Personality is a tricky thing to define. it's like the way an individual interprets and reacts to the world as they perceive it. Its their characteristics and their identity.
The concise Oxford dictionary defines it as "character, nature, temperament, make up, persona, identity"
"Those inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment" (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004).
Hollander (KC. Williams, 1981) did research into personality and concluded that there are four different aspects:
The External Aspect: How a person interacts with other people
The Internal Aspect: A combination of their values and attitudes
The Dynamic Aspect: How an individual reacts to a new situation
The Consistent Aspect: a persons Characteristic style.
Marketers need to understand the consumers personalities to understand how they react to their environment, and then how they would react to messages that are aimed.
Friday, 6 May 2011
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Group conformity and peer pressure
A group is 2 or more people who share a set of norms and have a structured roles in relation to each other.
The norm could be going to the same school or being a fan of the same football team. A group will spend time with each other and will experience interdependent behaviours, doing things they would not necessarily do as an individual. For example Solomon (2010) uses the idea of the "risky shift" where an individual will show a greater willingness towards riskier alternatives within a group rather that as an individual.
The norm could be going to the same school or being a fan of the same football team. A group will spend time with each other and will experience interdependent behaviours, doing things they would not necessarily do as an individual. For example Solomon (2010) uses the idea of the "risky shift" where an individual will show a greater willingness towards riskier alternatives within a group rather that as an individual.
The link above takes you to a video of a film some students did at school about this and I think they explain the basics of this well.
Group pressure is the implications of a norm or an expectation on an individual in a group. the individual can react in three ways :
-Conformity
-Internalisation and Identification
-Counter Conformity
There are several factors that can influence an individual to conform such as cultural pressures which the video highlighted in an extreme case how samurai will commit suicide if dishonoured.
Other examples of factors that cause social conformity are:
A fear of deviance, where the individual may believe that the group will punish them for nonconforming behaviours.
A commitment to a group can lead to social conformity, being dedicated enough to do what they are asked of, such as a terrorist killing themselves for their religion.
The sheer size and unanimity of a group can cause conformity. D. Forsyth(2009) says that in a group the more people pressuring an individual, the more likely that the individual is to conform.
The individual may be susceptible to interpersonal influences as they worry what the group thinks of them. I will go along with talking about cars with certain people even though i couldn't care less about them.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Values
It's a simple enough thing to understand whats values are, however explaining it i think is difficult. Its the morals, the right and wrong of a person, what they hold close to them and what they judge the importance of things; but this is quite a long way of saying it. The simplest way of describing it would be the measure that an individual puts on a tangible or intangible "thing" whether its a monetary measure, a measure of time or effort, a measure of love and friendship or a measure of how it makes themselves feel. individuals will approach life in different ways depending on what it is they value.
Wilkie [n.d] says "Values are our ideas about what is desirable" which is true. Someone who values family will desire a baby a lot more that an individual who desires a career. This comparison can be seen in everyday life where women are having children later in life than they would of done 20 or 30 years ago because they are focusing on a career. Solomon (2010) backs this up by saying that a value can be defined as a belief about some desirable end-state that specific situations can lead to.
Kahles list of Values (1983)
To understand how a person may get to an end state or their terminal value a laddering technique.
By applying this to a product or service you can find out the reason behind a purchase of it, maybe its to lose weight to gain self esteem. By understanding the values of consumers and how they use products to meet them means marketers can advertise products in such away that provoke it to values. Such as Special K know that women want to lose weight to gain self esteem and confidence they show this in their adverts.
The VALS test (Value and Lifestyles System) is a survey that can be taken which tells how you approach life. The primary VALS type represents your dominant approach to life. The secondary classification represents a particular emphasis you give to your dominant approach. (Strategic Business Insights, 2011).
The only element of being a "striver" I agree with is that I am motivated by achievement. However I'm not at all concerned by the opinion of others and nor do I like shopping so I was quite shocked that this was my primary VALS type. On the other hand my secondary VALS type is almost spot on, i do like a certain structure in my life and I do prefer to have a certainty about what will happen but I would not say I cared about an image of myself, I will buy value stuff if I like it.
Wilkie [n.d] says "Values are our ideas about what is desirable" which is true. Someone who values family will desire a baby a lot more that an individual who desires a career. This comparison can be seen in everyday life where women are having children later in life than they would of done 20 or 30 years ago because they are focusing on a career. Solomon (2010) backs this up by saying that a value can be defined as a belief about some desirable end-state that specific situations can lead to.
Kahles list of Values (1983)
1. Self Respect
2. Excitement
3. Being Well Respected
4. Self-fulfilment
5. Sense of accomplishment
6. Warm relationship with others
7. Security
8. Fun & enjoyment
9. Sense of belonging
The list above is of the values that Kahles chose as the most important in an individuals lives. in class we had to list the 3 most important values to ourselves. Mine were 6, 9 and 8. however it was interesting to see how many others had different values to mine.
To understand how a person may get to an end state or their terminal value a laddering technique.
By applying this to a product or service you can find out the reason behind a purchase of it, maybe its to lose weight to gain self esteem. By understanding the values of consumers and how they use products to meet them means marketers can advertise products in such away that provoke it to values. Such as Special K know that women want to lose weight to gain self esteem and confidence they show this in their adverts.
The VALS test (Value and Lifestyles System) is a survey that can be taken which tells how you approach life. The primary VALS type represents your dominant approach to life. The secondary classification represents a particular emphasis you give to your dominant approach. (Strategic Business Insights, 2011).
When i took the test the results were that my primary type was a "Striver" and secondary was "Achiever".
The link above gives a description of the striver attribute and can be used to find the "Achievers" description as well.
The only element of being a "striver" I agree with is that I am motivated by achievement. However I'm not at all concerned by the opinion of others and nor do I like shopping so I was quite shocked that this was my primary VALS type. On the other hand my secondary VALS type is almost spot on, i do like a certain structure in my life and I do prefer to have a certainty about what will happen but I would not say I cared about an image of myself, I will buy value stuff if I like it.
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