CB Chapter 7: Personality, Lifestyle and Values

1. Personality: The "Inner" Consumer

Personality refers to a person’s unique psychological makeup and how it consistently influences the way they respond to their environment. Solomon breaks this down into three major theoretical camps:

A. Freudian Theory (The Unconscious)

Most of our adult personality stems from a fundamental conflict between our desire to gratify physical needs and the necessity to function as a responsible member of society.

  • The Id: The "party animal." Operates on the pleasure principle (immediate gratification). It's selfish and illogical.

  • The Superego: The "conscience." It internalises society's rules and tries to prevent the Id from seeking selfish gratification.

  • The Ego: The "referee." It balances the Id and the Superego. It operates on the reality principle, finding ways to gratify the Id that are socially acceptable.

Marketing Application: Ads often appeal to the Id (sensory pleasure) while providing a "rational" excuse for the Ego (e.g., "You deserve this luxury because it's an investment").

B. Neo-Freudian Theories

These theorists (like Karen Horney) believed personality is more about how we handle relationships:

  • Compliant: Moving toward others (prefer brand names).

  • Detached: Moving away from others (prefer tea over coffee).

  • Aggressive: Moving against others (prefer masculine-oriented brands).

C. Trait Theory

This focuses on the quantitative measurement of personality traits. The most famous for exams is the "Big Five" (OCEAN):

  1. Openness to Experience: How open you are to new things.

  2. Conscientiousness: How organized/structured you are.

  3. Extroversion: How much you tolerate sensory stimulation from others.

  4. Agreeableness: How much you defer to others.

  5. Neuroticism (Emotional Stability): How well you cope with stress.

2. Brand Personality

If people have personalities, so do brands! Brand Personality is the set of traits people attribute to a product as if it were a person.

  • Brand Equity: The extent to which a consumer holds strong, favorable, and unique associations with a brand in memory.

  • Anthropomorphism: Giving human characteristics to objects (e.g., the Michelin Man or a car with "friendly" headlights).

3. Lifestyles: The "Outer" Consumer

Lifestyle defines a pattern of consumption that reflects a person’s choices of how to spend their time and money. It's about Lifestyle Marketing Perspectives—people sort themselves into groups based on the things they like to do.

Psychographics

While demographics tell us who buys (age, gender, income), psychographics tell us why they buy.

Marketers use AIOs to group consumers:

  • Activities: Work, hobbies, social events, vacation.

  • Interests: Family, home, job, community, fashion.

  • Opinions: Themselves, social issues, politics, business.

VALS2™ (Values and Lifestyles System)

This is a high-yield exam topic. It segments US adults into groups based on Resources (top vs. bottom) and Primary Motivation (Ideals, Achievement, or Self-Expression).

  • Examples: Innovators (high resources/high innovation) vs. Survivors (low resources/low innovation).

4. Values: The "Deep" Consumer

A Value is a belief that some condition is preferable to its opposite (e.g., freedom is better than slavery).

  • Enculturation: Learning the beliefs and behaviors of one's own culture.

  • Acculturation: Learning the value system and behaviors of another culture.

  • Cresive Norms: Subtle rules that we learn through interaction:

    • Custom: A norm that controls basic behaviors (e.g., how we practice ceremonies).

    • More ("mor-ay"): A custom with a strong moral overtone (often involves taboo).

    • Conventions: Norms that regulate how we conduct our everyday lives (e.g., how to host a dinner party).

5. The Means-End Chain Model (Recap)

Solomon brings this up again here. It assumes that people link very specific product attributes (indirectly) to terminal values.

  • Laddering: A research technique used to uncover these links. You keep asking "Why is that important to you?" until you hit a core value like "Happiness" or "Security."

A-Student Pro-Tip for the Exam:

When you get a question about Personality, look for keywords like "unconscious" (Freud) or "traits" (OCEAN). If the question is about Lifestyle, look for "AIOs" or "Psychographics."