Needs, Motivation and Personality

Needs are states of felt deprivation. They include any human requirement and reflect a gap btw what consumers desire and what they have. They underlie all human actions. A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level. Innate (primary) Acquired (secondary) learnt in response to our environment e.g prestige.

Wants can be seen as the expression of needs in actual situations. Wants and desires are influenced by the social environment in which we live.

A Problem is an unsatisfied want.

Driving force that impels individuals to action. A State of Tension arises when a need is not fulfilled.

Consumer Learning: The ways in which individuals acquire the knowledge and experience that they use in future purchase decisions.

Cognitive Process: It encompasses the knowledge, perception, and beliefs that a consumer has about an object or idea.

• Sought after result of motivated behaviour.
• All behaviour is goal orientated.
• Needs are fulfilled by goal achievement. Needs and goals are interdependent.

• Generic
• Product Specific

Individuals select behaviours (means) they believe will help them achieve their desired goals (ends).

• PPCG
• Personal experiences
• Physical capacity
• Cultural norms/values
• Goal accessibility within physical + social environment

Engage in behaviour where they approach/avoid an object.

Join gym to get fit/stop getting fat.

Rational: Consumers select goals based on totally objective assessment. $6,000 limit for car.

Emotional: Have $6000, but newest model will be cooler so i'll take the $7000 car.

• PEEC
• Physiological Arousal – Changes in physiological processes inthe body → trigger specific needs (e.g. drop in core body temperature → shiver / goose bumps →feel cold → become aware of need for warmth).

Cognitive Arousal (Conscious) – Personal achievements /random thoughts → trigger cognitive processes → becomeaware of needs.

Emotional Arousal – Occurs when an individual imaginesthemselves in various desirable situations (e.g. daydreaming /thinking about becoming a movie star → enrol in dramaclasses).

Environmental Arousal (Situational) – Specific cues in theenvironment activate particular needs and motives.

SESSP

• Self actualisation
• Ego
• Social
• Safety
• Physiological

• PEAS AES
• Power (ego) desire to control environment
• Affiliation (social) desire for friendship, acceptance and belonging.
• Achievement (ego or self act.) needs for personal accomplishment.

• Can be manifest or latent.
• Manifest: known and admitted
• Latent: unknown or not prepared to say

e.g. BMW

The inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how people respond to their environment

• The unconscious mind shapes personality. The “unconscious”consists of instincts, biological drives, infantile goals, and hopes
• IES
• Id: primitive and basic desires and immediate satisfaction

Ego: rational control to balance between Id and Superego

Superego: moral andethical code of conduct

• CANOE
• Neuroticism: Likely to experience negative emotions (fear /sadness/ embarrassment).Low scores → indicate emotional stability → relaxed nature /even tempered.

Extroversion: Likely to interact with the world.Enjoy excitement / stimulation → energetic / optimistic.Low scores → introversion → reserved and independent.

Openness to experience: Likely to seek variety ofexperiences / novel ideas / unconventional values.High score → active imagination / intellectual curiosity.Low score → conservative outlook / desire for familiar things

Agreeableness: Tendency to move towards people. High score on this dimension→ associated with altruism / wantingto help people.Low score → antagonistic / egocentric / competitive / scepticalof others intentions.

Conscientiousness: Tendency to control impulses and topursue goals. High score →purposeful / reliable / determined.Low score → laid back.

Consumer innovativeness: personality traits have been used tohelp differentiate between innovators and non-innovators.
The success of new products often depends on the adoption ofthe product by innovators

Consumer dogmatism: provides a measure of how rigid a personis when confronted with new information.
Consumers who are low in dogmatism are considered openminded (and more innovative)
Those high in dogmatism (close-minded) are more likely tochoose established products.

Consumer social character is a personality trait that ranges on acontinuum from inner-directness to outer-directness

• Inner-directed consumers: rely on own inner values whenevaluating new products and are likely to be innovators
  
• Other-directed consumers: look to others for direction and arelikely to be followers.

Need for uniqueness (NFU): some consumers seek to be unique through the purchase, use, and even the disposal of goods.Consumers with high levels of NFU trait can resist conformity

Optimum Stimulation Level (OSL): influences the consumer’s level of preferred lifestyle stimulation.Consumers high in OSL (i) tend to be more willing to take risks/ trynew products / be innovative / seek product related information;and (ii) may feel bored by their current lifestyle and seek outexciting services and activities

• Variety seeking
  
• Exploratory purchase behaviour: brand switching just toexperience new products.
  
• Vicarious exploration: seek information and thencontemplate the alternative (i.e. considers options).
  
• Use innovation: uses product in new / different way.

• NVLS
• 1. Need for Cognition (NFC)
• 2. Visualisers vs. Verbalisers
• 3. Locus of Control (LOC)
• 4. Self-monitoring

Suspicion of brands from other countries. This suspicion is not relatedto the actual characteristics of the product; it is focused on countryof origin.

• The way an individual sees themselves as an object (what characteristics / habits / possessions / relationships /behaviours they perceive themselves as having).
  
• Self images / perceptions are closely related to personality.

the concept of multiple selves is consistent with the idea of use-situation segmentation

• AISIE
• Actual self-image: How consumers see themselves

Ideal self-image: How consumers would like to see themselves.

Social self-image: How consumers feel others see them.

Ideal social self-image: How consumers want others to seethem.

Expected self-image: How consumers expect to see themselves at some specified point in the future (e.g. in 10years time after graduating from University with a PhD.

This is where a brand becomes associated (or infused) with human like personality traits.