Profiling Consumers: The Role of Personal Values in Consumer Preferences

210 Pages·2016·3.1 MB·English

Profiling Consumers: The Role of Personal
Values in Consumer Preferences

Franziska Leutner

Prepared under the supervision of:
Prof. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and Dr. Sophie von Stumm

Submitted for the degree of PhD, August 2016
Department of Psychology and Language Sciences
University College London

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Declaration

I, Franziska Leutner, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own.
Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has
been indicated in the thesis.

Franziska Leutner
nd
London, 22 of August 2016

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Abstract
Models of consumer choice often fail to explain why individual consumers are
drawn towards different products. Yet, with the growing use of pe, rsonalised marketing
an understanngd iof individual consumer motivations is increasingly relevant. Where
research investigates the effect of psychometrics on consumer choice, the focus often
lies on personality. However, the relationship between personality and consumer choice
is notorioyu sslpurious. In addition, consumer choice increasingly requires active
decision making in today’s rich product environment. Personality offers limited insights
into drivers of such consumer decisions. Personal values may be a more suitable
psychometric. Theoretical work on values indicates their relevance in decision making
and behaviour.

Values describe a person’s underlying goals and ambitions, reflecting their core
needs and drivers. This thesis explores whether values meaningfully explain why
consumers prefer products at the category, product variant and brand level, and
investigates the predictive strength of values in different consumer choice scenarios. It
does so by examining purchase records, social media activity, and self-report data to
test a series of predictive, structural and group differences models. The thesis
contributes an original conceptual and methodological framework for assessing the role
of values in consumer behaviours. It further contributes a text based measure of values
to ease application in consumer settings.

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Results suggest that: 1. Values are correlated with preference for product
category (Chapter 4); 2. Individual differences in values significantly predict product
choice in the supermarket (Chapter 5); 3. Individual differences in consumer brand
affiliation predict values with moderate accuracy (Chapter 6). These findings contribute
to a more comprehensive understanding of the role of values in consumer preference
and their feasibility and usefulness for application in personalisation and consumer
insight.

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Acknowledgements
I thank my supervisor, P rToofemsasos rCham-oPrrreomuzic for the continuous
inspiration of my work, and th pee friseoldn aolifty in general. This dissertation was
funded by UCL’s Doctoral Training Centre for Financial Computing and Analytics. I thank
the centre and Professor Philip Treleaven in particular for their support both
academically and practically. The centre’s intellectual environment helped me develop
ideas, ambition, and skills beyond my original field of study.

I thank Cambridge Universities’ myPersonality project, in particular Dr. Michal
Kosinski, for making possible some of the studies contained in this thesis, as well as for
their work in advancing personality analytics which has been instrumental in the
development of my thinking. I thank Dr Gorkan Ahmetoglu for introducing me to the
field of personality and for his invaluable input into my work.

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Table of Contents
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1 The Individual in Consumer Choice .................................................................. 18
1.1 The Self in Consumer Preferences and Choice .............................................................. 21
1.2 Self-Congruence ............................................................................................................. 24
1.2.1 Brand and Product Personality: Profiling the Soft Side of Products ...........................25
1.2.2 Brand Personality and Congruence ............................................................................26
1.2.3 Product Personality and Congruence .........................................................................31
1.3 Profiling Consumer Selves: The Big Five ........................................................................ 34
Chapter 2 Drivers Underlying Consumer Choice............................................................... 39
2.1 Basic Human Values ....................................................................................................... 40
2.1.1 Earlier Models of Values .............................................................................................41
2.1.2 Schwartz’s Basic Human Values .................................................................................42
2.1.3 Value Development and Stability Throughout the Lifespan .......................................45
2.1.4 Gender Differences in Values ......................................................................................47
2.1.5 Universality of Values and Cohort Changes ................................................................48
2.1.6 Psychometric Measurement of Values .......................................................................48
2.2 Values Drive Behaviour .................................................................................................. 49
2.2.1 From Value to Behaviour ............................................................................................50
2.2.2 Values as Predictors of Behaviour: Existing Research ................................................51
2.3 Values in Consumer Behaviour ...................................................................................... 53
2.3.1 Theoretical Link between Values and Consumer Behaviour .......................................53
2.3.2 Values as Predictors of Consumer Behaviour .............................................................56
Chapter 3 Summary and Current Thesis ........................................................................... 59
3.1 Outstanding Questions and Criticism ............................................................................ 60
3.2 Research Aims and Proposed Model ............................................................................. 62
3.3 Empirical Studies ............................................................................................................ 63

Part II: Empirical Studies
Chapter 4 Values Drive Shopping Category Preference in a Sample from the General
Population ........................................................................................................................ 67
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 68
4.1.1 Values Relate to Consumer Preference for Ethically Significant Product Categories .68
4.1.2 Values and Consumer Preference for General Shopping Categories ..........................70
4.1.3 Study Aims and Hypotheses ........................................................................................71
4.2 Method .......................................................................................................................... 73
4.2.1 Sample and Procedure ................................................................................................73
4.2.2 Measures ....................................................................................................................73
4.3 Data Analyses ................................................................................................................. 76
4.4 Results ............................................................................................................................ 77
4.4.1 Canonical Correlations ................................................................................................80
4.5 Discussion ...................................................................................................................... 86
4.5.1 Limitations and Future Research ................................................................................90
4.6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 92
4.7 Measure Validation: the Short Value Measure ............................................................. 94
4.7.1 Sample and Procedure ................................................................................................94
4.7.2 Measures ....................................................................................................................94
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4.7.3 Data Analysis and Results ...........................................................................................97
4.7.4 Results .........................................................................................................................98
4.7.5 Discussion and Conclusions ........................................................................................99
Chapter 5 Values Predict Purchasing in a Sample of UK Supermarket Shoppers ............ 101
5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 102
5.2 Study 1: Predicting Purchasing of Similar Products from Different Brands ................. 102
5.2.1 Brand and Product Personality and Consumer Choice .............................................103
5.2.2 Method .....................................................................................................................105
5.2.3 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................110
5.2.4 Results .......................................................................................................................111
5.2.5 Discussion .................................................................................................................114
5.2.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................119
5.3 Study 2: Predicting Purchasing of Product Variants from the Same Brand ................. 120
5.3.1 Values and Bread Choice ..........................................................................................121
5.3.2 Method .....................................................................................................................122
5.3.3 Results .......................................................................................................................124
5.3.4 Discussion .................................................................................................................126
5.3.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................129
Chapter 6 Values Drive Brand Affiliation in a Large Sample of Facebook Users .............. 130
6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 131
6.1.1 Brands and Consumer Preference ............................................................................131
6.1.2 Facebook as a Platform for Brand Affiliation ...........................................................132
6.1.3 Facebook Likes and Personal Values ........................................................................133
6.1.4 Study Aims and Hypotheses ......................................................................................133
6.2 Study 1: Validating a Language Use Based Measure of Values ................................... 134
6.2.1 The Connection of Values and Language Use in Free Text .......................................135
6.2.2 Study Aims ................................................................................................................136
6.2.3 Method .....................................................................................................................137
6.2.4 Data Analysis Overview ............................................................................................139
6.2.5 Results .......................................................................................................................143
6.2.6 Discussion and Conclusions ......................................................................................152
6.3 Study 2: Predicting Values from Brand Affiliation ....................................................... 155
6.3.1 Method .....................................................................................................................155
6.3.2 Data Analysis Overview ............................................................................................157
6.3.3 Results .......................................................................................................................158
6.3.4 Discussion and Conclusions ......................................................................................163
6.4 Overall Chapter Discussion .......................................................................................... 167
6.4.1 Limitations and Future Research ..............................................................................168
6.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 169

Part III: Discussion
Chapter 7 Discussion ...................................................................................................... 171
7.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................... 172
7.2 Research Questions and Findings ................................................................................ 173
7.2.1 Do Values Influence which Product Categories Consumers Prefer to Shop? ............174
7.2.2 Do Values Affect Consumer Purchasing Decisions? ..................................................174
7.2.3 Are Values Related to Consumer Brand Preference and Affiliation? ........................175
7.3 Explaining Consumer Preferences with Personal Values ............................................. 176
7.4 Limitations ................................................................................................................... 178
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