Topics
personality, self-concept, segment profile, psychographics
Review the activity below or download the PDF student worksheet
- Student Worksheet: Self-Concept and Purchases
- Instructor Solutions (Members Only): Self-Concept and Purchases = Solutions
Student Discussion Activity
Is there a relationship between a consumer’s personality/self-concept and the products that they purchase? Listed below are the contents from three shopping baskets at a local supermarket.
Your task is this activity is to see if you can describe each of the three consumers simply based upon their grocery purchases.
Consumer A
- One kilo of budget ground beef
- Two loaves of white bread
- One kilo of ‘generic’ flour
- Two cans of peaches
- Three kilos of potatoes
- One jar of instant coffee
Consumer B
- One kilo of T-bone steak
- A loaf of high-fiber bread
- One can of Indian curry
- Two cans of smoked oysters
- Three avocados
- One jar of gourmet coffee
Consumer C
- Strawberries
- Muesli
- Soy milk
- Herbal tea
- One kilo of bananas
- Two packets of ‘cup-of-soup’
Student Discussion Questions
- How would do describe the three consumers based upon their shopping baskets?
- How similar is your profile, as compared to the descriptions developed by your fellow students?
- Do you think that there is a strong correlation between consumer’s self-concept and their purchase decisions?
- If so, how can marketers utilize this relationship? Are there certain types of products where this relationship would be more prominent?