Research Proposal On Individual Psychological Traits In The Consumption Of Smartphone

1.1 Research Background

Consumer behavior anchors on many aspects influencing the consumption of goods. Therefore, the consideration of the behavior of the consumers before purchase, during purchase, and after purchase creates the relevance of understanding consumer behavior to influence marketing decisions. The consideration of human psychology as an aspect that influences consumer behavior, therefore, relates to the personality aspects that influence the consumers’ activities (Sahney 2011). The individuals’ psychological traits are shaped through the environment, culture, and social aspects respective to a given person. Personality aspects in consumer consumption depend on decision making and information processing that influences the consumer engagement aspects. Psychological traits in consumer behaviors, thus emanate from internal personality influences. These aspects entail personal interpretation, attention, and perception. Many studies, such as Pelau et al. (2018), restate the relevance of individual psychological traits in influencing the producers’ management decisions. The explanation of consumer behaviors enables a company to adjust the marketing strategy to influence customer decisions and also provide an avenue for achieving differentiation in an undifferentiated market category. The consumer market provides a variety of products to the consumers to meet various demands, an aspect through which the individual personality plays a key role in influencing the consumption and purchase of the desired products (Akin 2011). Personality aspects impose decisions that characterize the personality traits and thus influence the attitudes of consumers towards these products..

This research would, therefore, seeks to analyze the psychological theories in line with consumer behavior to establish knowledge around consumer psychology as elaborated in the consumption of smartphone products within the UK.

1.2 Problem Statement

The consumers typically choose products from a range of available products within the market. The process of evaluation and selection predominantly involved consideration of aspects such as taste, durability, quality, and price. However, the development of product standardization, especially within the smartphone products category, has changed the complexity of marketing and marketing decisions considering lean product differentiation through tangible and real attributes. The consideration of the individual psychological traits eliminates the randomness that would otherwise dominate the market regarding the lack of consistency in consumer behavior. The consideration of the intangible and non-physical smartphone product attributes when undertaking the marketing functionalities magnifies the application of individual psychological traits to consumers to influence their consumption behavior. The understanding of consumer behavior in line with comprehension of product affiliation based on their non-physical attributes, therefore, requires the study of the consumer behavior considering the individual psychological traits. This aspect of consumer behavior would, therefore, pave the way for the understanding of the non-functional attributes that shape the consumption of smartphone products in the UK.

1.3 Research Questions

To explore this research on the “individual psychological traits in consumer behavior,” the following research questions are to be answered to provide adequate information on the topic.

1. How do the individual traits influence the consumers’ likes and dislikes of the smartphone products in the UK?
2. What is the relationship between the personality and the buying behavior of smartphone products consumers in the UK?

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Conceptual Framework

The personality traits influence the regularities and consistency in an individual’s behavior, which is applicable in many fields. The peculiar configuration of an individual in line with the aptitudes, attitudes, and traits explains the relevance of this aspect in determining consumer behavior. According to Sarker et al. (2013), the degree of extroversion, conservatism, competitiveness, and ambitiousness varies with each individual. To fully realize the purpose of this study, the following items concerning personality are considered: Personality changes over time and, at times, remains permanent and consistent; personality differentiates individuals from others (Onu and Garvey 2014).

2.2 Buyer Behavior and Personality Theory

The individual consumer level analysis considers the adoption of the psychologists’ views in determining the underlying reasons to brand or product purchase/consumption (Onu and Garvey 2014). The psychological approach to consumer behavior answers the differences existing in the intra-group capacity considering individuals belonging to the same group through the analysis of the response and behavior to the products. The personality theory composes one of the psychological theories providing the inter-individual explanation of behavior. According to McCrae and Costa (2008), personality underlines the personal behavior and other personal dispositions which are assumed to compose an organized totality in which these individuals engage the marketing environment. This forms the basis of the personality trait theory in marketing strategies and decisions by the producers of smartphone products. Some researchers attributed the personality differences to the associated “brand loyalty.” Besides, it was also noted that the personality variables supported or discouraged the using and not using certain products (Dholakia 1978; Lin 2010). Through these descriptions, it’s evident that marketing considers the buyer behavior and personality traits when developing specific products to capture consumer behavior (Mulyanegara et al. 2009). Additionally, the specification and definition of consumer behavior influences the relationship between the consumers and the products offered to the market. This provides the rationale behind the study of the relationship between consumer behavior and personality traits.

The consideration of personality aspects enables the comprehension of consumer behavior concerning the consumer drives to accomplish set goals (Bray 2008). The personality differences understanding provides the marketers with information to adopting the consumer characteristics in marketing by considering the determinant behaviors of the consumers.  The adoption of advertisement s by the marketers that enables the consumers through presenting a strong appeal to them with consideration of their lifestyles, personalities, and values. According to Solomon (2010), personality influence on consumer behavior relies on the “consistent responses to environmental stimuli.” The individual psychological make-up of a person influences the response and behavior towards the stimuli presented by the marketing environment. The existent extroversion in the behaviors of consumers explains the group differences in the evaluation of the personality’s theories that influence consumer behavior.

Another aspect of the personality theory is the trait theory, which states that traits are constituted of predisposition attributes that makes up an individual’s personality. The personal traits such as self-consciousness and risk-taking as an example, provide the differences between the individual traits and thus their influence on the individual consumer behavior (Vainikka 2015). The five-factor model composes one of the commonly applied aspects of the trait theory in explaining consumer behavior (Andreassen et al. 2013). This model elaborates on the capturing of the consumer personality based on five attributes. Therefore the five-factor model builds on the traits adopted in childhood, which influences the aspects of obsessive shopping, complaining, and behaviors towards products in the market.

Image 1: Five-factor approach to trait theory. Source: Vainikka (2015).

The table above illustrates the five-factor approach to trait theory. The multi-factor approach enables the comprehension of the different personality traits in affecting the behavior of the consumers. This avenue creates a basis for understanding the consumer behavior adopted by the marketers to capture and influence the consumption patterns and behaviors of the consumers.

2.3 Measurement of Personality

The developed literature on the psychological aspects explaining the individual differences is vast, considering the personality theories targeting the provision of a differentiation point between the similarities and differences between individuals (Onu and Garvey 2014). Through “Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis theory,” the distinction of personality anchors on the aspects of identity, ego, and super-ego which manifests from the interaction of the three aspects. Other psychologists such as Murray also provided an elaboration o personality measurement based on the basic needs he established to shape the personality traits. Other psychologists considered the aspect of personality to constitute both the secondary and primary aspects which are hereditary to each other (Mulyanegara et al. 2009). This approach developed a means of comprehending the conscientious, emotional, and assertive and sincerity as aspects of personality traits with the potential to influence consumer behavior.

2.4 How Attention Affects Consumer Behavior

According to Solomon (2010), attention emanates from the internal and external stimuli varying with the level of exposure of the consumers to the products. It thus influences the short-term memory of the product. The inclusion of creativeness by the marketers in the advertisement of products targets the attainment of consumers’ attention to the products. As Vainikka (2015) stated, attention emanates from the sensation processing by the brain after stimuli activation. The marketing environment presents the consumers towards many stimuli, which influences the selectiveness of the consumers influencing their purchasing decisions. The motivation of the consumer in this aspect depends on the message relevance of the marketing aspects that capture their attention. The vividness and prominence of the message portrayed by the products also impose an influence on the consumers’ behavior as they impose influence on consumer attention. The exploitation of this aspect in influencing the consumer behavior presents in the marketers considering a “focal attention” through exposing the consumers to a particular stimulus that influences the short-term memory of the consumers. Considering the limited amount of information kept within the short term memory, the consumers’ inclination to “focal information” enables them to forego other stimuli and focus their attention on a particular product/brand (Cohen et al. 2008). This provides the reason why the consumers’ inclination to recalling information that captured their attention is high and thus influences their behavior towards the consumption of products.

Consumer arousal also composes one of the avenues through which the individual psychological traits influence consumer behavior through the aspect of attention. The consumers’ attention measurement relies on whether the presented message arouses the consumers or not. The aspects that influence individuals’ arousal changes continuously depending on the attentiveness to external information and stimuli (Solomon 2010). These measures of attention, therefore, consider the high and low levels. The low levels entail low concentration, while high levels entail high perception and alertness to external stimuli presented by the encountered messages. The consideration of the relationship between attention and stimuli indicates that high arousal from the message impairs the level of information retained as compared to moderate arousal that achieves optimal attention from the consumers. The comparison of the relationship between these two aspects brings about the “Visual Selective Attention,” which influences the attention of consumers concerning a selection process of the message presented. Many markets adopt strategies to dominate consumer attention to influence their consumption behavior through the influence of the individual psychological traits. This aspect is exploited through the adoption of re-appearing ads capturing the attention of the consumers to influence their consumption decisions regarding some given smartphone products.

3.0 Methodology

3.1 Introduction

This section composes the methods and methodologies to be applied to the development of this research. This research will adopt a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches of methodology to obtain conclusive data to enable the realization of rational answers to the developed research questions. This chapter, therefore, focuses on the different adopted regarding research methods, research strategy, and research philosophy when collecting the data for this research and the data analysis functionalities.

3.2 Research Philosophy

The research philosophy entails “the system in which the research problem should be fundamentally approached, and this includes positivism, realism, and interpretivism” (Mc Manus et al. 2017). Considering that this research covers the psychological aspects of the consumers, the data collected would target the validation of the established theoretical concepts. This research would, therefore, adopt the interpretivism philosophy to observe the facts and gather information relating to the study of individual psychological traits in smartphone products consumer behavior within the UK (Mack 2010). The adoption of the inductive research procedure complements the research philosophy adopted for this paper and, thus, appropriate to provide conclusive information to undertake the analysis of the consumer behavior concerning the individual psychological traits.

3.3 Research strategy

According to Mc Manus et al. (2017), a research strategy is the “plan for the researcher to carry out his research. This paper would adopt the survey research strategy to collect the primary data on consumer behavior concerning individual psychological traits. The adoption of the survey approach enables the collection of information present within the UK to answer the research questions based on the personality traits influencing the consumption of smartphone products. The surveys adopted through this research strategy entail the use of in-depth consumer and market surveys to understand the perception of the consumers based on the non-material aspects of smartphone product consumption, paving the way for the understanding of the relevance of individual psychological traits in marketing.

3.4 Research Approach

The chosen approach to this research is a descriptive approach considering the quantitative data adopted in the development of this paper, as illustrated in the gathering and collection of data. The descriptive approach would be preferred for this research as it provides a clear way through which the engagement and analysis of the consumer perspectives concerning their perceptions of smartphone product consumption and affiliation based on the non-physical attributes. The descriptive approach considered additionally adds to the development of the hypothesis corresponding to the research questions, thus providing adequate information to answer the research questions.

3.5 Data Collection

Data collection concerning the development of the proposed study would consider the collection of both the primary and secondary data. The secondary data would provide direction to the data collected through the survey to be conducted. The source of the secondary data considered would include the peer-reviewed articles, research papers, and journals relevant to establishing the personality trait influences on consumer behavior.

The primary data constitutes the “data which the author has obtained ‘first-hand’ from its source as part of the ‘applied’ aspect of his research,” as described by Harrell and Bradley (2009). Therefore, primary data entails data only collected first hand by the researcher and thus compose data sources such as interviews, questionnaires, conversations, and observation, among other sources. The primary data to be used in the development of this research would be obtained from the administration of an online survey to the smartphone consumers within the UK market, assessing their psychological traits influencing their consumption behavior. This survey would take the form of an online administered questionnaire to compose the primary survey. The distributed questionnaires to the respondents would constitute both open-ended and closed questions to assess how the no-physical properties of products concerning the psychological traits influence consumption. This aspect would enable the determination of the marketing strategies considering the non-physical product attributes targeting the individual psychological traits aligned to the UK smartphone consumer market.

3.5.1 Questionnaires

This research would employ the use of questionnaires as a method of collecting the primary data through an online survey as it enables the collection of data from a larger audience through the use of uniform questions to obtain respondents’ perceptions. The adoption of the questionnaires also supports the interpretivism research approach adopted in the development of the proposed paper (Van Gelder et al. 2010). The structure of the questionnaires to be used in this research would consider the “Big five inventory” (BFI) model as adopted by Rammstedt and John (2007) in undertaking the personality trait research. The structure of the questionnaires to be adopted would incorporate three questions to obtain respondent perception on the personality trait to enable its relation to consumer behavior through the consideration of convergent validity. Besides, the questionnaire will also present the advantage of time-saving in addition to improving the relevance of the study as all the respondents use the same questions reducing the schedule allocated to this research project.

3.6 Sampling

The preparation of the sample population and the analysis of data collected for this research would compose the data sampling activity (De Choudhury et al. 2010). Data sampling techniques provide a rational way to understand and interpret the data collected to further the proposed research on “individual psychological traits on consumer behavior” concerning smartphone products.

3.6.1 Population and Sampling

The sample population for the proposed study would consist of the consumers of smartphone products within the UK market. This study would seek a target of 500 respondents through the online survey to collect data on the research topic.

3.6.2 Sample Size and Sampling Techniques

This research will adopt the stratified random sampling technique for the development of the respondent’s sample utilized in this study. The stratified random sampling consideration for this study anchors on its advantages in providing equal opportunities for the respondents to this research contribute to the coercion and development of this research to minimize respondents and data collection bias. The questionnaires would collect information relevant to the consumption of smartphone products based on individual traits to reach the 500 prospected respondents.

3.7 Data Collection and Analysis

The development of this study would consider both the inferential and descriptive statistics as part of the qualitative data collected. The descriptive statistics to be used would constitute the information presented as averages, percentages, charts, and tables when handling the relevant data for this study. Descriptive statistics provide a valid means of analyzing and presenting information obtained from surveys as adopted relevant to this study (Rea and Parker 2014). The data analysis tools involved in the analysis of this data would constitute the use of SPSS, after which “Multiple Regression Analysis” will be applied. The inferential statistics would comprise the analysis of the collected data to validate it against a given body of knowledge, theory, or model through the application of the obtained descriptive statistics. The inferential statistics, therefore, enable the research to adopt the general perspectives of smartphone consumers within the UK. This approach would provide relevant aspects to assess the impacts of the individual psychological traits in influencing consumer behavior.

4.0 Project Schedule

The estimated schedule of this research project is expected to take about 54 days to complete. The breakdown of the project schedule is provided in the table, and the Gantt chart presented below.

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