An Analysis of the Fundamentals of Marketing (part 18)

Freud and Psychoanalysis (part D)

by

Charles Lamson

Values and Lifestyles

Twenty years or more after Reisman wrote his book (see last post), in 1978, Mitchell and others at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), now SRI International, conducted a series of studies in the US that culminated in the construction of the Values and Lifestyles (VALS) consumer segmentation system. From the analysis of data, Mitchell devised three orientations: needs-driven, inner-directedness and outer-directedness, two of which are very similar to the terms developed by Riesman. Needs-directed refers to those who are limited by resources, i.e. poor. The VALS concept of outer-directedness is similar to that described by Riesman and signifies a person who is primarily motivated by the opinions of others. The VALS study found that this character was the prevailing social type, accounting for 68 percent of the population. The VALS study found that another character, inner-directeds, comprised 21 percent of their sample. However, it is important to differentiate between Riesman and Mitchell's definitions of 'inner directedness' as this potentially is confusing. Although they share the same label, Mitchell's concept of inner-directedness is different from that described by Riesman. The most obvious reason is that US society had changed fundamentally between the 1950s when Riesman wrote his book and the 1970s when the VALS research was conducted. By the 1960s the seeds of the permissive society noted by Riesman in his study had grown into a diverse coalition of interests that sought to challenge authority and free people from all forms of repression. In Freudian terms this amounted to an attack by these theorists on the concept of the superego, which, they argued, was not so much a civilizing influence as authoritarian. Alongside Fromm, whose argument was briefly mentioned above, others trained in the psychoanalytic tradition, including Reich and Marcuse, challenged the role played by the superego in society, arguing that it had reduced the ego to a bland inauthentic conformist caricature. To the dismay of many orthodox Freudians, Reich in particular argued for the destruction of the superego, the 'policeman in the head' that in his view gave rise to the false and inauthentic self. Instead id forces should be liberated to restore the self to a sense of authenticity. These were joined by others, including Weber Erhard, who developed a training program, Erhard Seminar Training (EST), so that people could through self-expression come into contact with their 'true' selves. The ideas of the expressive self and the 'me' generation were widely publicized during the 1960s. Consequently the inner-directeds that constituted 21 percent of the VALS findings shared little in common with those described 20 years previously by Riesman. The idea of the expressive individual is different from Riesman's gyroscopically controlled self-made man. The new inner-directeds purchased goods to meet their own internal wants and used consumption as a vehicle for self-expression.

In 1988 SRI introduced a new measure of values also called VALS. For example, as two out of three Americans were identified as being outer-directed consumers, this category was found to be too large to be a meaningful differentiator. The original framework segmented people by their social values, attitudes toward gun control or military spending, for example. The new framework was, and continues to be based on psychological characteristics that are correlated with consumer purchase behavior, while social values shift over time. Initially the new formulation bore a strong relation to Maslow's (1958) hierarchy, in creating new categories based on esteem and actualization. For example, Weinstein (1998) utilizes Maslow by reporting that Actualizers on a base of 100 were more likely than average to own a small car (133) and a bicycle (154). They were much more likely to own a foreign luxury car (363) or sports car (330), but less likely to own a pickup truck (72). On the other hand, the Struggler's ownership of these items was well below that of the Actualizer, with bicycle (43), foreign luxury car (3), small car and sports car (5). The only transport items which strugglers seemed to own in any numbers include small to medium cars (54) and pickup trucks (52) (Weinstein, 1998). In introducing Maslow to the scene VALS researchers had theoretically moved a long way from Freud. Maslow's core belief was fundamentally different from that of Freud. Where the latter argued that civilization must tame the beast within us. Maslow (1970), in common with the prevailing spirit of the 1960s, argued that it was civilization that was at fault and that one should cultivate a person's 'natural' need for self-expression. More recent formulations of VALS have somewhat moved away from Maslow's categories.

Gender Identity

While Freud provides a base for the study of identity, he never actually used the term himself. Gender identity is only one form of identity. At birth individuals are identified with those forms of signification which are associated with our parents and which mark their identities, e.g. with their class position, religion or ethnicity, which are transferred to individuals. While undoubtedly identity is given to us by society, it is true that a stable identity is something which individuals strive for, as it provides a sense of 'belongingness, of 'home'. However, feelings about identity tend to be ambivalent. Individuals simultaneously want to be at home and to be free. Yet while being at 'home' offers security and comfort, it can also tend to be claustrophobic; even like a prison. Sometimes we long to break free from the chains of identity, particularly when these have been fashioned for us by others so that we can experience the terrors and delights of freedom. To sum up, identity is built on a characteristic or set of characteristics that makes us identical in some respects to some people and at the same time marks individuals out as being different from others. Identity is not naturally conferred, but is marked out by culture.

Strangely, perceptions of what is 'masculine' and what is 'feminine' are not given biologically but are mediated through culture. It is important to realize that while the sex categories 'male', 'female' and 'androgynous' are given to us by nature, a range of gender identities is available in different cultures. In contemporary European societies traditional rigid divisions between the sexes have been eroded with the growth in acceptability of the expression of a range of 'gay', identities. Gender is an extremely important focus for identity. A person who identifies primarily with 'feminine' traits in a society is 'feminine', with 'masculine' traits is 'masculine' and with both sets of traits is 'androgynous'. When 'men' and 'women' are discussed, activities are identified which are enabled or proscribed by society. For example, until recently the conventional wisdom was that a man's identity was to be found in the world of work and that, by contrast, a woman's identity was to be found in the home, where she nurtured and cared for the man and their children. There is an important point that relates to consumption. As the domestic situation was the center of family consumption and also defined as a woman's place, so consumption came to be associated with women's work. For example, it is expected that in Europe and the US women would be more involved in grocery shopping and in Christmas shopping than men. The latter provided the focus for a study by Fischer and Arnold (1990) who sought to explore the role played by sex differences and gender role orientations in Christmas gift shopping behaviors. Gender role attitude refers to an individual's level of agreement with traditional views regarding the roles and behaviors stereotypically associated with each sex.

Q&A

QUESTION In your view what reasons lie behind such hypotheses? ANSWER Egalitarian attitudes signify a degree of freedom from traditional role stereotypes. For a woman, such disagreement may lead her to avoid ‘female’ stereotypical roles such as shopping for gifts; for a man it may mean the opposite, with egalitarian men more involved in shopping than traditional men because they disagree with traditional assumptions that shopping is a ‘female’ preserve. Fischer and Arnold’s study of Christmas shopping behavior found that men and women differed significantly; women gave more gifts than men, started shopping earlier, spent longer shopping and were more successful in selecting gifts. On the other hand, men spent more per person and had more gifts returned or exchanged. The authors found that similar gender role attitudes have different implications for men and women. More egalitarian men were slightly more involved than traditional men, in that they bought more gifts for more recipients and spent more time shopping per recipient that either traditional men or equally egalitarian women. Fischer and Arnold concluded that gender identity had some of the predicted effects on involvement. More communally oriented men and women started shopping much earlier than less communally oriented men and women. Moreover, men with more communal orientations spent considerably more time shopping per recipient than other men. Overall it was found that those (both men and women) with more femenine gender identities are more involved in Christmas gift shopping.

*SOURCE: FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING, 2007, MARILYN A. STONE AND JOHN  DRESMOND, PGS. 81-83*

END

QUESTION

In your view what reasons lie behind such hypotheses?

ANSWER

Egalitarian attitudes signify a degree of freedom from traditional role stereotypes. For a woman, such disagreement may lead her to avoid ‘female’ stereotypical roles such as shopping for gifts; for a man it may mean the opposite, with egalitarian men more involved in shopping than traditional men because they disagree with traditional assumptions that shopping is a ‘female’ preserve.

Fischer and Arnold’s study of Christmas shopping behavior found that men and women differed significantly; women gave more gifts than men, started shopping earlier, spent longer shopping and were more successful in selecting gifts. On the other hand, men spent more per person and had more gifts returned or exchanged. The authors found that similar gender role attitudes have different implications for men and women. More egalitarian men were slightly more involved than traditional men, in that they bought more gifts for more recipients and spent more time shopping per recipient that either traditional men or equally egalitarian women.

Fischer and Arnold concluded that gender identity had some of the predicted effects on involvement. More communally oriented men and women started shopping much earlier than less communally oriented men and women. Moreover, men with more communal orientations spent considerably more time shopping per recipient than other men. Overall it was found that those (both men and women) with more femenine gender identities are more involved in Christmas gift shopping.