Self-Concept

What is Self-Concept?

In this post I am going to give my definition of what I think Self-Concept is and theories relating to this particular topic.

According to me, Self-Concept is something which you create or think from your own experiences in life, as self means yourself and concept is something you think or create. you put the two together and and its something you do or think yourself. Below is a picture of different things circling around Self-Concept.

Coming to the theory side of Self-Concept, basically according to the theorist Solomon (1999) stated that Self-Concept is "the beliefs a person holds about his or her attributes and how they assess those qualities". An example for this could be that a teenage boy in his mid teens sees himself being a perfect person. This shows his own Self-Concept is positive. Each individual has separate beliefs on different aspects like emotional, and even physical about themselves. If you think about it, Self-Concept can be thought of as something of a future tense. Why I say that is because each person has ideas of what their aim is going to be in life and you only aim about life when you want to talk about future.

Self-Concept has three factors and they are:

1.) Self Image - Self Image is basically what we see ourselves like or percieve as. The picture below may look funny, but this shows that even an animal like a cat has ideas of seeing herself in the mirror even if it is pretentious and thinking of itself as a lion and thinking of being strong and powerful, even though they are part of the same cat family, but the size of the two makes the lion stronger.

2.) Self Esteem - Self Esteem is basically of how we accept ourselves or value ourselves to what extent. It has an involvement of us people having a positive or a negative thought of ourselves. A person can have a high esteem which means he or she may think positive all the time whereas if have a low esteem will mean he or she may think negative all the time. Below is a picture of a young boy and it suggests his thoughts based on his expression that he is very negative on what he does and this means he has a very low esteem (a very negative approach to whatever he does)

3.) Ideal Self - Ideal Self is what each individual wants to be. It is the type of person who has all the power, strengths and the integrity in total a very strong and positive person. To become ideal a person must have a positive and clear vision for future in which all the good things should be contained and no negative thoughts. An example can be that a child can look up to its parents and say that I want to be like them so that shows that their parents may have positve attributes about them thats why a child wants to be like them. Below is a picture of a family in which a little girl looks up to her parents so this can be thought of as a child looking up to her parents that when she grows up she will have all the positives from them.

I hope this post helped you lot in understanding the concept of Self Concept. Any comments on this post please feel free to comment.

Personality

Hey guys, I know I have come here after long time. The reason is I was not well. But coming to the point, I am going to post about what type of personality I have. I am going to compare myself to a Simpson's character. You guys might think why a Simpsons character? It is because in the lecture our lecturer Ruth had Simpsons characters on the lecture slide and each of them differ from one anothers personality. I took a Personality test and my result was ESFJ. I know most people don't know what it is, well it means that I am a very supportive person. The Simpson's character I resemble is that of Ned Flanders. Below im going to put a table which will give the description of the type of person I am and below the table is the picture of the very supportive Ned Flanders.

The Supporters (ESFJ) are warm hearted people who highly value their relationships. They also are customer focused (in the business world) with the ability to bring the best of people. The only drawback is that they are very self sacrificing and won't pay enough attention to their own needs.

I totally agree with that as I am exactly that, as I put my friends and people who are close to me first and then I think of my self, which when you think of it tells you that why I am a supporter.

According to the theory side of things the dictionary definition of Personality is " the complex of all the attributes such as behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental which suggests that characterize a unique individual.

According to Solomon (1999), he stated that personality is a "person's uniqe make up which consistently influence the way a person will respond to their environment." In my personal opinion personality is something which is a mixture of your inner thoughts and feelings and the way you beave in the outer world and these three things makes a person's personality stand out and unique. In everyday life we come across so many different people (i.e. while going to work, school, on the bus, train, while walking on the streets) and each of them have their own unique and different style of personality.

The Picture above is of the two boxers, they may be in the same sport, but both their personalities look different. Going on height, the boxer on the left is taller than the boxer on the right (every one knows who the boxer on the right is known as Mike Tyson). But as its a famous saying that don't judge people on their appearance, its not necessary that the person who is taller will overpower the guy who is short in height, it depends on the strength as every one knows Mike Tyson is very strong and a great boxer, so the height may not be a question. If the boxer on the left is tall, Mike Tyson on the right has an aggresive feel to him like the muscles and the tattoos.
In business, understanding one's personality is really important, as even though people are different to one another in this world but every one has values and their own personal strengths and qualities, and so the marketeers should have a psychological edge over what kind of product to target to what customer depending on the type of personality they have.

One of the main theory on Personality is undertaken by Horney (1945), he talked about a common sense style about the development of neuortic character structure and interpersonal relationships. In simple language this translates to that his theory stated that personality is developed from the level of anxiety a dependent child feels. There are a lot of things which can result from this like Indifference amongst your ownself, Lack of Respect and Too Much of Admiration from Others.

Hollander is another important theorist who spoke about Personality. He stated that personality is "the sum total of an individual characteristic which makes him unique". In simpler words what he meant was that the best way you can understand someone's personality is by looking at the structure. What Hollander means by structuring is that it can be divided into three different but related to one another's levels.

One of the levels being the Psychological Core which has fairly permanent qualities including beliefs and values, second one being behaviour which is different at different times and in different situations and third one being is a typical response which affects the role of the related behaviour.


Trait is another theorist and the main theory for personality he has carried out is Cattel's Trait. He introduced a 16 factor model for personality. Below is an image of the 16 factor model:

Trait has introduced a 16 factor model of personality. This 16 factor model which has been identified, is now used in the Big Five model of personality. Cattell's 16 factor model would identify certain common traits which are considered to be possessed by all and some unique traits which are possessed by some people.

Hope this post on personality was usefull. Any feedback regarding this post, please feel free to comment.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Hello people, and welcome to yet another of my blogs. Today the topic is STP. You guys might think what is STP, well STP stands for Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. These three are mostly used before any planning for marketing programs. This helps companies in differentiating their products what they are offering and from that the companies competitors are ensured that the same type of product gets the same market profile for it deserves. Below is a picture of an orange, but this orange gives us a lot to think about in the marketing world.

This picture of the orange symbolises the segmentation as three slices of the oranges represent three different products and how they are going to segment themselves in the market.

Instead of writing it in full I will use the short abbreviated form (STP). When companies do market research it is all part of STP. It uses information on the present size of market, the current shares of market, the potential customers, their purchases, their decision process, etc.

STP when come together consists of three stages. The first being the one in which one has to determine what kind of customers are there. The second one being where one has to select what customers are best to be served. The final stage being the one where the segmentation has to be done by the products or the service for the segment has to be optimized.

When talking about segmentation on its own, it basically has some factors, some people call it categories and these factors/categories consist of Age, Gender, Personality, Income (how much you earn), Social Class, Lifestyle, etc.

After Segmentation is done, the next step is Targeting. In this step the chosen segments by the companies for the product or service have to be developed for a strategy to be targeted to the particular target group/customers. After doing that, what is left for the company to do is the selection of the easier way of how to target their chosen customers.

Have covered Segmenting, covered Targeting, now its the turn of Positioning. Basically Positioning is all about the involvement of the way the companies target their customers. For example Microsoft is a company which positions itself in the IT market and when it comes to promoting its products or services it does it through all forms of media.

Below is a picture describing what each of the STP do.

This is all for this weeks post and on this topic, will be back with more postings soon. Till then please feel free to comment or give any suggestions for improvements.

Perception Experiment

Taste Testing

In Friday's Lecture the class carried out experiments in which we had to test a lot of things. The reason for doing this was to see if factors apart from taste really affect our purchase decisions when we buy something or whether it was other perceptions that influence the purchasing decisions. For example if you buy something of a higher price atleast you as a customer are assured that you will get better taste of the product you have purchased despite paying a higher price and once you have bought the higher cost product that will result in a purchase. The experiment my group carried out was buy four chocolates which had different packaging and which type of people will be attracted towards in buying the four chocolates.

Above is the image of the four chocolates we as a group bought, as they are four different types of chocolates and each buyer has its own preference. The experiment we wanted to carry out was not based on taste but on the packaging, thats because taste is not the only thing people percieve things on and buy it. For example if some one is buying a particular chocolate for the first time, what would attract that customer to buy that particular chocolate? The answer is maybe the price but mainly the packaging, e.g. the packaging of divine looks like only well off people can buy it, as its got richness to it.

Below is a video link which talks about taste testing of name brand food and store brand food, how and what is different on it. Can feel free to watch this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gV9xPtBkeQ

At the end of the lecture things which we bought and after the tests, we all shared each other's food which was bought. Basically we did a lot of testing and eating in the lecture (adding a bit of humour to the blog). On this note will be back with my next posting soon. So till then see you all and please feel free to comment or suggest anything regarding the blogs.

Theory Regarding Kotler's Buying Decision Process

Hello to Every One,

Today i have alot to talk about on my Post. I will start off with the theories (I know they are the boring part but without that you won't know anything).

To start off with, I am going to talk about the Theory regarding Kotler's Buying Decision Process backed up with an example, a video and some links for you to look at in your spare time.

First of all some background information on Kotler. His full name is Philp Kotler, born on 27th May 1931 in Chicago. By occupation he is a Marketing Consultant and has consulted many large companies, including IBM, Michelin, Bank of America, General Electric, Motorola and many more. With these companies he has focused in the areas of marketing strategy, planning and organization, and international marketing.

He presents seminars in major international cities around the world on the latest marketing developments to companies and other organizations. Below is a picture of Philip Kotler.

Now moving on to his buying decision Process. First of all he believes that the factors which influence on Consumer Behaviour are Personal, Organisational, Social, Cultural and Psychological. Below is a diagram of Kotlers buyer decision process.

According to Kotler Consumer Behaviour is the process the consumer needs to take when buying an item. For example when you buy a product whether its of high purchase or a low purchase. Take a drink for example you cant make your mind up what drink to buy so you are still choosing and that comes under information search, you want to get pepsi or 7up so that shows you are choosing your alternatives, but one of them is a bit expensive then the other, so you decide to buy the cheaper one thats coming to a purchase decision but then also you don't like the cheaper drink once bought and you think should have got the other one that is post purchase behaviour. According to Kotler each purchase involves this, but in my personal opinion for small purchases alot of people don't think that and just buy what they feel, but where expensive things like a car and a house is concerned, then every step is needed as its a big purchase and cannot just spend the money without thinking or making decisions along the way to youyr final purcahse.

This link below is a video which will also make you understand a bit about consumer behaviour, that's why i have put it up, hope it is helpful.

Perceptual Maps

Perceptual maps are an excellent way for some one to visualize peoples opinions and perceptions on a particular product in regards to whoever the competition is. Below is an image of a perceptual map:

Above is an example of the low budget and high budget choclates. The high budget chocolates include cadbury roses, belgian chocolates (basically the boxed chocolates) and surprisingly the low quality chocolates are the most favoured ones by customers in my personal view like Cadbury fruit and nut, snickers, mars and twix. But if you look at it from a overall perspective the lower quality chocolates are not preferred.


Any Comments, Please feel free to post them reagrding this post. Thanks

PERCEPTION

I am going to post 3 Definitions of Perception of what other sources say with reference, and below the 3 definitions i am going to create my own giving examples.

1.) The Process, the act, or faculty of percieving http://www.answers.com/topic/perception
2.) An idea or a notion(Sir M. Hale). http://www.selfknowledge.com/70236.htm
3.) Being aware or Concious.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/perception


My Definition of Perception:


In my view Perception is something which comes inside of you, another word of Perception can be intution. Basically its what you have predicted on what you have seen or noticed around your surroundings.

Example:


An example i can give is that it's been a year since i have passed my driving test. But due to not being able to buy a car, i have an intution (perception) that when i sit in my car (that is when i buy it), i would be rusty to start off with, but to improve the rustiness my intution also tells me that i can practise before i get a car so that i won't cause problems with my rustiness of driving on the road.


Another example i can give is related to sport. I play cricket, so can give my perceptional view on the sport. If there is a particular player who the team depends on and if that very player is in bad form, than its a common perception (intution) the the captain of the team or the selectors to rest the player so the team don't under perform. Below is a video of a successfull captain of the indian cricket team Mahendra Singh Dhoni leading his side. The video below is his press conference to the media shows how confident he is in leading the side and what makes them the No.1 side.



Video Link on perception: I just thought this video would be useful source related to the topic of perception. It talks about the perception in general on gestalt theory.

Useful Websites which talk about Perception

1.) http://www.perceptionweb.com/ - this website talks about Perception and it reports experimental results and theoretical ideas ranging over the fields of human, animal and machine perception.

2.) http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC10220/visindex.html - this website talks and concentrates more on visual perception, it also has notes to help students or researchers studying this topic.

Once again please be free to comment or suggest anything related to the topic. Thanks.

First Impressions

Hi there People, First Lecture which i missed due to the transport was also about First Impressions. First Impressions can be vital for an individual as it can be really spot on to what a person judges you as and it can really be misleading as well as one can completely misjudge a person on the first meeting.

The most common thing of how you judge a person on first meeting is mostly by looks, but that is being very stereotypical as looks can not tell you how the person is as a whole. Looks are just part of the outer personality, and not the inner person. But I think personality should be taken into consideration when judging some one on first impression.

Below are examples of Some famous celebrities who i admire and that is purely on first impression based on their personality. The first one being of Mahendra Singh Dhoni the Indian Cricket Team Captain, I have chosen this particular picture of him because a captain of a team always has the responsibility of a team and this picture shows that he is trying to manage so many things and his facial expressions also seem that he is about to give instructions to one of his team members.

The link below is of a little master who everyone calls Sachin Tendulkar, I started watching Cricket because due to his game and below is a link showing his record in the game. That shows that why i enjoy the sport is because of his performance in one of the games, so that shows first impressions do matter if judged properly.

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/35320.html

Moving from Cricket to Footbal, the team i support is arsenal and the reason behind me supporting them is when i first watched there game the reason made me support them was the legend player Dennis Bergkamp.

One of the best movies i have seen is Collateral, i choose this movie because Tom Cruise is one of the best actors and thats based on his acting. Below is an image of the movie Collateral and a video link of his best movies Mission Impossible.

Shahrukh Khan has been my idol since i remember my childhood, he is the best actor in the Bollywood Industry. I say that because when i saw one of his earlier movies, his acting was so good that first impressions of him were completely wrong as i thought he was not that good enough to be an actor personality wise, but his acting proved my first impression of him wrong.

Any improvements or suggestions/comments on this particular post, please feel free to comment.

Gautam's First Post

Hi Every one, The ones who have seen my profile must know who i am by now. This is Gautam, and this is my first ever post. In this post i will talk about my experience of my very 1st lecture on the topic of 'Understanding The Customer'. The bad news is, some people may find it funny, but i was unable to attend the 1st lecture thanks to the Transport. But i did manage to catch up through Blackboard. I looked at the lecture notes, and on the basis of that i can say that i didn't miss much apart from setting up the blogger account, which i managed to create during that week.

The idea of making a blog is great, i use blogs to view some programs on the internet, but to create my own one is a new and exciting experience for me personally. I am looking forward to making my own blog and i hope it turns out well.

The course i have chosen and what i expect from it is hopefully a very good result. i am sure i am not the only one who wants the best from this course. But as i have got some work experience in the media side working in the BBC Sports News Section as a Broadcast Assistant. I worked in the BBC during the Summer Olympics in 2008 which took place in Beijing, China. There is a video link below.





My ambition in life has become to go into the Media Sector. But am not sure as yet of what part of media. I would love to Present, Work behind the scenes, Work for a Media Company (Advertising). After the 1st year of my degree i may choose to transfer to Advertising as it may help me in future in what i want to do and achieve in the world of Media.

Any comments on my first ever post or suggestions which may help me in the future. Please be free to post them.

ABOUT ME

Hello Every one,

My name is Gautam Sood, I am 20 Years Old, and am a 1st year student at Bucks New University doing a full time degree in Business with Marketing Management. I live in South West London in a town called Heston in Hounslow near Heathrow Airport. I also am currently working part time at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 at WH SMITHS. I love my sports such as Cricket, Football, Tennis, Hockey and i play a bit of Golf too. In footie i support Arsenal. My all time favourite player for the club has to be Thierry Henry but after what he did in the world cup play off against Ireland, the respect has gone for him and now my all time favourite at the club is Robin Van Persie and I enjoy Fabregas's game too.. In cricket I follow India and due to the Twenty20 Cricket craze taking a peak high interest by people all over the world thats including me as well. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray are my top 4 Tennis Stars. My family is from India. I am a Hindu Punjabi.

My other interests are Listening to music and i am not fussed in what music i listen to whether its indian or english, just has to be good to the ears, love watching Movies (good movies that is), socialising.

My ambition in life is to get into the media field. I don't mind what sector as long as it is in Media. According to my course i would love to get into the advertising side. I also do have some experience in working for the BBC SPORTS NEWS section as a Broadcast Assistant.

Any Comments or Suggestions regarding this. Please be free to post and share your views. Thanks