Page 191 - Foundations of Marketing

158 Part 3 | Customer Behavior and E-Marketing

an information-focused campaign to change the cognitive
component of a consumer’s attitude, or a persuasive (emo-
tional) campaign to influence the affective component.
Distributing free samples can help change the behavioral
component by offering customers a no-cost means of try-
ing out a product.
Both business and nonbusiness organizations try to
change people’s attitudes about many things using market-
ing messages, from health and safety to prices and product
features. For example, look at the Shell advertisement. To
counter attitudes that energy companies are corrupt or pol-
luting, marketers at Shell created an advertising campaign
featuring eco-friendly and socially responsible themes. It
is particularly important to energy companies to maintain
their reputations in the wake of the 2010 BP Deepwater
Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, which eroded con-
sumer trust in BP and harmed the economies of Gulf states.
This Shell advertisement does not promote a specific prod-
uct or region, but rather seeks to change consumer attitudes
about the company. The ad touts that Shell uses natural
gas as a cleaner form of electricity (influencing the cogni-
tive component of an attitude) to generate, in this case, the
Courtesy of Shell Oil Company on a summer night (evoking positive thoughts and influ-
power to run the lights at an all- American baseball game

encing the emotional component of an attitude).

Personality and Self-Concept

Personality is a set of internal traits and distinct behavioral
Communication to Influence Attitudes tendencies that result in consistent patterns of behavior in
Shell is seeking to change consumer attitudes about energy certain situations. An individual’s personality is a unique
companies by promoting its eco-friendlier energy sources in this combination of hereditary characteristics and personal
advertisement, which shows people enjoying an all-American game experiences. Personalities typically are described as hav-
of baseball.
ing one or more characteristics, such as compulsiveness,
ambition, gregariousness, dogmatism, authoritarianism, introversion, extroversion, and com-
petitiveness. Marketing researchers look for relationships between such characteristics and
buying behavior. Even though a few links between several personality traits and buyer behav-
ior have been determined, studies have not proven a definitive link. However, the weak asso-
ciation between personality and buying behavior may be the result of unreliable measures,
rather than a true lack of a relationship.
Many marketers are convinced that personalities do influence types and brands of products
purchased. Because of this believed relation, marketers aim advertising at specific personality
types. For example, truck commercials often highlight rugged, all-American individualism.
Marketers generally focus on positive personality characteristics, such as security conscious-
ness, sociability, independence, or competitiveness, rather than on negatively valued ones,
such as insensitivity or timidity.
A person’s self-concept is closely linked to personality. Self-concept (sometimes called
self-image ) is one’s perception or view of oneself. Individuals develop and alter their self-
personality A set of internal concepts based on an interaction between psychological and social dimensions. Research
traits and distinct behavioral shows that buyers purchase products that reflect and enhance their self-concepts and that pur-
tendencies that result in con- chase decisions are important to the development and maintenance of a stable self-concept. 5
sistent patterns of behavior in For example, consumers who feel insecure about their self-concept may purchase products
certain situations that they believe will help bolster the qualities they would like to project. Consumers’ self-
self-concept A perception or concepts can influence whether they buy a product in a specific product category and may
view of oneself affect brand selection as well as the retailers they frequent.

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