Influence of Personality of Consumers on their Behaviors - Literature review Example

Topic: Consumer behavior Personality has been described as the physical as well as the internal emotional behaviors that control and reveal how an individual reacts to the immediate environment. The first section presents how an individual’s personality influences how they choose and buy goods in the market. The second part presented other personal factors that can influence consumer behavior, and finally the conclusion that summaries how personality influences behavior. Consumer behavior 1.1 Introduction Consumer behavior is the process of how different individuals and organizations select and make a decision concerning goods and services presented in the market (Belch and Belch 2007, p. 57). Researchers like Brown et al. (2009, p. 67) have defined personality as the physical as well as the internal emotional behaviors that control and reveal how an individual reacts to the immediate environment. Personality displays itself through itself through an exclusive emotional character that triggers action within the individual in reaction to situations within their setting. However, the stress is on the innermost characteristics of an individual. For instance, the qualities that make up an individual like attributes, characters, and habits that differentiate one person from another person, and make a person unique (Gill and Hodgkin ton, 2007, p. 44). This document presents a review on how personality of consumers influences their behaviors. 1.2 Personality and consumer behavior An individual’s personality to an extent is highly influenced by his or her immediate environment. Consumer behavior focuses on how people come up with resolutions on how to spend their time money and efforts when buying goods and services (Schiffman and Kanuk, 1997). Personality in consumers means the distinctive dynamic individualities of a particular person, objective and mental, which affect behavior and reactions to the societal and physical setting (Brown et al. 2009, p. 67). Consumer personality is a consistently repeated behavior among consumers. The individual characteristics influence how customers select goods and services in relation to buying outlines and utilization behavior. Consumer consumption patterns are continuously manipulated by their behaviors motivated by their environment (Achouri and Bouslama, 2010, p. 45). All individuals are unique in themselves, and therefore, character exposes differences among different individuals. Every human being has personal personalities or behaviors (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). There are also extensive differences among different people. The internal qualities that form the personality are exclusive in every person, having developed from inheritance, childhood encounters, occurrences, and events through their life, as well as influence from their immediate environment (Brown et al. 2009, p. 67). Thus, people can never be alike or identical. Every person shows an exceptional personality. However, people maybe different, but have similar characteristics and share a particular personality. It is this personality that influences the marketer who considers every personality as a separate subdivision (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). Consumer personality does not change and lasts for a long time. This makes it very difficult to change personality within the consumers. This personality presents itself through buying and selling of goods and services to the consumers. For instance, marketer should match his manufactured goods or brand behavior with the customer’s personality (Brown et al. 2009, p. 67). Marketers should note that it could never work without considering the consumers’ personality. The marketer should design his goods and services based on the personalities of consumers. Consumer personalities also vary depending on the social and environmental factors within the environment (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). Researchers indicated in their findings that marketers try to influence clients in terms of their character traits or personality. Marketers believe that clients buy, and their consumption time is highly influenced by their unique character (Brown et al. 2009, p. 67). It influences how they market their goods and services through advertisement and other promotions procedures. These researchers discovered that the nature of characters can be grouped into three, which are character according to individual difference, character according to consistency and long-term and character of an individual can be changed after influence through marketing and proper advertisement (O’Cass and Frost, 2002, p. 12). The study conducted by Solomon (2004, p. 33) revealed that research character has been an area of consumer behavior research and it has been grouped as an area that highly influences consumer behavior when buying and selling goods and services. Solomon (2004, p. 33) also discovered that information on consumer behavior influenced by character has been of much interest in research because this knowledge helps them understand how consumers think and select products presented to them in the market . Personal differences are significant variables to bear in mind when observing the effects of advertising. Different types of personal differences like self- concept need identification when studying how personality influences consumer behaviors (Suleiman, 2000, p. 67). With the intensified significance of target subdivision, more scholars are looking at customers’ value and character trait differences (O’Cass and Frost, 2002, p. 12). They are also interested in identifying consumers according to their own personal differences (Suleiman, 2000, p. 67). Psychologist group consumers form part of individual knowledge and discover these distinctions according to the manner they work as an outline that arranges and directs the processing of information (Suleiman, 2000, p. 67). Individual personal differences have affected peoples’ processing approaches. Differences in personality affect an individual’s preferences for visual features of styles. People with different personalities responded and treated advertising descriptions in diverse ways. In fact, researchers assessed the guessing or intuiting measurement of personality acknowledged by psychologist Jung (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). Findings of this study indicated the diverse types of specialties evaluated the advertising descriptions, as well as the entire promotion, more definitely, when the promotion covered tangible goods. The impulsive type of people favored promotion appeals that used nonconcrete images (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). Therefore, the findings indicated that different individuals perceived messages depending on their personalities. However, this study failed to explain whether individual’s personality motivated their evaluations of the different types of adverts used in marketing (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007, p. 33). Customers who understand themselves in differing ways are likely to react to advertising promotions differently (Hansen, 2005, p. 437). Self -concept works as an essential structure on how an individual process and understand information presented to them. Previous studies have indicated that promotion information that is similar with a person’s self-concepts is real than promotion messages that are different with a person’s self-concepts (Hasslinger, 2007, p. 231). Other psychologists like Freud stated that customers have opposing needs and desire to quench their needs. Marketers should create imaginations about the manufactured goods, which act as a basis for persuading consumers (Abo Ahmad, 2004, p. 173). Marketers use imaginations to push people to purchase their manufactured goods. Self-indulgence is an appeal of the preference principle and it proposes manufactured goods for a prosperous group of consumers (Abood Al-Janabi, 2000, p. 66). Psychoanalytical concept influences the consumer’s dreams, confidences, and anxieties. It can also offer products, which are logical, and communally acceptable (Phau and Lau, 2000, p. 77). Freud believes that the Id is a strong urge or need, which is at the heart of a customer’s drive and personality. The main function of Id is to release anxiety, which it performs by difficult instant satisfaction, even when it tends to violate the customs of society. It works on the principle of pleasure (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). Psychologically, it is the cause of all human needs and requirements that occur within an individual. Not all wishes of an individual are ever satisfied, there is prevention, and this might make a person break the societal norms and policies for his or her individual satisfaction (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). The Id deals with subjective reality and not objective reality. The Ego comes into existence because the Id has some limitations. It works based on the principle of reality by trying to obtain the demands of the Id in a realistic approach and every possible approach (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). It tries to postpone the wishes of the Id, for instance, if it wants a commodity the Ego postpones this wish by presenting the financial constraints to obtaining the commodity. It tends to control impulsive conduct within an individual. Id employs in dreams and unrealities, which occur as enjoyable imaginations (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). An individual’s Ego can distinguish between reality and dreams, and acts as an individual’s self-control. An individual’s super Ego attempts to get the perfection using an individual’s moral codes. It tends to restrain the antagonistic desire of the Id (Gill and Hodgkinston, 2007, p. 44). Current research conducted on personalities revealed that consumers possess specific personalities indemnified specific brand preferences. However, this study did not prove this factor on other types of personalities (Maehle and Shneor, 2010). These researchers further discovered in their findings that consumers like brands that marched their preferences. In another market research conducted by Lin (2010), revealed that consumers preferred commodities that had brands of their own preferences. However, Lin failed to explain the relationship of self-concept and commodity brands. An individual’s lifestyle is the steady pattern of an individual’s ways of life. An individual’s personality influences how they live within the society and the things they take as important in their daily lives (Cheng and Furnham, 2003, p. 32). The ways of life reflects an individual’s personality in terms of his or her attitudes values, beliefs, anxiety, challenges, and the general outlook of their lives (Fraj and Martinez, 2006, p. 78). Marketers consider all these factors when promoting goods and services to their consumers because their lifestyle does influence their purchasing behaviors (Geuens et al. 2009, p. 66). People social relations are also highly affected by their traits. Therefore, consumer needs and wants are shaped by their traits, and their interaction with others within their environments (Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, 2003, p. 55). In a study conducted by Foxall (2005, p. 78), marketers can never change consumer personality to follow their manufactured goods. If marketers identify which particular consumer personality triggers a given client reaction, they can then try to influence the relevant personalities essential in their focus group of clients (Peter and Olson, 2005, p 123). Even when consumer personalities stay consistent, the customer behavior differs because of the emotional, sociological, and conditional factors that motivate behavior. However, Foxall (2005, p. 78), concluded that a person’s personality can be changed by several events occurring in his or her life. For example, one’s personality can change in reaction to events that occur in their lifetimes like marriage, death, birth, and professional change. Consumer personality may change after long time following a gradual process (Brown et al. 2009, p. 67). 1.3 Other personal factors than can affect consumer behavior Factors such as age social class within a society can affect consumer behaviors. An individual’s life span is described as an orderly sequence of events, which clients’ attitude and communication tendencies change and happen because of emergent maturity, knowledge, revenue, and significance (Achouri and Bouslama, 2010, p. 45). Marketers usually define their area of marketing in terms of the clients’ current lifecycle because a client’s lifestyle is reflected in their personalities and personal self-concept (Blackwell et al. 2006, p. 67). Currently, several people are more concerned with their self-image and the status they occupy within the society, which affects consumer behaviors (Belch and Belch, 2005, p. 89). Conclusion Consumer behavior looks at how the consumer acts within the business. It consists of how they shop for goods and services. The relationship between personality and consumer behavior has been proven to be a positive one. A consumers specific character can have major effects on how the buy goods and services in the business. It will make the consumer select brands that appeal to their wishes, shop in shops they like and even buy goods that appeal to their needs. Therefore, it is important for different organization to understand consumer personalities so that they can find improved approach to promoting and market their commodities. 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