Personality & Self Concept

I bet you're asking me what the difference is between Personality & Self Concept and to be honest I was asking myself the same question a few weeks back into my course... until Ruth showed me the light.

Kendra Cherry (http://psychology.about.com/) defines Personality as "the characteristic pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make a person unique"

Self Concept is much more complicated than Personality "Self-concept-the way in which one perceives oneself-can be divided into categories, such as personal self-concept (facts or one's own opinions about oneself, such as "I have brown eyes" or "I am attractive"); social self-concept (one's perceptions about how one is regarded by others: "people think I have a great sense of humour"); and self-ideals (what or how one would like to be: "I want to be a lawyer" or "I wish I were thinner")." [Gale Encyclopaedia of Psychology, 2nd ed. Gale Group, 2001.] ... 
IN #SEANSPEAK: Self-Concept is about how a person sees/perceives their self. There are many different aspects to self-concept such as Personal self-concept, (How you think you look in the eyes of other people) Social self-concept (How you think others perceive you) and self-ideals (Personal aspirations and goals) #GetIt?


...Prior to Ruth's lesson I had to complete the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (What's that you ask? ... well according to Isabel Briggs and Peter Myers "The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.")... and it turns out that I'm KRUSTY the Clown!!

Even With The Stupid Pose... I Look Nothing Like Him!

How On Earth do I resemble Krusty the Clown?!? Well it turns out that according to my indicator results I'm an ENTJ - Extrovert-Intuition-Thinking-Judging.. 

and according to http://www.mypersonality.info/personality-types/ Krusty the Clown is an ENTJ....but what does this all mean?

According to Jungian theory (http://www.mypersonality.info) 

"ENTJs are strategic, organized and possess natural leadership qualities. They are master coordinators that can effectively give direction to groups. They are able to understand complicated organizational situations and quick to develop intelligent solutions. ENTJs are outspoken and will not hesitate to speak of their plans for improvement. They are decisive and value knowledge, efficiency and competence." - Which is actually me down to a Tee :P

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Carl Jung and his Theory

Who is Carl Jung? 
26 Jul-1875 to 6-Jun-1961

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology. He is best known for his theories of the Collective Unconscious, including the concept of archetypes, and the use of synchronicity in psychotherapy (http://www.nndb.com/people/910/000031817/)

Carl Jung believed in Archetypes (models of people) that shape people's personalities; Simply put archetypes are inborn tendencies which shape the human behaviour. (Sounds a lot like persona doesn't it?)

"The archetype concept derives from the often repeated observation that myths and universal literature stories contain well defined themes which appear every time and everywhere. We often meet these themes in the fantasies, dreams, delirious ideas and illusions of persons living nowadays". - Carl Jung (http://www.carl-jung.net/archetypes.html

What has Jung's Research lead to?

Jung's research into the human psyche has played a key part in what we know about Psychology now.

Jungian Types

Through Jung's research he discovered  that although every individual is unique, we all have similar personality traits  that can be characterised into different types.


Attitude-Types such as Introvert and Extrovert are based on a persons attitude towards objects and surroundings... for example an Introvert tends to be withdrawn and keeps ideas to themselves whereas an Extrovert loves to be the star of the show

Function-Types such as Thinking and Feeling are about how a person processes the world around them.
Thinking uses rational and logical approaches whereas Feeling is based predominantly on intuition.

Sean's Findings

...Carl Jung's research into personality shows us that our personalities are probably the main thing that enable us to interact / not interact with each other and the world around us.... These "inborn tendencies" we have a massive effect on everything we do...(how does this link to Marketing you ask?)... Well, somebody has to sell you the things that suit you and your personality don't they? 
And those that sell 'stuff' need a strategy as well as catchy slogans, clever jingles and funny puns in order to best cater to their target market, that's where we marketers come in *Evil Laugh*.


Without us Percy from Tetley Tea wouldn't exist. Without us "VORSPRUNG DURCH TECHNIK" would be nothing more than a couple of words.... Personality is what makes things appeal to you.. My personality is what makes me prefer Adidas to Nike.


Anyway... before we move on to Self-Concept check out this Spending Personality Quiz - http://www.learnvest.com/living-frugally/psychology-of-money/how-do-you-spend-money-your-spending-personality-type/

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Self-Concept

What is Self-Concept? Well...Solomon describes it as "the beliefs a person holds about his or her own attributes & how he or she evaluates those qualities"..
I describe self-concept as the way that a person considers themselves to look to the outside world, self-concept is self evaluation"

According to Combs and Snygg (1949) and Rogers (1951), people behave in a manner which is consistent with the way they view themselves... 
Have you ever wanted to be cool?? Being considered "cool" is probably the oldest cliché example of self concept - First you take a look at yourself and think "Am I Cool?"... then you start to wonder how you can become "Cool" ... So you go shopping... looking for all the clothes that the "Cool Kids" are wear wearing and you go and buy them.
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How Do Personality & Self-Concept affect what we buy and how we buy.

In class (all those weeks ago) Ruth gave us a 12 year old boy as an example of how Personality and Self-concept affect the decisions we make when it comes to buying.

The beauty of being a marketer is that you can create the "Look" and the general public will generally try to copy that look in order to fit in with peers and look "Cool"...

Although it happens to everyone the biggest victims are Adolescents.

Adolescence is the time where a person's personality isn't really defined.. Which makes them really vulnerable to the silliest of trends

Its All about having "THE LOOK" whether you're an urban male or a classy bourgoise female... There's a "Look" to which you try your best to conform to... Whether you know it OR NOT



To Be Continued...
Mr. LZF has left the building!

Nostalgia Part 2: How We Learn

Ever sat down in class and wondered WHY THE HELL AM I HERE!??! or maybe you fly off into you own world as soon as the lecturer starts talking (I Do THESE ALL THE TIME)... Maybe its because of the way YOU Learn.
We all work in different ways and we all learn in different ways... There are 4 different ways that the Brain learns
Visually -  Through what we see
Aurally -  Through what we hear (the way we learn in school)
Reading & Writing - The old Look, Cover, Repeat Technique
Kinaesthetically - By doing things


We learn by mixing all these styles together...
If you want to know how you learn take this test here http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire and your results will show you how you learn best.
Last time I did that test I found that I'm HEAVILY KINAESTHETIC, I learn best by doing things and NOT BY LISTENING to others (Very bad for a University Student eh?)

Theories of Learning

(Pavlov [Passive Learning] vs Skinner [Active Learning)

Round 1- Pavlov and his theory of Classical Conditioning

Pavlov's theory takes the viewpoint that we learn about things in our surroundings passively, through our subconscious.

"Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus." ~(http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html)

.... What does that mean for NON-Nerds?.... Classical conditioning is like learning by routine... like putting your hand out a the the bus stop in order to stop the bus.

Pavlov used dogs and meat and bells to come the conclusion that " WE LEARN BY PAIRING A STIMULUS TO A RESPONSE" - In Pavlov's case this was the dogs who associated the ringing of a bell with food which made them salivate in readiness for the meat  they were about to eat

Pavlov therefore demonstrated how stimulus-response bonds (which some consider as the basic building blocks of learning) are formed."

Some more meat for you to chew on: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Pavlov/ 

Round 2- Skinner and his theory of Operant Conditioning

Skinner's theory is much simpler than Pavlov's, it's basically "Monkey See, Monkey Do" ... We learn by imitating & repeating what we hear and not via automatic changes in our subconscious. (Which I'm more inclined to believe)

tip.psychology.org says "The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual's response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment. A response produces a consequence such as defining a word, hitting a ball, or solving a math problem. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. ".... 

Now in SeanSpeak ... "We learn by making changes in our active behaviour... the adjustments we make either bring success or failure... if we made the right adjustment/response then we learn to repeat this response every time we have to perform that same task." #GetIt?

Q.E.D

Mr LaissezFaire AWAY!!!!!!!!

Nostalgia (The Phenomena)

You know that feeling you get when you see Secondary school kids in their blazers or the tingling sensation you get when you open that pack of Maryland cookies...(Maybe that's just me)...that "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh" feeling that reminds you of the "Good Old Days", its down to a thing scientists call Nostalgia.


The textbook (Consumer Behaviour) defines Nostalgia as "a bittersweet emotion where we view the past with both sadness and longing" (That don't sound like fun) and dictionary.com defines Nostalgia as "a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days."


Nostalgia is a phenomenon that doesn't just affect the old-folk, it affects everyone.
Lets take me as an example...Personally if I could rewind time I'd go back to when I was 15 (ahhhhh! Those were the days!) Young, Carefree and a lot less busy... The year was 2006, Nobody knew what a recession was and Italy had cheated their way into victory at the World Cup, Justin Timberlake released his 2nd album entitled "Future Sex / Love Sounds and music made a lot more sense (Check out all the UK number 1 tracks for the year: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_in_British_music_charts). Believe it or not I was a budding actor back in those days (HAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA)..... BUT WAIT! Wasn't this only 4 Years ago?!?! Well... That's the effect Nostalgia has on its victim.... It accentuates everything and adds a glossy coat to make it feel really blissful. I'm sure that when I was 15 I didn't enjoy life as much as I'm making it seem... but that's what NOSTALGIA does to a human.


What triggers Nostalgia?
According to Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt and Routledge (Nostalgia: Content, Triggers, Functions from Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association 2006, Vol. 91, No. 5) Sensory input and social interaction are the main triggers of nostalgia.
By sensory input Wildschut and co. mean STIMULI (see my bloggings on Perception for more info) and these stimuli can be ANYTHING that our 5 senses react to.
Veryevolved.com says "Smell and touch are strong evokers of nostalgia and memories in general due to the processing of these stimuli first passing through the amygdala, the emotional seat of the brain."




Nostalgia's Ugly Side
All those memories of "the good old days" will surely have a downside... (yup!).. They actually do. Veryevolved.com says " But with a brain that supports consciousness comes problems that we’ve all experienced: depression, self doubt, lack of motivation."
the problem with reminiscing those good old days is that they remind you of how crap the present is (Out comes the secret resentment of growing up, going to uni etc.) and apparently too much dwelling on the past can lead to a downward spiral of depression! But all's well that ends well eh?




NOW FOR SOME FUN!


My lucky parents were born in the late 80's so they got to experience the happy-go-lucky, take-it-easy lifestyle of the 80's
THEY HAD EVERYTHING!(Except iPods, Playstation and Flatscreens) I'm actually very jealous right now =[

My 80's Fashion Moodboard

They had Your Love by The Outfield (I wasn't even born when this song came out and I get nostalgic when I hear it)










and the classique by Marvin Gaye .... Sexual Healing

Then there was this smasher by KC and the Sunshine Band

And THERE WAS THIS!!!!!!

Cause I couldn't find any pictures of what my parents looked like in the 80's - (God knows where they hid them!)

I Made them pick 1 song that summed up the 80's for them....

Now lets compare that to the last decade of Music & Fashion *Yawns*
We'll start with this

FASHION 2000-2010

Its kinda sad to see where music went after the 80's

Nostalgia in advertising
"While science is still struggling to unravel the neuro-dynamics of nostalgia, studies have identified some nostalgic cues that can be exploited and how images and sounds from the past can create favorable attitudes about products." - Bob Deutsch, President of Warc.com

The Christmas Coca-Cola advert is a perfect example of Bob's statement... Whenever you hear this advert, no matter where you are in the world you get a buzz and suddenly you're in the mood for mistletoe, turkey and more importantly SPENDING!


In Layman's terms... HO HO HO! Go Spend Your Money!


Nostalgic Ads are perfect because they get at your emotions so deeply you don't even realise you want to buy the product being marketed at you.




Bob Deutsch's take on Nostalgia in advertising
http://www.warc.com/Blogs/FullBlog.asp?BlogID=1034


A Really good blog entry on Nostalgia: http://veryevolved.com/2009/02/neuroscience-and-nostalgia/


A Really "interesting" take on Nostalgia: http://www.charminghealth.com/applicability/nostalgia.htm

Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning (STP)

STP is the way we marketers choose who we're going to sell our products to.


STP is all about in #SeanSpeak "picking your spot"
I mean it wouldn't make sense for me to try and sell an Audi R8 Spyder to a 78 Year Woman that uses a walking stick?... And neither would it make sense to do adverts that try and persuade them to go and buy the car would it?

In layman's terms: Vrooom Vrooom + Old Granny = BIG NO NO


Step 1 in the STP  process is "SEGMENTATION"


Lars Perner from http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/cb_Segmentation.html says that "Segmentation involves finding out what kinds of consumers with different needs exist."
There's a million-and-1 different types of consumers with a million-and-1 different needs, but the main aim of segmentation is to find out the SPECIFIC NEEDS OF YOUR TARGET.
Lets take cars as an example. A high earning young male with a high disposable income won't just want a car that gets from A-to-B... He'll want a car that says LOOK AT ME! I'M THE DOGS BOLLOCKS AND MY £45,000 Car proves it. 
His specific need is a FLASHY CAR THAT GETS THE JOB DONE IN STYLE.

Segmentation - Who Am I Trying To Appeal To?

There are 4 different types of Segmentation:
Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic and Behaviouristic.
The useful thing about segments is that it puts consumers into groups that have similar characteristics.


Geographic Segmentation is based on the assumption that certain areas have similar attitudes to buying, it also looks at things like GDP and other aspects that will affect how much the people in an area are able to spend.


For example places like Amersham and Beaconsfield are home to some of the richest people in the UK (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3361042/Britains-richest-towns-10-1.html) so we can expect adverts in those areas to be more about buying fancy jewels than tesco's value range


Demographic Segmentation looks at Age, gender and income.... 
Age - People of different ages buy different products. A 6 year old girl can't walk in to a BMW Showroom and buy a brand new 5-Series [It Just Won't Happen]


Gender: Men and Women shop in different ways and buy different things. (Blogging on this soon)
Jennifer Waters says that 'Men Hunt and Women Gather'
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/men-shop-as-hunters-women-shop-as-gatherers


Income: The more you make.. The more you can buy (simples ;])


Psychographic Segmentation


This separates people & households according to their Social class, lifestyle and personality
There are 6 classes: A, B, C1,C2, D and E

I think product position relies heavily on the table above... Knowing what percentage of the population is in what social class means you know WHO to target a product at and HOW to position a product (more about positioning a product later :x)... YOU JUST CAN'T GO ABOUT AIMING HIGH PRICED CARS ARE PEOPLE IN THE WORKING CLASS! = MEGAFAIL!


The problem with this form of Segmentation is that it only looks at the HEAD of the household and it Stereotypes peoples lifestyles which leaves big holes in the system.... Imagine someone in the A-Class Category who drives a 1996 Vauxhall Corsa that is not a Professional but is on a 6/7 Figure Salary. (Oh my God they've ruined the whole system!!!)





Behavioural Segmentation
I call this Surveillance segmentation... basically this looks at what people buy, when they buy it and brand loyalty.
http://www.learnmarketing.net/segmentation2.htm says that "Behavioural segmentation can be broken down into the benefit a consumer seeks from purchasing a product ... An example of this is Tesco's clubcard scheme"...If you've been shopping lately you'd know that Tesco have been allowing clubcard holders to Trade-in points for massive discounts.
This is a great marketing ploy because not only does allow Tesco to note what people buy, but added incentives mean that the consumer will spend that extra bit more just to get that reward or that extra £5 off their next purchase (We marketers are down right conmen aren't we)

Targeting - How Am I Trying Appeal To Them 

Stage 2 of the STP Process is Targeting...

Once the segment or segments have been selected we then TARGET them using various ad campaigns. DAVID Cameron used targeting to con a lot of the public into voting for him. How? He got the young vote by making visits to Local schools and colleges... In London he went to the more populated parts so he could capture more votes... Simply put after choosing his segment, Cameron (and his campaign management team) then devised a scheme to target that segment.

What's most important about targeting is that you target the right segment! You wouldn't try to sell an energy drink to people in their 70's would you? NO, Didn't think so!

When choosing your victim (I mean segment) you have to consider how well that segment is being dealt with / robbed already... for example if I was to open a music store trying to compete with HMV aimed at people from 11-30 I'd know that it would be best not to open a physical store but instead open an online store. Why? Because 11-30 year olds are more likely to buy online or have the savvy to download music.

Secondly you have to know how saturated your targeted segment is and how demand will change over time and finally WHAT Strengths does your product/service have to offer to that particular segment.


The "Book" (Essentials of Marketing) says that there are 3 different approaches to targeting a segment or segments


1 -  Concentrated

From 

http://www.slidefinder.net/m/marketing_topic_segmentation_marketing_positioning/16346170/p2

This involves specialism; You only serve 1 particular segment.
The main advantages of this approach is that you find out the needs and wants of that particular segment and you get a reputation for being a specialist in that particular area.
The "con" to this approach is that you can appear to get complacent if you don't keep up!




Simply put... to use the concentrated approach means that you have to be consistent in "delivering the goods" and always know what the consumer wants in order to stay at the top!


2 - Differentiated

From 

http://www.slidefinder.net/m/marketing_topic_segmentation_marketing_positioning/16346170/p2

Less of a risk than the Concentrated approach, the differentiated approach "sets its stall out" then unlike the concentrated approach it spreads  to more than one specific segment. 
These approaches are like Roulette... the differentiated approach increases your chances of winning by spread-betting, whereas the concentrated approach puts all your chips on 1 number.


The Problem with the differentiated approach is that you dilute your appeal but the main advantage is that you can always reposition to other markets and still make revenue.. consider it like this: in Roulette if you were to used the concentrated approach and bet on the number 27. there's a 1 in 37 chance that you'll be right... BUT! if you use the differentiated approach you spread your chips across the board i.e putting chips on 1,12,18,27,30,32 gives you a 6 in 37 chance to win but because you've spread so much your revenue decreases. Get It?


3 - Undifferentiated

From 

http://www.slidefinder.net/m/marketing_topic_segmentation_marketing_positioning/16346170/p2

The lazy man's approach: you set your stall out and try sell it to everyone (Hence the name Undifferentiated)
Its good because its low-risk BUT there's is no way 1 product will appeal to everybody. Even certain types of drinking water don't appeal to everybody!
My personal opinion is: if you want to make serious money DON'T USE THIS APPROACH... Its only useful for what I call "Quick-burst" ventures which only have small revenues... If you want to make some real revenue put your chips on the table!






Positioning
"Who Will I Sell My Wonderful Product To?"
(The implementation of your Targeting!)

It sounds like such an easy question don't it? ... Well you're wrong!
How you position a product is crucial... it's sink or swim! The "book" says its all about PERCEPTION and how the customer perceives the product.
Lets do a Perception test on this Audi TT advert

First thing that strikes me about this advert is that its very masculine - Look at the angry wolves and bears and the cogs and helmets... Its all very very MACHO!
In my opinion they're trying to liken the Audi TT to a SNOWBEAST... When I first looked at this ad I instantly though of driving in the Swiss Alps, doing 120mph around those clear winding mountain roads on a winters day.


!! What does this have to do with Positioning you ask? Well...from my interpretation of the advert I can say that Audi have positioned this advert at people they KNOW will want to buy the car... People who can afford to! You'd have to be in either social class A or B to be able to afford the kind of holiday that involves Ski Resorts and Long Winding Roads. Personally I don't think Audi would target people that couldn't afford to buy this car otherwise they'd be out of business!


They've used a concentrated strategy - They've selected their segment (Profile: Young Male, Social Class A to B[High Earner]) and made an advert that specifically appeals to their target.


If that's not a great STP Example.. I Don't Know What Is ;)


Have a great day
Mr. LZF