Consumer's personality and brand choice

Orth Ulrich in his article consumer personality and other factors in situational brand choice variation in the journal of brand management emphasize on what benefits a consumer is looking for in order to make a choice about a product or a brand. Consumer-perceived or desired brand benefits have been classified into six dimensions: quality/performance, price/value for money, social, emotional, environmental and health benefits. These benefits are le main cause of a brand selection. A brand selection is usually influence by two factors: informational influence; given by the marketing agent, and interpersonal influence; our personality.

The benefits that a consumer is looking for in the product fall into the definition of “personality”. The psychologists define personality as the sum total of the physical, mental, emotional, and social characteristics of an individual.in other words, a consumer selects a brand or product based on the relationship the attributes of the brand or product  have with his/her personality. A person is generally looking for a product that reflects oneself.  This phenomenon is also observed at the stage of adolescence. The teenagers try to step out from the crowd and being unique by dressing up a certain way and using certain types of products.

Jennifer Baumgartner in her book You Are What You Wear: What Your Clothes Reveal about You, tells how a product, a brand or you way of dressing reflects your personality. In the book Consumer Behavior, the author said that the marketers use the concept of personality in brand communication by presenting some symbolic personality meaning to hit their desired target market. They also select carefully the person promoting the brand. This person has to reflect the personality related to that specific brand. Let’s take few examples. Victoria’s Secret by its colors, its fashion models and the stores design reflects sexuality. When women want to enhance their self-esteem, feel, and look sexy, Victoria’s Secret stores are one of the places they want to go shopping.

Also when you walk into a mall, there are different types of stores; GAP for kids, bakers for fancy shoes, Louboutin for Luxurious shoes. These different types of stores represent different personalities. For example, forever 21 customers are mostly young girls. Agaci’s clothing style is mostly designed for night clubs. Gucci, Hermes, Coco Channel, Cartier, and other luxurious brand are designed for people of high social class level. 

the ladies at the front can be seen as marketing agents or sales representatives. This type of service is generally available in elegant and prestigious stores. It tells a lot about the target market and the customers of this type of store and brand.

Work cited

Avery , Jill, Sharon Beatty, Morris Holbrook, and Robert Kozinets. Consumer Behavior Human Pursuit of Happiness in the Worl of Goods. 2. Open Mentis, 2010. 136. Print.

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Orth, Ulrich. "Consumer personality and other factors in situational brand choice variation." Journal of Brand Management. 13.2 (Nov2005): 115-133. Print.