Personality and self-concept

Personality: 

a person’s unique make up,which consistently influences the way the person responds to his or her environment”

Personality reflects individual differences

o  Unique combination of inner characteristics

o  No two individuals are exactly alike

o  Venturesome (scuba diving, rock climbing) to

o  Some others who are not venturesome

o  Personality allows marketers to divide people

o  into different groups based on their traits

Self-concept:

the beliefs a person holds about his or her 

own attributes & how he or she evaluates those qualities” 

(Solomon,1999)

Personality is Consistent & Enduring

o    Mother – “child has been impulsive from the. Day he was born” – enduring & consistent.

o    Marketers cannot change consumers. Personalities to meet their products.

o    But understanding which specific

o    Characteristics bring in required responses, can help marketers to appeal to these traits 

in their target audience

Personality Can Change

v  May be altered by major life events – birth of a child, death of a loved one, personal 

tragedies – accident, health problem, divorce, significant career promotion.

v  Personality changes can also be part of maturing process.

v  Women’s personality in general has been changing faster.

Self-concept

Is defined as the totality of individuals thoughts and feelings having reference to him/her as an object. Life style, in many ways, is an outward expression of ones self-concept

Self-concept theory

 Ø  Holds that an individuals have a concept of self-based on who they think they are (the actual self) concept of who they think they would like to be (the ideal self).

Ø  Related to two key concepts of psycho- analytic theory, the ego and the super ego.

Ø  Ego is similar to one’s objective reality, so it’s similar to actual self.

Ø  Superego is defined by the way things should be and hence can be seen as a reflection of

Actual Self

ü  There is no one actual self.

ü  Consumers have various role identities– Mother, wife, working woman, volunteer etc.

ü  One of these roles is dominant in specific situations. This particular role affects the behaviour (dressing style,talking, way they conduct etc)

ü  The amalgam of individuals roles makes up the individual self.

Studies have confirmed that consumers buy products related to their self-concept.

       Dolich – studied buying of beer, cigarettes, soaps and tooth paste and found that respondents tend to prefer brands they rate similar to themselves.

       The same is in the case of automobiles too.

       Marketing take aways: the concept of ‘actual self’, says that image consumers have of themselves influences their purchases.

       They attain ‘self consistency’, by buying products they perceive as similar to their self-concept
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19974746/Personality-Self-Concept

http://ht mlimg3.scribdassets.com/d9qvp156gwte9s0/images/23-da257bc535/000.jpg

I-deal Self

Concept of ideal self relates to one’s self esteem.

The greater the difference between the actual self and the ideal self, the lower an individual’s self esteem

Dissatisfaction with actual self will end up in purchases of such products that they think will,enhance their‘self-esteem’.

 A woman who would like to be more modern, efficient and imaginative will use,different-perfumes, deodorant or shoat different stores than a woman

Consumer behaviour

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning 

 Segmentation, targeting, and positioning together comprise a three stage process.  We first (1) determine which kinds of customers exist, then (2) select which ones we are best off trying to serve and, finally, (3) implement our segmentation by optimizing our products/services for that segment and communicating that we have made the choice to distinguish ourselves that way.

Segmentation

 

This involves finding out what kinds of consumers with different needs exist. In the auto market, for example, some consumers demand speed and performance, while others are much more concerned about roominess and safety. In general, it holds true that “You can’t be all things to all people,” and experience has demonstrated that firms that specialize in meeting the needs of one group of consumers over another tend to be more profitable.

Generically, there are three approaches to marketing. In the undifferentiatedstrategy, all consumers are treated as the same, with firms not making any specific efforts to satisfy particular groups. This may work when the product is a standard one where one competitor really can’t offer much that another one can’t.

Targeting

Targeting is the second stage of the segment Target" position process. After the market has been separated into its segments, the marketer will select a segment or series of segments and 'target' it/them. Resources and effort will be targeted at the segment.target marketing involves breaking a market into segment s and the concentrating your marketing efforts on one or few key segments. Target market can be the key to a small business's success. Target marketing is that it makes the promotion, pricing and distribution of your products and/or services easier and more cost effective. Target marketing provides a focus to all of your marketing activities.

Positioning 

A product can be positioned based on 2 main platforms: The Consumer and The Competitor. When the positioning is on the basis of CONSUMER, the campaigns and messages are always targeted to the consumer himself. The other kind of positioning is on basis of COMPETITION. These campaigns are targeted towards competing with other players in the market.

Dettol television commercials always concentrate on advertisements, which show that this product would give you more protection, then the others.

Posting by product attributes and benefits :
Associating a product with an attribute, a product feature or a consumer feature. Sometimes a product can be positioned in terms of two or more attributes simultaneously. The price/ quality attribute dimension is commonly used for positioning the products.

A common approach is setting the brand apart from competitors on the basis of the specific characteristics or benefits offered. Sometimes a product may be positioned on more than one product benefit. Marketers attempt to identify salient attributes

Here is a slide show that brings you step by step through the process of segmenting, targeting, and positioning 

http://www.slideshare.net/mehmetcihangir/segmentation-targeting-and-positioning-presentation