pleasure and avoid pain).
a) The id is selfish.
b) The id is illogical (it acts without regard to consequences).
2) The superego (which is the counterweight to the id). It is a person’s conscience.
a) It internalizes society’s rules.
b) It works to prevent the id from seeking selfish gratification.
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The ego (which is the system that mediates between the id and the superego).
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The ego tries to balance these two opposing forces according to the reality
principle, whereby it finds ways to gratify the id that will be acceptable to the outside world. Much of this battle occurs in the unconscious mind.
- The Freudian perspective hints that the ego relies on symbolism in products to make the compromise between the demands of the id and the prohibitions of the superego.
- There is a connection between product symbolism and motivation (according to Freudian theory).
The first attempts to apply Freudian ideas to understand the deeper meanings of
products and advertisements were made in the 1950s and were known as
motivational research.
1) This research focused on interpretations from the subconscious (unconscious
motives). This form of research relies on depth interviews with individual
consumers.
2) Ernest Dichter pioneered this form of interview.
3) Motivational research was attacked for two reasons:
a) Some felt that it does work, in fact, it worked too well. It gave marketers
the power to manipulate.
b) Others felt that the analysis technique lacked rigor and validity.
4) Positives were that:
a) It was less expensive than traditional forms of motivational research.
b) It was thought to aid in marketing communications.
c) Some of the findings seem intuitively plausible after the fact.
Neo-Freudian Theories
Those who studied after Freud felt that an individual’s personality was more
influenced by how he or she handled relationships with others than by unresolved
sexual conflicts. Famous advocates of this thought-path (Neo-Freudians) were:
1) Karen Horney—she proposed that people can be described as moving toward
others (compliant), away from others (detached), or against others
(aggressive).
2) Alfred Adler—proposed that many actions are motivated by people’s desire
to overcome feelings of inferiority relative to others.
3) Harry Stack Sullivan—focused on how personality evolves to reduce
anxiety in social relationships.
4) Carl Jung—developed analytical psychology. He believed people were shaped
by the cumulative experiences of past generations. Central to his ideas was the
collective unconscious (a storehouse of memories inherited from our
ancestral past).
a) Shared memories create archetypes—universally shared ideas and
behavior patterns.
b) These memories would be about birth, death, and the devil (as shown in myths, stories, and dreams).
Trait Theory
One approach to personality is to focus on the quantitative measurement of
traits or identifiable characteristics that define a person. Common traits are:
1) Extroversion
2) Innovativeness
3) Materialism
4) Self-consciousness
5) Need for cognition
The trait dimension most relevant to consumer behavior is the extent to which consumers
are inner-directed versus outer-directed.
1) Inner-directed individuals consume to express a unique sense of self and tend to be classified as idiocentrics (having an individualistic orientation).
2) Outer-directed individuals consume to please others and fit in and tend to be classified as allocentrics (having a group orientation).
3) These two orientations differ in the areas of contentment, health consciousness, food preparation, workaholism, and travel and entertainment.
Using traits has only met with mixed success. Explanations include:
1) Many of the scales are not sufficiently valid or reliable.
2) Personality tests are often developed only for specific populations.
3) Tests may not be administered under the best conditions.
4) Researchers make changes in the research instruments to adapt them to their
own situations.
5) Many trait scales are only intended to measure gross, overall tendencies.
6) Many of the scales are not well planned or thought out.
Brand Personality
Products, like consumers, have personalities.
1) Brand equity refers to the extent that a consumer holds strong, favorable, and
unique associations about a brand in memory. Examples of personality
dimensions include old fashioned, wholesome, traditional, and lively, among others.
2) Consumers seem to have little difficulty in assigning personality qualities to
all sorts of inanimate products.
3) The creation and communication of a distinctive brand personality is one of
the primary ways marketers can make a product stand out from the competition
and inspire years of loyalty to it. This is called animism (whereby inanimate
objects are given qualities that make them somehow alive). It is an old
practice.
Types include:
a) Level 1: In the highest order of animism, the object is believed to be
possessed by the soul of a being (such as spokespersons in advertising).
b) Level 2: Objects are anthropomorphized—given human characteristics.
