Psychological Influences on

Consumer Decision Making

Consumer Motivation
• Motivation is the driving force that impels people to act and reflects the reason or
reasons one has for acting and behaving in a particular way.
• Needs are circumstances in which something is necessary and requires some course of
action.
• Why understanding customer motivation important for marketers?
The foundation of marketing is identifying and satisfying needs.
Marketers do not create needs, although in many instances they make customers more
keenly aware of their needs.
• Marketers should focus on the needs their product satisfies rather than the product itself.
• Developing new products that will satisfy consumer needs ensure Marketer stays in the
forefront of search for new and effective solutions to customer desires, thereby attaining
Marketing success
• P & G defines its products as “ branded products and services of
quality and value that improve the lives of consumers”- aneed
focused definition-rather than stating the company sells products
such as detergents, shampoos, diapers, household cleaners, and
others ( that is, rather than a product oriented definition)
• Ritz Carlton does not define its business as rooms for overnight stay,
rather it states it provides personal and caring service in an uplifting
ambience, thereby focusing on anticipating and fulfilling guests’ needs
and wants.
Needs
• Needs are of two types:
1. Biogenic needs or Physiology needs or innate needs which sustain
physical existence: needs for food, water and sir.
2. Psychogenic needs: needs learnt from out parents, social
environment and interactions with others which include needs for
affection, self-esteem, prestige, power and achievement
• Both types of needs affect customer buying decisions.
Need Arousal:

Arousal of any need at a specific time may be caused by biological

stimuli , emotional or cognitive processes.
In physiological arousal, a drop of blood sugar level or stomach
contractions triggers feeling hungry. A dry throat triggers feeling
thirsty. Marketers can arouse hunger and thirst by advertising that
stimulate hunger/thirst.
In cognitive arousal of needs, thoughts can lead to a cognitive
awareness of a need and actions which would fulfill it. For example:
Ads for Policy Bazaar advice customers to take informed decisions
when it comes to buying insurance
Creative marketing messages stimulate psychological desires in the
mind of customers.
Triggering Biogenic needs-need for food
Triggering fear and embarrassment to arouse need for affiliation

This Ad makes
customers aware of
hair problems in
winters. Through the
insecurity the girl has
about her
relationship, evokes
fears and motivates
the girl to use the
product advertised as
a solution to her
problem
when Achievement motivates: messages that encourage and illustrates
success: accomplish tasks, succeed and overcome obstacles
Goals:
• Generic goals: outcomes that consumers seek in order to satisfy
physiological and psychological needs
• Product specific goals: outcomes consumers seek by using a given
product or service
• When a student tells his parents, he wants to become a manager, he
is expressing a generic need
• When the same student says he wants to earn an MBA from XYZ
institution of management, he is expressing a product-specific goal
• Usually, consumers set purchase related goals that satisfy more than one need.
• For instance, consumers buy clothes for covering their bodies , but clothes also fulfill social needs.
• People with same need, such as need for achievement, might seek fulfillment in different ways. One may seek
advancement and recognition through a professional success whereas another may choose to run marathons.
• For any given need, there can be many appropriate goals.
• The goals that people select may depend on personal experiences and knowledge, physical capacity, prevailing
cultural norms, and the goal’s accessibility.
• For e.g.: A woman may seek health hair. She can decide to achieve her needs:
by aiming to oil her hair and shampoo or
by shampoo and conditioning her hair regularly.
• She may decide to use hair oil followed by shampoo as the Indian culture has woven into our minds, the
importance of regular oiling of hair. (Western country women do not generally oil their hair)
• Or she may not have the time, to oil her hair as it’s a long and tedious process as per her personal experience
and may decide to use only shampoo and conditioner for a quick wash.
Needs and goals are interdependent
• Needs and goals are interdependent: neither exists without the other.
• In many situations, people may not be aware of their needs: for instance, a teenager may not be
consciously aware of his social needs buy may seek out friends on Instagram and scroll through
Instagram as a way to feel socially connected.
• Similarly, while many want to go for shopping but may have different goals they try to fulfill by
shopping. A study found different factors that motivate people to go shopping:
Seeking specific goods: going to the supermarket to buy foods
Recreational shopping: occurs when customers do not have an urgent product need in mind but
go shopping for personal enjoyment of shopping
Activity specific shopping: includes motivations such as sensory stimulation or bargain hunting
Demand specific shopping: Consumers may be motivated by factors such as service convenience,
store atmosphere, unique and exciting assortment- all attributes that they demand from retail
outlets.
• Higher order needs emerge as lower order needs are fulfilled.
• For e.g.: a man whose basic physiological needs (e.g: food, shelter, etc) are
fairly well satisfied, may turn his efforts towards achieving acceptance
among neighbours by mixing with them. Once his affiliation needs are
satisfied, he might seek recognition by giving lavish parties or buying a good
car.
• Needs that are satisfied, no longer motivate.
• When people cannot meet their primary goals, they often set substitute
goals. If a customer cannot afford a sedan, he might decide a smaller, less
expensive, hatchback is more suited to her needs.
Murray’s Psychogenic Needs
• A prominent psychologist, Henry Murray prepared an extensive list of
psyological needs.
• Murray believes that each need is important in and of itself and needs can
be interrelated , can support other needs or conflict with other needs.
• For e.g.: the need for power may conflict the need for affiliation as the
need for dominance may drive away friends.
• Environmental circumstances strongly influences how psychogenic needs
are manifested in behaviour.
• A person whose parents are very successful and expect the same success
from him, may develop high needs for achievement.
 Strategic applications of Murray’s list
Need
Achievement: accomplish tasks,
succeed, and overcome obstacles
Affiliation: spend time, form strong
friendships and attachment with
others
Power/Dominance: control,
influence, lead others
Change: seek new experiences and
avoid routine
Typical Characteristics
Do the best and work hard in any
undertaking. Be able to do things
better than others
Tell amusing jokes at parties. Say or
do things that match others’
expectations.
Seek leadership in groups, supervise
and direct actions of others
Doing new and different activities,
like eating in new restaurants, going
on trips, and avoiding conventional
situations
Promotional Applications
Messages which encourage and
illustrate success (e.g.: showing
successful people in Ads)
Marketing showing people enjoying
themselves together in large groups.
Messages showing the actual of
symbolic dominance (e.g: being a
CEO, owning a powerful car)
Messages stressing novelty,
uniqueness and breaking with
routine (e.., adventure travel and
active vacations)
When power/dominance motivates: need to control: Messages showing
actual or symbolic dominance
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Psychologist Abraham Maslow formulated a theory of motivation based on the notion that there is a
hierarchy of human needs.
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs consists of five levels of human needs which rank in importance from
lower level needs (biogenic) to higher order needs (psychogenic).
• The theory states that individuals seek to satisfy lower order needs before higher order needs.
• The lowest level of unsatisfied need motivates a person’s behaviour
• When that need is fairly satisfied, the individual is motivate to fulfill a need in the next level of
hierarchy
• When the next higher level of need is satisfied, the individual seeks to satisfy the need higher than
this and so on.
• However, if a person experiences renewed deprivation regarding a formerly met, lower order need,
then that need becomes the dominant motivator. For e.g.: a person has a well paying job-his security
needs are satisfied and he will move ahead to satisfy his social needs. However, if he loses his job, he
will go back to satisfying his security need which will become dominant.
Triggering hunger: Physiological needs
Arousing fear and the need for safety/security : Safety and
Security Needs
Evoking Need for Security by showing the girl feeling insecure about
her skin in winters
Ego Needs: Self-Esteem: “ I am worth it”
Self Actualisation need: Need to be the best: The complete man
Marketing applications of Maslow’s theory
• Maslow’s need hierarchy helps in segmentation and the development
of advertising and other marketing communication appeals.
• By understanding which needs the customers are facing, Marketers
can design their offerings accordingly.
• For e.g.: Purchasers of insurance may want to satisfy their security
needs. Insurance policies should be designed accordingly.
• Customers may face security needs and cars are accordingly
marketed as reliable and safe.
 Personality
• Personality is a set of distinguishing psychological traits that lead to
relatively consistent and enduring responses to environmental stimuli
including buying behaviour.
• Personality can be described in terms of traits such as self-confidence,
dominance, autonomy, sociability and adaptability
Freudian Theory
• The Freudian theory premise is that the unconscious needs or drives are at the heart of human motivation
and one’s personality.
• Freud proposed that the human personality is made up of three interacting systems: the id, the superego
and the ego.
• The id is related to primitive and impulsive drives-basic physiological needs such as hunger, thirst, sex-for
which the individual seeks immediate satisfaction without concern for the specific means of satisfaction.
Individuals with high levels of Id are impulsive.
• The super ego is the individual’s internal expression of society’s moral and ethical codes of “proper” and
“correct” conduct. The superego’s role is to ensure individual acts and reacts in socially acceptable manner.
Individuals with high level of superego may be highly principled.
• The ego is the individual’s conscious control. It is the cognitive monitor for balancing the impulsive demands
of the Id and the socio-cultural constraints of the superego. Individuals with a highly developed ego are
practical.
• The three systems-id, superego and ego are important for the development of an individuals’ personality.
• A child, whose need for food is not adequately satisfied in the initial stage of human development, may grow
into an individual who is dependent on others.
• An individual who was impatiently treated during toilet training may become an adult obsessed with
cleanliness and neatness.
 Neo-Freudian
• Neo-Freudian theory maintains, that in additiona to Freud’s concept, social relationships are crucial
factors in the development of personality.
• Based on the impact of child-parent relationships, one neo-Freudian psychologist proposed three
types of personalities:
Compliant individuals: those who move towards others and want to be loved, wanted and
appreciated
Aggressive individuals: those who are against others and desire to excel and win admiration
Detached individuals: those who move away from others and seek independence, self-reliance, self-
sufficiency.
• Marketers can accordingly, position their products or services that provide an opportunity to be loved,
wanted and appreciated by others or as products that help to excel and win admiration of other or
that help individuals to become independent and self reliant.
• An ad featuring a rider on a mountain bike riding alone down steep hills may appeal to aggressive
individuals.
• An ad for a digital camera featuring others complimenting the photographer’s pictures may appeal to
compliant individuals.
 Aggressive individuals: those who desire to
excel and win admiration.

Gillette has been

portraying itself
to appeal to the
need for
Achievement
Ad appealing to compliant: those who move toward others and wish to
be loved, wanted and appreciated
Ad that will appeal to Detached individuals –those who move away
from others and seek independence, self-reliance and self-sufficiency: A
lone rider
Personality Traits
• Personality traits are characteristics that set people apart from one
another.
• Researchers have discovered that personality traits are reflected in
consumer’s shopping patterns.
• Marketers study the influence of personality on consumption
behaviour because such knowledge enables them to segment
consumers effectively and develop advertisements that target specific
segments.
 Personality traits affecting Consumer Behaviour
Based on individual’s receptivity towards new products
Innovators Laggards
Based on individual’s degree of rigidity
Dogmatism/close minded Open -minded
Based on need for uniqueness
Inner-directed/individuality Outer directed- Conformity
Degree to which new novel experiences are preferred
High Optimum stimulation level (OSL) Low OSL
Based on Preference for thinking: Need for Cognition
High NFC Low NFC
Importance of Possessions
High Materialism Low materialism
Personality traits related to individual’s
receptivity to new products
• Innovators versus Laggards:
• Innovators: people who are the first to try new products, product line
extensions and services as they are open to new ideas and practices.
• Enthusiastic about innovating products and can speed up market
acceptance of innovations because they tell others about their
purchases and often show them the new products.
• Laggards: the very last consumers to adopt a new product.
• Innovativeness: degree of a consumer’s willingness to adopt new products shortly after they are introduced. Four
motivational factors inspire customer innovativeness:
Functional factors: reflect interest in the performance of an innovation
Hedonic factors: relate to the feeling of gratification by using innovation
Social factors: reflect the desire to be recognized by others because of individual buying the latest products
Cognitive factors: the mental stimulation experienced by using an innovation.
• Three levels of innovativeness:
Global innovativeness: trait that exists independent of any product related context and represents the ‘very
nature’ of consumer’s innovativeness
Domain specific innovativeness: A narrowly defined activity within a specific domain or product category
Innovative behaviour: actions or responses that indicate early acceptance of change and adoption of innovations
• There is a positive relationship between innovativeness and using new technologies.
• Research also shows that consumer innovativeness strongly affects the likelihood or consumers buying brand
extensions and so, Marketers must target innovative customers.
Personality traits: Extrovert and Introvert
Different brands: different personalities
Open and Closed minded
• Dogmatism is one’s degree of rigidity.
• It is the opposite of being open minded
• A person who is highly dogmatic (close minded), approaches the unfamiliar defensively and with
uncertainty
• A person who is less or not dogmatic (open minded) readily considers unfamiliar or opposing beliefs.
• Generally, consumers who are not dogmatic (open minded) prefer innovative products over traditional
ones
• Highly dogmatic consumers tend to be more receptive to ads that contain appeals from authoritative
figures such as celebrities or experts.
• Low dogmatic consumers are more receptive to messages that stress factual differences, product
benefits, and other product usage information.
• Also, consumers scoring on the traits ‘openness to experience’ (=low dogmatism) and ‘extraversion’
(outgoing, ambitious, venturesome) responded favourably to emotional messages and were likely to
purchase and become loyal to brand advertised.
An ad appealing to dogmatic persons: authoritative figure; expert,
practical advice.
Innovative product Ad-ad displays product benefits and product usage
information: Appeal to people who are less dogmatic, open to
experiences and extroverts.
Conformity versus Individuality
• Inner directed consumers are likely to reply on their own inner values or standards in evaluating new
products and are like to be consumer innovators.
• Other directed consumers look for others for guidance as to what is appropriate or inappropriate and
are unlikely to be consumer innovators.
• Inner directed persons prefer on ads that stress on product features and personal benefits
• Outer directed people prefer ads that feature social acceptance and respond favourably to what other
people say about a product
• Many individuals acquire and display material possession because they want to be differentiated from
others: need for uniqueness is defined as an individual’s pursuit of differences relative to others that
is achieved through the acquisition of consumer goods in order to enhance one’s personal and social
identity.
• Understanding this personality trait is highly pertinent to the fashion industry.
• Many marketers target people with high need for uniqueness with marketing stimuli designed to
enhance self perceptions of uniqueness.
Ads that would appeal to inner directed individuals with a
high need for uniqueness/high Individuality
Novel and complex or Safe and simple
experiences
• Optimum stimulation level (OSL) is the degree to which people like novel, complex and unusual experiences (high OSL) or
prefer a simple, uncluttered and calm situation (low OSL)
• Consumers seeking high levels of optimum stimulation are more willing to take risks, more likely to try new products and be
innovative.
• Consumer’s OSL levels impact their product choices and how they spend their time.
• Closely related to OSL concept is concept of sensation seeking: one’s need for varied, novel and complex sensations and
experiences and willingness to take risks for the sake of such experiences.
• Another trait of OSL is variety or novelty seeking.
• Novelty seeking comprises of:
Exploratory purchase behaviour: switching brands to experience new, different, possibly better alternatives
Vicarious explorations: gathering information about new and different product alternatives and contemplating buying them
Innovativeness: using an already adopted product in a new or novel way
• Seeking variety is particularly relevant to technological products where many models offer a large number of different features.
• Individuals with high variety seeking personalities, are likely to purchase the latest smart phones while consumers with low
variety seeking are more likely to stick with their existing phones.
Ad that may appeal to high OSL (seeking
novel or complex experiences) persons
Preference for thinking
• Need for cognition (NFC) measures a person’s craving for or
enjoyment of thinking.
• Consumers who are high in NFC respond to ads that contain a lot of
product related information and descriptions
• Consumers who are relatively low in NFC are attracted to the
background or peripheral aspects of the ad such as an attractive
model or well known celebrity.
• Consumers high in NFC are more likely than others to seek product
information online.
Ad appealing to High NFC persons
Ad appealing to low NFC persons
Importance of Possessions
• Materialism: the degree to which individuals are preoccupied with
purchasing and showing off physical possessions that are often
nonessential and conspicuous luxury goods.
• Highly materialistic consumers define themselves by acquiring
possessions.
• Consumers who are less materialistic do not define themselves with
what they possess and are more interested in seeking fulfilling
experiences and enjoying themselves.
Self Image
• Self image is how people perceive themselves.
• Each individual has an image of himself or herself as a certain kind of
person, with certain traits, skills, habits, possessions, relationships, and
behaviours.
• Self image is often related to the purchase of products and services
because consumers often select products that are consistent with their
self image and/or to enhance their self image.
• Brands have symbolic value for individuals because their images (brand
image)are consistent with the ways these people perceive themselves
and consumers buy offerings that are congruent with their self image.
Four components of self-image
• Actual self image : the way consumers see themselves
• Ideal self image: how consumer would like to see themselves
• Social self image: how consumer feels others see them
• Ideal social self image: how consumer would like others to see them

• An emerging self image: The Social Media self image: The way people
present themselves on social media. People careful choose and edit
what they post on social media to create the image for the social
media world to see.
• For everyday household products, consumers might be guided by
their actual self image.
• For socially conspicuous products, consumers may be guided by their
social self image
Brand image
• Brands have characteristics, traits which become the brand image
• Brand image are the associations customers relate with a brand
• Customers buy brands, such that the brand image matches their self
image
What comes to your mind when you think of
these brands?
• What kind of a person owns and rides an Enfield Bullet?