Motivation, Attitude and Personality on Ferrari

This essay explains how the models and theories of motivation, attitude, and personality affects consumer behavior and evaluates how they explain how Ferrari is appropriately marketed.

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Motivation, Attitude and Personality on Ferrari
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Introduction
Ferrari, founded in 1939, is an Italian car producing brand based in Maranello. The
founder of Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari, was interested in producing world-class racing cars. In 2014, the
brand was named world’s most powerful after producing the 250 GTO. It became the world’s
most expensive car making a selling record of about $72 million. In attracting their niche market,
the brand uses display adverts, direct mail and exclusivity marketing strategies. This allows the
brand to reach its potential customers in specific geological locations. Using display adverts, the
company promotes the brand by showing their ads on relevant websites with potential customers.
Exclusivity entails detailed information about the brand and clear insights about the general
operation of the Ferrari. Despite direct mail being a traditional marketing strategy, Ferrari brand
has designed it to reach potential customers by displaying efficient information on the overall
brand experience.
Additionally, the brand uses demographic and psychographic market segmentation
models. This segmentation helps the brand to provide preferred and suitable packages to
particular sets of customers. The selective market targeting strategy is aimed at helping the
company to maintain the royalty of the brand. The brand mainly sells its cars globally to
celebrity figures and famous personalities. A value-based positioning strategy is used in
providing a sense of pride rather identity to their customers for owning a world-class vehicle.
The company, however, maintain a low production volume despite its big sales globally. This
strategy helps the company to protect the exclusivity as a world-class brand on demand. The
strategy also allows the brand to keep up with changing consumer dynamics and other
socioeconomic changes. This essay explains how the models and theories of motivation, attitude,

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and personality affects consumer behavior. Moreover, the essay will evaluate how the theoretical
models of attitude, motivation, and personality explains how Ferrari is appropriately marketed.
Impact of motivation on consumer behavior
Consumer motivation is the desire to produce excellent products and provide appealing
services. According to the theoretical concepts of motivation, a company, brand or corporation
should be able to satisfy the needs and wants of their customers. Motivation process has five
stages which are exclusively demonstrated by Ferrari brand (Noltemeyer, Bush, Patton and
Bergen, 2012, pp.1865). Consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, therefore, depends on the
motivation the company provides. For the Ferrari brand, understanding the motives of their
potential customers has promoted its sales. There are different needs that an organization or
corporation must meet to provide motivation to their customers (Quintelier, 2014, pp.347). These
needs include safety and security, esteem needs, self-actualization, and social needs. On physical
needs, the Ferrari brand, for instance, produces cars that come with efficient security patterns
like geo-tracking which allows customers to locate their vehicle when stolen. This aspect affects
their customer behavior positively because customers have confidence in the brand's products
and services.
There is also physical safety that assures the customers of their safety in case of an
accident. Ferrari cars have auto inflation airbags fitted in the cars that inflate during an accident
to protect whoever was in the car from extreme injuries (Taormina and Gao, 2013, pp.163).
Esteem needs, on the other hand, provide prestige and status to potential customers. This level of
needs comprises of class and status to achieve mental satisfaction, for example, Ferrari brand
sales its cars mainly to celebrities and famous individuals. This idea gives the individual a sense

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of pride in owning a masterpiece. Compared to other people, the individuals feel high above the
rest in the society and therefore motivates them as potentials customers of a particular brand.
Additionally, cars models from Ferrari brand cost quite a fortune (Buil, Martínez and De
Chernatony, 2013, pp.66). This means that not every individual can afford to buy any model. The
desired purchasing behavior of their potential customers is therefore realized.
Impact of attitude on consumer behavior
Consumer attitude is the feeling of favorableness towards a product. Positive attitude
towards a product increases the chances of a customer buying it. Consumer attitudes can affect
their buying behavior whether positively or negatively. Attitudes majorly comprise of certain
belief and feeling towards a product or service. According to models of attitudes, belief plays a
major role in consumer behavior (Luchs and Mooradian, 2012, pp.135). For example, a person
may believe that Ferrari being one of the most expensive cars that provides the highest security.
Others may believe that the brand only aims at selling to famous and celebrity figures. All these
differences affect their customer buying behavior. Feeling also affects consumer behavior in
terms of easy and uneasy towards a product and model. Ferrari ensures they provide the most
comfortable and user-friendly cars to enable their customers to interact with some unique
features of the brand with easy (Lin and Worthley, 2012, pp.36). Consumer attitude entails
different functions such as adjustment, ego defensive, value expression, and knowledge
functions. All these functions affect how consumers buy certain products and therefore brands
need to realize and provide more personized products. The cognitive component according to
attitude models reflects an individual’s perception towards a certain product. For example,
Ferrari customers view the brand as a masterpiece and fortune. Another important component of
attitude theoretical models is the effective aspects that consist of personal emotions and

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sentiments towards a particular product and brand. This component also comprises of specific
mindsets like anger and happiness which affect the attitude of a consumer. Lastly, the conative
component of attitude models consists of individual reaction and intentions towards a particular
product and brand. This component describes an individual’s actual behavior and intentions for a
product. For instance, a person may need to buy a Ferrari car for fame or attraction.
Impact of personality on consumer behavior
Personality is another vital component that affects consumption patterns. Every
individual tends to buy a product or associate with a brand that goes with their personality.
Personality can, therefore, be defined as internal psychological traits that allow and determine
the response of an individual to their environment. According to personality theoretical models, a
limited number of characteristics are common to many individuals. Consumers normally possess
competing desires (Goh, Heng and Lin, 2013, pp.92). In satisfying these needs, an organization
must create a platform of influence to their potential customers. Ferrari, for example, goes for
fame to maintain its brand quality. The brand also provides limited editions to manage their
market demand (Burroughs, et al., 2013, pp.25). Ego as an individual social control is a
personality that allows a consumer to distinguish between dreams and realities. Egocentric
personality allows individuals to strive for perfection and masterpiece productions. Different
personalities, therefore, tend to consume different products and services (Reed II, Forehand,
Puntoni and Warlop, 2012, pp.312). For instance, compliant personality individuals prefer
renowned brands while aggressive type tends to go for specific brands. There are a number of
personal traits that affect product consumption. These traits are however matched with their
direct opposites according to personality theoretic models. Example of these traits includes,
unstable versus unstable and dull versus bright. These traits give a hint of individual preferences

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that an organization can use to control their product consumption (Hosany and Martin, 2012,
pp.687). Different degrees of traits affect the purchasing behavior of different products. An
individual with a well-polished trait but controlled by pride will tend to buy the fanciest
products. They aim at gaining recognition and a certain status in society (Rucker, Galinsky and
Dubois, 2012, pp.361). Additionally, individual personalities allow people to judge different
products according to price, efficiency, and class.
How motivation, attitude and personality theory can explain how Ferrari is effectively
marketed
Personality
The theory of personality and psychoanalytic theory of consumer behavior explains how
Ferrari is effectively marketed to influence the consumers’ needs. The marketers of Ferrari
fantasies about cars which are used to influence the consumers’ needs. The marketers have used
the hedonism aspect of pleasure principle which has offered more affluent to society influencing
them to buy the car regardless of its price (Funk, Beaton and Alexandris, 2012, pp.359). Ferrari
marketing websites receive thousands of views daily. The marketers use advanced tracking
methods to locate the targeted customers and then display ads on their specific websites so that
they can attract the clients back. According to the psychoanalytic theory, the super ego of an
individual forces a person to strive for perfection. Super ego makes consumers train to suit into
three personality groups (Park and Nicolau, 2015, pp.75). The first group is compliant
individuals. This refers to the group which moves towards others for need of affection love, and
approval. This group of the consumer is conformist who prefer known brands. Therefore, Ferrari
has segmented its product to suit a specific group of people like the conformist who want the

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need for approval. The second group is aggressive individuals. This type of consumers feel the
need for power, achievement and prefer specific brands so they can be noticed. The Ferrari
marketers have designed their marketing strategies to suit such individuals as a renowned luxury
car sports but can only be afforded by a limited number of people (Bigné-Alcañiz, Currás-Pérez,
Ruiz-Mafé and Sanz-Blas, 2012, pp.274). The Ferrari uses demographic segmentation by
checking the background of its target customers such as celebrities and consumers with famous
personalities. Nonetheless, Ferrari is marketed according to different lifestyles of people (Ertz,
Karakas and Sarigöllü, 2016, pp.3982). There are several factors influencing the consumer
purchase behavior of Ferrari such as cultures, education background, and social class. Therefore,
Ferrari targets people who spent more on luxury and premium goods.
Motivation
According to the Maslow hierarchy of needs. Consumers satisfy needs in the lower ranks
before moving to the needs in the higher ranks. The need in the higher hierarchy is self-
actualization. Self-actualization refers to a situation where consumes wants to live a comfortable
life. Therefore, Ferrari has taken into consideration its target consumer who want to reach the
self-actualization of the luxury product (Cohen, Prayag and Moital, 2014, pp.900). Since it is a
luxury product, the marketing strategy of Ferrari has connected on a few sports consumers who
share several features. The marketing strategies of Ferrari has based on factors such as
urbanization, emerging economies, increasing the affluent class, and changing the
macroeconomic conditions (Christina, Dainty, Daniels and Waterson, 2014, pp.172). This has
assisted the target consumers to be influenced by its marketing strategies in order to achieve self-
actualization out of it. Additionally, people who drive Ferrari desire to be accepted and valued by
others. This represents a symbol of luxury. The consumers who buy a luxury car have their basic

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needs which include choosing a cost-effective car and desire to possess a car. However, Ferrari
has been segmented in a way that it is suitable for only high-income earners who are between the
age of 25-49 and above the age of 50 years (Feldmann and Hamm, 2015, pp.155). Therefore,
very few people can afford to buy the car because of its performance and status. The high-
income earners and those who have a strong background are the ones who are interested in
purchasing such cars.
Attitude
Consumers’ attitude is both an advantage and an obstacle to a marketer. Attitude
represents the overall evaluation of a service or a product formed over time. Most people who
own Ferrari purchase car brands they have purchased before. This means that such customers
have developed an attitude towards the brand. The marketers use the consumers’ attitude to
evaluate the consumers’ desires (Grimmer and Miles, 2017, pp.7). Ferrari brand can influence
the consumer’s attitude through customer service. The marketers of Ferrari have ensured that
they deliver quality services to the buyers. Some attitudes of consumers based on the information
they have acquired without experience. This may develop consumer bias based on the image of
the brand in the market (Ashley and Tuten, 2015, pp.17). The marketing strategies that Ferrari
has used has ensured that the brand remains top in the market and satisfies the consumers ‘needs
such as speed, comfortability, quality, reliability, safety, durability, status, technology, and
efficiency. However, the marketing of Ferrari may influence consumer behavior through
recognition and response disposition.
Recommendation

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Ferrari should increase its worldwide deliveries. This is because they have limited
manufacturing sites. Moreover, Ferrari should look at the product and the price feature of
competitors to ensure that the targeting audience is loyal to the brand. Unlike mass brands,
Ferrari brand should not strive to please everyone but only consumers whose suits with their own
brand. Additionally, Ferrari should involve the customer in a ritual. They should offer more
unique services to their customers. This means that the ritual should go beyond allowing
customers to experience the brand. Ferrari should also take the store as the temple by paying
special attention to the way they innovate and sell at the place of purchase. The brand should
communicate belief, create a brand experience, and aim to construct multifunctional that create a
brand experience. Example, BMW is a temple like a showroom where consumers can experience
the brand instead of simply buying the product. On the other hand, Ferrari should pull customers
into an inclusive circle. Ferrari should clearly define its customers and market its brand aiming at
specific customers. It should pull customers to make sure they belong to a specific community of
people. Moreover, Ferrari should no communicate legends to bring out a myth. Besides, it should
not compare itself with competitors such as Lamborghini and Porsche instead it should
communicate its advantage over them, unlike mass brands. Instead, it should focus on
communicating legends lined with the brand to establish a myth. However, myths should be
conveyed in an indirect manner and should be consisted in every point of delivery, marketing,
stores, and products. Ferrari can achieve this by inducing a level of mystery and marketing or by
connecting with myths in an elevated way.
Conclusion
Marketing is important for every company in order to raise sales. However, marketing
should not be done blindly. Organizations or brands should identify the consumers’ behaviors

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that may influence them to buy and design their marketing strategies to suit the consumers’
needs. The marketers should consider the personality of different consumers or their target
market, where they derive their motivation and their attitude towards certain brands or goods.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains what motivates consumers’ to satisfy their needs.
According to Maslow’s model, consumers’ will satisfy needs in the lower hierarchy before
moving to the next step in the hierarchy. The basic needs include food, shelter, sex, and water. A
person cannot satisfy safety needs without satisfying physiological needs. Therefore, a person
will satisfy, safety needs, love, and belonging, and self-esteem needs before moving to self-
actualization. On the other, personality affects the consumers’ buying behavior depending on
factors such as culture, age, income, and even social background. According to the
psychoanalytic theory, the super ego of an individual forces a person to strive for perfection.
Moreover, consumers may possess competing desires and needs to satisfy their wants. Marketers
should create fantasies about the needs that the consumers desire to but in order to influence their
purchasing behavior. Additionally, the personal emotion of consumers’ influence their buying
behavior. Happy individuals may be motivated to buy compared to sad individuals. Nonetheless,
an individual’s attitude towards a brand may affect their buying behavior. The attitude may have
originated from experience or what they have heard from other people about certain products.
Therefore, it is the duty of marketers to analyze the consumers’ behaviors and design products to
suit their needs.

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