, A 2012, ‘Consumer behaviour and lifestyle marketing,’ International Journal of Marketing, Vol. 1, no. 10, pp. 152-166. Steinman, R S 2012, ‘Brand personality, brand transgression and consumer behaviour’, International Journal of Business and Commerce, vol.2, no.1, pp. 76-83. Tan, C S 2010, ‘Understanding consumer purchase behaviour in the Japanese personal grooming sector,’ Journal of Yasar University, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 2821-2831. Tice, D, Baumeister, R., Scmueli, D & Muraven, M 2007, ‘restoring the self: positive effect helps improve self-regulation following ego depletion,’ Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 43, pp. 379-384. Verma, D & Hanspal, S 2000, ‘Influence of lifestyles on consumer buying behaviour,’ Paradigm, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 52-65. Read More