Personality or Self Concept... Which comes first?

Its the chicken and the egg situation all over again!! 

I believe that your self concept affects your personality because personality is only the make up you apply on the outside. Self concept is what's inside.. People who may come across as shy may actually have something else hidden in their past that stops them from speaking out. Maybe a relative always put them down as a child? Maybe they were bullied at school? And therefore this has had a big impact on their self esteem and then onto their self concept. 

Personality is something that is constantly changing with your surroundings.  For example people who are married to a dominant partner will not really have a say in many things even though if before they got married they were very out going. This is their self concept that has deteriorated because their personality has been forcefully changed. This is the worst thing to do to a person as they will not be able to stnad on their own two feet and eventually become dependent.


Personality: the visible aspect of one's character (Dictionary.com)

Self concept stems deep down into the individual persons beliefs and how they put them into use in the real world. 

In my opinion it is the self concept that makes a personality... Everyone is different in how they apply their self concept and their personality at different times. For example the clothes people wear could play a factor in that persons self esteem at this times, where as another time, it could be like talking to another person, this is what is known as a multiple personality (Solomon,Bamossy,Askegaard & Hogg, 2010) where people act in different ways at difference times and around different people.

This is known as 'self esteem advertising', there are many factors other than clothing that can affect the way a person presents themselves, for example younger people who smoke may possible think that they look good smoking at a young age, or that it boosts their image within their social peer group. This is a big problem in the world today as this type of peer pressure can lead into different avenues which are extremely dangerous; from taking drugs to committing crimes.

Peer pressure also comes into this scenario as Solomon points out, 'teenagers who are members of high-status groups have a higher self-esteem than their excluded classmates.' (P144, Solomon et al, 2010). This  statement is very true yet it is extremely simple, for people to understand. 

Jack Canfield is an American motivational speaker who hold events across the globe, in the video link below he speaks about positive thinking altering ones self-esteem. One comment that he made which I found very interesting was although being made redundant is a bad thing, but the end of one job holds a promise of a new beginning. When I first him this comment it made me stop and think that everything happens for a reason... Some spiritualists say that our lives are written, others disagree. Hearing this comment makes inclines me to believe the fact that our lives are written even more than previously. 

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7hBoa75YRs)

However, there are two big influences of self-esteem, this is the real self and the ideal self. The real self is our real appraisal of the qualities we have or in some cases do not, where as the ideal self asks the questions: could i earn more money? Or Am I worthy of that position? (Solomon et al 2010). This shows that many people doubt may doubt themselves and their skills at crucial times in their careers that could potentially affect the rest of their lives. This is where Jack Canfield's work comes in again telling people that positive things will happen if you have a positive outlook on life. 

Reference List:

Solomon M R, Bamossy G, Askgaard S, Hogg M, 2010, Consumer behavior a european perspective, 4th ed, Harlow, Pearson's Education LTD

Gender Differences

There are many different factors that make men different from women. It is these differences that make a marketers job harder than it already is as they need to try to make a campaign for the appropriate target market.


The main different between the two is when women are able to look into things deeper than men. (The video below shows the perfectly as it shows how Rachel goes into a lot of depth about her special moment where was Ross is just more interested in the pizza. Pizza or Rachel... Touch choice!!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGoC8FTLKSI


This happens because men have a so-called 'nothing box', where guys can simple go and empty their minds and just act dumb... This quote is backed up by this video: "The Nothing Box" (AKA. Men's vs. Women's Brains). 


The term 'boy racer' typically stems from when younger male drivers modify their car with lights, exhausts and turbo chargers to boost their ego and their self-esteem as many younger drivers in this category tend to have competitions as to who's car is the best. 

There are many texts about gender differences and this helps explain how men and women are different from one and other in many different ways.

One generalisation is that men do not speculate over things for very long where as women are more likely to examine marketing communications. For this reason marketing stimulus for women has more information where as the men's equivalent has more pictures but less words. Most fragrances or skin products follow this rule and can be compared as they have marketing plans for both sexes.


Even mobile phone manufactures are starting to get their companies involved in this, as they are now making phones in different colours. As a result the colours help aim the products distinctly at the different genders. This gives the company the opportunity to see which colours are popular and if the female gender are interested in the types of phones that are directly aimed at them. 


Armani Code for women:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_jpvpFwnwg
This product is a good example as the fragrance for women has a imprint on the bottle where as the men's one is a plain bottle.


Armani Code for men:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzg4kzFx66c&feature=related
The advert is plain and simple and straight to the point which shows the differences the product even thought the branding is the same.


The fragrance and cosmetic industries are good examples of different gender marketing as they can offer a product in two different versions and use two different marketing campaigns to sell these products. Therefore the cost to advertise these products increases dramatically, so it is important for the marketing agencies in-charge of these contracts to get the campaigns right the first time round. 


Solomon states that there was a time where men had to 'men' where the 'macho man' was the only acceptable way to be. However in today's market L'oreal state that the male skin care, is the largest growing sector, as in Europe 24% of men younger than 30 use these products. (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, Hogg, 2010)


As there is a Mintel report for Men's Toiletries, it shows that there is a big increase in usage of the products that fall under this category in the last 8 years. The report which was conducted in 2008 shows that many men started using these products to enhance their appearance. Figure 23 of the report states that the majority of men use the products  in order to be attractive of the opposite sex. This number is consistent through the UK, except in Yorkshire & Humberside(something which I could not find an answer too...), where the number drops significantly. (Mintel, 2008)


A more up to date Mintel report from 2010 shows that 38% males tend to make the purchase of these cosmetic products in boots. (Mintel, 2010) Having looked at the boots website and comparing prices Boots are often running buy one get one free promotions on skin care products from shaving foam to after shave balm (Boots, n.d). Many men use these products on a daily basis, therefore it is for this reason that I feel Boots is market leader in this field. 


Reference List:


Boots, n.d, Mens skin care products, [Online], Boots, Available at: http://www.boots.com/en/Men/Skincare/ [Accessed 14th Jan 2011]


Mintel, 2010, Beauty retailing - UK, [Online], Mintel, Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=479768 [Accessed 14th Jan 2011]


Mintel, 2008, Men's toiletries - UK, [Online], Mintel , Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=227679/displaytables/id=227679, [Accessed 14th Jan 2011]


Solomon M R, Bamossy G, Askgaard S, Hogg M, 2010, Consumer behavior a european perspective, 4th ed, Harlow, Pearson's Education LTD