Personality and Self Concept

Personality

Personality defined is 'the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual' or 'inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment.' John Holland (1996) developed a theory on personality. This theory outlined how there are four aspects which influence a persons personality, these are:

1. The external aspect: how a person interacts with other people.
2. The internal aspect: a combination of their values and attitudes.
3. The dynamic aspect: faced with a new situation how they behave.
4. The consistent aspect: their characteristic style.
   

Holland then went on to outline 6 different types of personality, these are:

• Realistic - practical, physical, hands-on, tool-oriented
• Investigative - analytical, intellectual, scientific, explorative
• Artistic - creative, original, independent, chaotic
• Social - cooperative, supporting, helping, healing/nurturing
• Enterprising - competitive environments, leadership, persuading
• Conventional - detail-oriented, organizing, clerical
  

To the left is Hollands six different types of personality in the form of a hexagon (RIASEC). Holland outlined how the distance between each type of personality determined how close each personality is related.

Raymond Cattell (1946) also produced a theory on personality. This theory stated how there are 16 parts to an individuals personality and there are high and low range aspects to each. The 16 high and low range aspects are:

Low

High

Sigmund Freud (1923) on the other hand recognised the importance of the unconscious mind. Freud outlined how everyone is born with their ID. This ID is an individuals pleasure principal which is what an individual wants at any time. This is seen as the selfish and ideological part of a persons personality. But this is not the only part. Consumers also have an ego. This ego is the mediator. This ego is an individuals sense of reality and understanding of other peoples needs and desires. The ego meets the needs of the ID whilst taking into consideration the reality of the need. Finally Freud described a superego. This superego is strongly associated with the conscience and shapes a persons belief of right and wrong.

In terms of marketing the personality is a key aspect in influencing buyer behaviour. For example, if an individual is more concerned about there ID, don't really have an ego and have an abnormal superego controlling what they do; they would tend to make irrational decisions. Thus this sort of person would buy items just because they want to and can at that time. Thus they would not take into account there financial situation or the effects there actions may have on others. Further to this a persons personality can also be related to the type of brand and product they buy. Jennifer Aaker (1994) demonstrates this with her brand personality framework. This is shown below:

• Sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful)
• Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date)
• Competence (reliable, intelligent, successful)
• Sophistication (upper class, charming)
• Ruggedness (outdoorsy, tough)

Brands tend to aim there brand image towards one of the five above. Thus the type of personality an individual has would influence what type of brand they would want to buy. For example a brand such as Nike advertise their brand as rugged and exciting, this is shown below in a Nike advert:



The advert is supposedly set in Thierry Henry's house and immediately imposes a sense of ruggedness due to its setting. The advert features Henry trying to hold possession of the football against various other famous and recognised footballers using the objects of his house to hold the ball. The advert is both exciting and imposes a sense of ruggedness and an emphasis on sport. Therefore this advert perfectly imposes Nike's brand and the image it wants to put across to its customers.

On the other hand a brand such as Toyota would try and make their brand come across as competent, sincere and slightly sophisticated. This is shown in a Toyota advert below:



Within this advert the use of Toyota engineers acting as objects of the car such as the seat belts and cup holders emphasises the competence and sincerity of the Toyota brand. This idea of using people as objects of the car is Toyota's way of outlining how they care about their brand image and their consumers. This is further apparent in the recent problem with the Toyota accelerator pedals. Thus to protect their brand they recalled all the cars that were affected and replaced the pedals for free.

The idea of a brand personality has only become the main feature of attracting customers in recent years. Originally brands were product based but over time evolved into being sales based, market based, marketing based and eventually brand based. A brands personality is a result of two main factors, the brands identity (who they are) and the current market and consumer trends. This in turn influences the brands marketing strategy and behaviour, this is shown in the diagram below:


Further to this an example of a company that has successfully developed its brand personality is that of innocent smoothies. Innocent focused on their identity (offering a completely natural product) and combined this with the current consumer trend of concern about green issues and cleaning up the planet. Shown below is a video of their marketing strategy and how to develop a brand personality:

I myself conducted a personality test known as the Myers Briggs personality test to see how easily personality can be grouped into categories and whether my personality suits the category. The results showed that my personality was ESTJ. E standing for extrovert, meaning i am concerned more with the outer world, S standing for sensing, meaning that i sense the world in the present, T standing for thinking, meaning i think when making judgements and J standing for judge, meaning i judge things in the outside world. In reflection this does match what i perceive my personality to be. However this test can be subjective and bias if conducted by your self.

Self Concept

Self concept defined is 'the composite of ideas, feelings and attitudes that a person has about their own identity, worth, capabilities and limitations'. An individual may have a negative self concept even though most people perceive them in a positive light or vice versa. The perceived self in turn influences their perception of the world around them. Whether self concept or perception is dominant is up to the individual. Self concept is further broken down into three defining factors. These are self image, ideal self and self esteem. Self image is how an individual sees there self in society and who they think they are. Self image usually comprises social roles, body image & personality traits. Ideal self on the other hand is the kind of person someone would like to be, this maybe slightly or greatly different from their self image. The larger the difference between self image and ideal self the lower an individual’s self esteem. An example of ideal self is shown below through weight loss:


The final self concept is self esteem. Self esteem is the extent that we like ourselves and whether we accept or approve of our self image. This idea is shown in the image below:


William James (1890) generated a theory on self concept. He argued that our sense of self includes not just our inner values, interests and traits, but also our friends, intimate relationships, and even our possessions. James called these inner values the pure ego, or the ‘I’ and our friends and intimate relationships the ‘me’. He concluded that the ‘me’ comes in three basic types: the ‘material me’, the ‘social me’, and the ‘spiritual me. James then went on to argue that self-concept derives from social comparisons with peers, family and reference groups.

On the other hand Charles Cooley (1902) outlined how a person's self concept grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others. In laymans terms peoples self concept grows out of interaction with others and changes depending on the person. Cooley clarified this by stating that society is an interweaving and inter working of mental selves. Cooley outlined his concept as 'the looking glass self' and is shown below:


In terms of marketing self concept is as useful or perhaps even more useful then personality. Marketers can use self concept to appeal to consumers to buy products that will symbolically represent the ideal self that they may be attempting to achieve. However targeting these consumers is only useful if the consumer is unhappy with there self image and or have a low self esteem. Further more self concept is also useful in terms of brand recall. The resaon behind this is that marketing that is similiar to a persons self concept can increase the level of brand recall as it may appeal to their self image, level of self esteem and maybe even their ideal self.