Personality
Today we're blogging about personality, what it means, what type you have, how you came to be that way and how common different types are.
So, what is personality anyway? Personality, according to Schiffman and Kanuk (2004) it is "Those inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment" or as Princeton WordNet puts it "the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual".
How do you know what personality type you have? There are many systems that have been developed to attempt to map personality types. A popular test is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) system in which there are 16 types (based on Carl Jung's original system of only 8). There are many personality tests and quizzes available to complete which use this system. Here are one, two and three. (and a fun little drawing personality test, too)
The test I recommend is test three. My result for this test is type INTJ in the MBTI system. Which is INTJs are introspective, analytical, determined persons with natural leadership ability. Being reserved, they prefer to stay in the background while leading. Strategic, knowledgable and adaptable, INTJs are talented in bringing ideas from conception to reality. Which sounds great, but as I'm terrible at chess it might not be that accurate.
Here's my picture (and test result) of a pig below for the drawing personality test. TIP: Draw your pig before looking at mine.
The UK population by MBTI personality type is shown here:
What determines personality? According to Dr. Kevin Leman the order in which you are born plays a large role in the development of your personality.
Single children are organised,task orientated and focus on facts and details and are comfortable responsibility, though demanding.
First borns are natural leaders and high achievers with a sense of entitlement and tend to be either nurturing care givers or aggressive.
Middle children are people pleasers that dislike confrontation and try to be amiable. They make good mediators and negotiators. They try to please everyone and blame themselves for the failure of others.
Last born children love to entertain and talk to people and are extroverts with short attention spans that bore easily. They also have a fear of rejection and can be self-centred.
I personally don't agree with this information as I am a last born and don't think that fits me at all, though, I have an older brother and sister, with my brother being the oldest who is very compassionate and my sister, the middle child, is a social worker which is what this book suggests so it may hold some truth.
American users can click here to order.
McCrae and Costa posit that there are 5 personality types, and everyone is on them at a certain scale. They are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (a handy mnemonic: OCEAN). From studies on twins these traits have found to be influenced by both genetics and environment. You can read more about the development of personality as well as the different evolutionary reasons for developing different personality attributes in this book:
American users can click here to order
Self-Concept
Self concept is the belief a person holds about his or her own attributes and how he or she evaluates those qualities (Solomon, 1999). Solomon also says people see themselves as they imagine others see them, and as people consume goods and others can see them consume goods the purchasing of goods can be a way of expressing self-concept.
Self concept is made up of your self esteem and your real and ideal selves. Self esteem is a person's measure of their own worth; it is possible to have high self esteem in one area, such as looks, and low self esteem in another, such as intelligence. The ideal self is how a person would like to be e.g what car they would like to drive and the actual self is the how the person actually is. The difference between the real and the ideal self can impact a person's self esteem in a positive or negative way.
This is used in marketing to target consumer insecurities by highlighting weaknesses consumers perceive themselves to possess; products can be used to fix or cover up the weakness such as in this advert:
What does this mean for marketing? Well, consumers purchase products for 3 reasons, functionality, the experience, such as, sensual arousal (a fine wine) or cognitive arousal (a game or DVD) and symbolic brand benefits. As people purchase products to match their self concepts; products can be marketed to posses personalities.
This is where the Brand Personality Framework comes in. Jennifer Aaker's Brand Personality Framework is a way to describe and measure the personality of a brand. The 5 facets of Brand Personality are Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness.
My favourite adverts and a nice example of brand personality is the American car insurance company Geico, their brand personality is a sincere one, as they come across as honest, wholesome, cheerful and down-to-earth. They manage to do this as well as being informative, original and humorous.
Today we're blogging about personality, what it means, what type you have, how you came to be that way and how common different types are.
So, what is personality anyway? Personality, according to Schiffman and Kanuk (2004) it is "Those inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment" or as Princeton WordNet puts it "the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual".
How do you know what personality type you have? There are many systems that have been developed to attempt to map personality types. A popular test is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) system in which there are 16 types (based on Carl Jung's original system of only 8). There are many personality tests and quizzes available to complete which use this system. Here are one, two and three. (and a fun little drawing personality test, too)
The test I recommend is test three. My result for this test is type INTJ in the MBTI system. Which is INTJs are introspective, analytical, determined persons with natural leadership ability. Being reserved, they prefer to stay in the background while leading. Strategic, knowledgable and adaptable, INTJs are talented in bringing ideas from conception to reality. Which sounds great, but as I'm terrible at chess it might not be that accurate.
Here's my picture (and test result) of a pig below for the drawing personality test. TIP: Draw your pig before looking at mine.
Click to view my pig:
ISTJ 13.7% | ISFJ 12.7% | INFJ 1.7% | INTJ 1.4% |
ISTP 6.4% | ISFP 6.1% | INFP 3.2% | INTP 2.4% |
ESTP 5.8% | ESFP 8.7% | ENFP 6.3% | ENTP 2.8% |
ESTJ 10.4% | ESFJ 12.6% | ENFJ 2.8% | ENTJ 2.9% |
What determines personality? According to Dr. Kevin Leman the order in which you are born plays a large role in the development of your personality.
Single children are organised,task orientated and focus on facts and details and are comfortable responsibility, though demanding.
First borns are natural leaders and high achievers with a sense of entitlement and tend to be either nurturing care givers or aggressive.
Middle children are people pleasers that dislike confrontation and try to be amiable. They make good mediators and negotiators. They try to please everyone and blame themselves for the failure of others.
Last born children love to entertain and talk to people and are extroverts with short attention spans that bore easily. They also have a fear of rejection and can be self-centred.
I personally don't agree with this information as I am a last born and don't think that fits me at all, though, I have an older brother and sister, with my brother being the oldest who is very compassionate and my sister, the middle child, is a social worker which is what this book suggests so it may hold some truth.
American users can click here to order.
McCrae and Costa posit that there are 5 personality types, and everyone is on them at a certain scale. They are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (a handy mnemonic: OCEAN). From studies on twins these traits have found to be influenced by both genetics and environment. You can read more about the development of personality as well as the different evolutionary reasons for developing different personality attributes in this book:
American users can click here to order
Self-Concept
Self concept is the belief a person holds about his or her own attributes and how he or she evaluates those qualities (Solomon, 1999). Solomon also says people see themselves as they imagine others see them, and as people consume goods and others can see them consume goods the purchasing of goods can be a way of expressing self-concept.
Self concept is made up of your self esteem and your real and ideal selves. Self esteem is a person's measure of their own worth; it is possible to have high self esteem in one area, such as looks, and low self esteem in another, such as intelligence. The ideal self is how a person would like to be e.g what car they would like to drive and the actual self is the how the person actually is. The difference between the real and the ideal self can impact a person's self esteem in a positive or negative way.
This is used in marketing to target consumer insecurities by highlighting weaknesses consumers perceive themselves to possess; products can be used to fix or cover up the weakness such as in this advert:
What does this mean for marketing? Well, consumers purchase products for 3 reasons, functionality, the experience, such as, sensual arousal (a fine wine) or cognitive arousal (a game or DVD) and symbolic brand benefits. As people purchase products to match their self concepts; products can be marketed to posses personalities.
This is where the Brand Personality Framework comes in. Jennifer Aaker's Brand Personality Framework is a way to describe and measure the personality of a brand. The 5 facets of Brand Personality are Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness.
My favourite adverts and a nice example of brand personality is the American car insurance company Geico, their brand personality is a sincere one, as they come across as honest, wholesome, cheerful and down-to-earth. They manage to do this as well as being informative, original and humorous.
It's pie with chips for free! Excellent posting although I cannot see the comments box :( Next time you could increase the content regarding the marketing application but it is really good on academic input and links
ReplyDelete