Giving to Charity

I have always enjoyed giving to charity, I have direct debits set up on my bank account to give to a couple of charities each month and was Charities Captain of my high school, leading a team to raise thousands of pounds. What I had never before considered was why I give my time and money to charitable causes.  It was always something I just did, and my logic was always "I would spend that much on a hot chocolate, I would spend triple that on a t-shirt..." This implies that a little bit of money to me could offer somebody less fortunate a lot more than it was worth to me. I liked being able to help.

While researching the reasons why people gave to charity, I also discovered that I also like being seen as charitable. People perceive charitable people well and I suppose it's an ego thing, all about personality and self concept.

The reasons why I give to charity:

1. It makes me feel good.
2. I like to be perceived as being a charitable and nice person.
3. A genuine desire to help.

The list of reasons why people donate to charity is extensive. Ironically, charitable giving is fundamentally a selfish act.

Like me, some people like to be viewed as kind, this is about self image which doesn't really have much to do with wanting to help a charity.Using the same logic, giving to charity to alleviate guilt, for tax benefits, because of social pressure, to impress the opposite sex, or as a religious obligation don't really suggest a person is naturallly generous and charitable.

In contrast, a large number of people donate to charity out of simple goodwill or, as with many cases, they were personally affected by the charity or its cause.

More than 62% of the UK population donates more than £5 a year to charity. (TGI, 2007) Having established the main reasons why these people donate, I looked into who it was who tended to be the most generous.

As expected, women are more likely to donate to charity than men (TGI, 2007) and they tend to give to causes related to children and animals. They are also more likely to respond to humanitarian reports than men. The Daily Mail (2011) stated that 43% of women would donate to a humanitarian cause like a flood or earthquake after seeing a media appeal compared to 29% of men. However, when men donate they do it less but give larger sums of money. Men give to medical charities related to men's issues and larger, well known organisations that they know they can trust.

Dogs Trust makes videos like these to appeal for donations. By telling a story that tugs at heartstrings and has a happy ending, people will be unable to get involved with the story, namely women. They will then feel the need to help.

Men are harder to target as they don't part with their cash so easily. This advert, created to raise awareness of prostate cancer, uses cartoons (men like humour in advertising) and a simple, factual message. Men would not respond well to a heartwarming story about a man who overcame cancer, but a reminder to get checked is enough for them.

It is single women and couples with no children at home who give the most amount of money to charity.

Source: nfpSyngergy, 2007

What I found most interesting was although higher income households give a larger total sum to charity on average, lower income households were more generous. (Reason.com, 2007) People with less money tend to give a higher proportion of their income to charitable causes.

The three most popular charitable giving causes in the UK are medical, hospital and children and young people related. (Guardian, 2009) This is supported by the survery statistic from 2007 available on TGI.

Source: TGI, 2007

Cancer Research UK was the most popular charity, followed by the NSPCC and Save the Children.

The charity my team and I are fundraising for is Children with Leukaemia. See Website This charity raises money for both children and cancer, putting us in a strong position to attract donations.



Raising money in memory of Matthew Byrne. 1992 - 2009

Please give generously at our Just Giving page.



Charities are suffering because of the recession. Donations fell by 11% in 2009 (Guardian, 2009) and 52% of charities reported being affected by the recession in 2009 which is 38% higher than it was in 2008. (BBC, 2009) Over the last three years, as the economy has worsened the need for services offered by charities has risen. This puts charities in a difficult situation with a high demand for their help but limited funding to actually offer the aid required of them.

• BBC (2009) Charity donation hit by recession. [online] Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7946518.stm [Accessed 11 January 2011].
• Daily Mail (2011) Women more like to give to disaster charity appeals than men. [online]. Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1354832/Women-likely-money-charity-appeals-men.html [Accessed 25 February 2011].
•  Guardian (2009) Recession means people give less to charity. [online] Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/sep/23/charity-donations-down [Accessed 11 January 2011].
• Reason.com (2007) Who gives to charity. [online] Available from: http://reason.com/archives/2007/03/01/who-gives-to-charity [Accessed 20 January 2011].
• TGI (2007) Financial services – charity. KMR Software [Accessed 20 January 2011].

Values

When creating an advertising campaign, marketers need to understand and respect the values of their target market. Ideally they will share values with their customers to create loyalty and trust between the brand and the consumer.

The problem with this is that the values of each individual consumer can vary so much, how can one organisation cater to so many belief systems? The best marketers can do is try to avoid offending their customers or, in fact, anybody. Unless that is their intention.

If we need to understand a person's values, it's necessary to determine exactly what values are. Solomon defines a value as "a belief about some desirable end-state that transcends specific situations and guides selection of behaviour... they do not apply in specific situations only". (Solomon et al, 2010, p198)

Translation: A value is an innate belief that we feel if we act or think in a certain way then it will help us to reach our ultimate goal.

For example, if someone acts in a kind, sincere and honest way (values) then they will be able to reach their ultimate goal (end state) of a peaceful life.

Ries and Trout aptly described why marketers should concentrate on consumer values as well as product specifications.

Ries and Trout (1982): If we believe our overall values drive our behaviour, then we should be concentrating on the important, underlying motives that drive consumers to make product or service choices rather than simply product attributes.

Kahle's List of Values (1983)

1. self respect
2. excitement
3. being well respected
4. self- fulfillment
5. sense of accomplishment
6. warm relationship with others
7. security
8. fun and enjoyment
9. sense of belonging

The List of Values consists of nine traits that relate to differences in the way people consume. Consumers make purchase decisions based on what they want to portray themselves to be and what they believe in. (An animal rights activist would never buy goods that were tested on animals.) A marketer would target the people who value what the product or service offers. A business consultancy would most likely attract people who wanted to be well respected and feel secure. A bungee jumping company would attract people who craved excitement, fun and enjoyment. The List of Values can assist in profiling a target market. 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Need

Before the List of Values was developed, Maslow created a hierarchy of need in 1954. This hierarchy starts from the very basic human needs, travelling upwards through feeling secure and a sense of belonging to appreciating your sense of self.

This suggests that in order to reach the personal growth and fulfillment stage, an individual must first achieve each preceding step. From a marketing point of view, consumers can be targeted because of which stage they are at or trying to achieve.

Match.com - trying to get to the stage of love and belonging

Self improvement books/videos - trying to get to/ improve the stage of self actualisation

Rokeach's Value Survey

Developed in 1973 by social psychologist Milton Rokeach, the Value Survey lists possible terminal and instrumental values.

Terminal values: life goals

Instrumental values: how the life goals are achieved

For an exciting life, someone would need to be independent, courageous and imaginative. For inner harmony, someone would need to be forgiving, polite, helpful and honest. Instrumental values are how we act in order to achieve the life we want. This echoes the initial description of values:

Translation: A value is an innate belief that we feel if we act or think in a certain way then it will help us to reach our ultimate goal.

Products can also become a means to an end (like instrumental values). Why do women wear make up? To hide insecurities... to appear more attractive... to increase confidence...to enhance natural features... the list has no end. The endless possibilities of terminal values is probably what makes the make up industry so extraordinarily successful.

This can be explained by laddering.

Laddering is a projective technique which allows the identification of the relationship between functional product attributes and desired end states:

1. Concrete Attributes
2. Abstract Attributes
3. Functional Consequences
4. Psychological Consequences
5. Instrumental Value
6. Terminal Value

This example using apples depicts the above list well.

VALUES IN ADVERTISING

Advertisement construction=

• message elements (the specific attributes or product features)
• consumer benefit (positive consequences of using product, this is where instrumental values will be targetted)
• executional framework (overall style and tone)
• leverage point (the way the message activates the terminal value by linking it with the product features)
• driving force (the end value)

• Solomon, M. R., Bamossy, G.,Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M.K. (2010) Consumer behaviour:a European perspective. 4th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

 

Personality & Self Concept

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between personality and self concept. Put simply, personality is the way a person presents themselves outwardly whereas self concept relates to how a person feels about themselves.

Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make a person unique. (About.com, 2011)

Self Concept is your understanding about who you believe and feel you are and what you're about. We all have a perception of how we see and feel ourselves to be. (Marvin Barrett, 2009)

Often, one person's personality and self concept can be drastically different. Below is an image of 'Brooke' from a television show. On the show, her character comes across as very confident, fashionable,  fun and beautiful. That is her personality and how she wants others to see her. The way she sees herself, however, is very different. She thinks she isn't pretty, good, smart or talented enough.

So what do personality and self concept have to do with marketing?

According to Kotler, the above table shows what influences buyer behaviour. Under PERSONAL comes personality and self concept, that is what will be explored in this blog.

Sometimes when selling a product or a service, the marketer is not trying to sell to a person, but the person they aspire to be.

 Selling to somebody who wants to be slimmer.
 Selling to someone who wants to appear wealthy or show their wealth.
 Selling to someone who wants to be blonde.
 Selling to someone who wants to look trendy.

Using Apple Mac as an example, they are not only targetting people who want to buy an MP3 player, they are targetting people who will want to most current, 'cool' MP3 player. Say a customer goes into a store and views two MP3 players. Both the same size, colour, memory and have the same functions but one is an iPod. There is a difference between the customer who buys the MP3 player for its functionality and cost and the customer who pays more because there is a picture of an apple on the back of their MP3 player. This comes down to self concept, who a person feels they should be.

Because of the relation between personality, self concept and marketing, theorists have come up with a number of concepts to describe personality and self image.

• Hollander

This image depicts Hollander's Concentric Ring Theory. Hollander believed that personality could be represented by three rings; the innermost ring being the hardest to penetrate. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL CORE – the real you, the core concept of self that individuals are unwilling to reveal.

TYPICAL RESPONSES – represents how individuals are likely to respond in a situation.

ROLE-RELATED BEHAVIOUR – how an individual responds in a specific situation. This may be an uncharacteristic behaviour.



Hollander also created a theory which builds on the concentric rings.

The External Aspect: how a person interacts with other people

The Internal Aspect: a combination of their values and attitudes

The Dynamic Aspect: faced with a new situation how do they behave

THESE THREE ASPECTS TEND TO FORM THE LAST ONE.

The Consistent Aspect: their characteristic style

The Dynamic Aspect is linked closely with 'role related behaviour' from the previous theory.

It is clear from Hollander's theories that personality is made up of a person'sbeliefs and values and how that makes them interact with other people.

• Cattel's Trait Theory of Personality

When asked to describe the personality of a friend, we would normally respond by giving a list of their friend's traits. This is how we generally understand personality and therefore  is the logic behind Cattel's Trait Theory.

In addition, a psychologist named Gordon Allport came up with a trait theory in 1936. There are of course thousands of words in the English dictionary that can describe character traits. To better analyse personality, he separated traits into three levels: 

• "Cardinal Traits: Traits that dominate an individual’s whole life, often to the point that the person becomes known specifically for these traits. People with such personalities often become so known for these traits that their names are often synonymous with these qualities. Consider the origin and meaning of the following descriptive terms: Freudian, Machiavellian, narcissism, Don Juan, Christ-like, etc. Allport suggested that cardinal traits are rare and tend to develop later in life.
• Central Traits: These are the general characteristics that form the basic foundations of personality. These central traits, while not as dominating as cardinal traits, are the major characteristics you might use to describe another person. Terms such as intelligent, honest, shy and anxious are considered central traits.
• Secondary Traits: These are the traits that are sometimes related to attitudes or preferences and often appear only in certain situations or under specific circumstances. Some examples would be getting anxious when speaking to a group or impatient while waiting in line." (Cherry, 2011)

These three levels reflect Hollander's Three Concentric Rings. It is clear that a pattern is forming within each theory about personality which relates to different levels of relation to the core personality of a person which are shown in different situations.

• Horney

Horney's theory, developed in 1945, suggests that you develop your personality as a child. As a child, you are dependent on your care givers and you will become either compliant, aggressive or detached based on the level of anxiety experienced at this stage in life.

Compliant= Going towards others. (affection/affiliation) - well loved and nurtured as a child

Aggressive= Going against others. (power/domination) - experienced abuse or intimidation as a child

Detached= Turning away from others. (isolation/indifference) - ignored as a child

• The Big Five Scale of Personality Type 

Researchers gathered information on people with certain traits to determine five main personality categories that most people could fall into.

•  Hidden Motives

According to Freudian theory, the mind is conflicted between pleasure seeking and social responsibility. (Solomon et al, 2010) For example, wanting to play loud music at a party while also being concerned about upsetting the neighbours. This conflicts is carried out in the mind using the following three systems:

1. ID: This is the part of the mind that wants to maximise on pleasure and avoid pain. "It is selfish and illogical." (Solomon et al, 2010, p187)
2. SUPEREGO: This part is the opposite if the id because it is hyper aware of society's rules. It tries to prevent the id from being successful in self pleasure seeking.
3. EGO: This is the mediator between the id and the superego. It satisfies the id without breaking the superego's rules. 

The devil = id

The angel = superego

The person = ego

Myers- Brigg Type Indicator

Based on the theory of Carl Jung, the Myers- Brigg Type Indicator was developed to measure a person's dominant preferences for taking in information and making decisions. 

These are my results:



I agree with this analysis, but I never thought I would be in the same category as Bart Simpson!

Sometimes a personality is created for a brand. This helps the brand to relate to its target market and the consumer can identify with the brand values.

For example, if Simple skincare had a personality, it would come under the sincerity label. This advert sums up why this conclusion was reached, note the wholesome, natural and honest approach to selling. "Simple says- We believe in goodness."

Personality and self image is a vital part of understanding consumer behaviour. "Consumers demonstrate consistency between their values and the things they buy. Self-image congruence models predict that products will be chosen when their attributes match some aspect of the self." (Solomon et al, 2010, p151)

• About.com (2011) What is personality [online] Available from: http://psychology.about.com/od/overviewofpersonality/a/persondef.htm [Accessed 21 February 2011].
• Cherry, K. (2011)  Trait theory of personality [online] Available from: http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/trait-theory.htm [Accessed 21 February 2011].
• Marvin Barrett.com (2009) Learn how to discover your true self concept [online] Available from http://www.marvin-barrett.com/self-concept.html [Accessed 21 February 2011].
• Solomon, M. R., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M.K. (2010) Consumer behaviour: a European perspective. 4th ed. Harlow: Pearson.