Consumer Behavior - Group 3

Assignment 1.3: Motivation, Personality, and Emotion

1.

Company Profiles
1.1
CONVERSE
Establishing in 1908 in Massachusetts as the Converse Rubber Company. Few years later,
they started to make snicker as the name of All Star basketball shoes and it becomes one of the
American Iconic fashion until now. Being acquired by Nike in 2003, they now operate under the
variety of trademarks such as Converse, All Star, Chuck Taylor, Star Chevron, One Star, and Jack
Purcell. Converse positions themselves as a brand for the rebels, artists, dreamers, thinkers and
originals, whoever which have their own personal style. The Converse brand personalities are:
Traditionalist, Individuality, Youthful rebellion, Free.
1.2
VANS
The first Vans store, originally named The Van Doren Rubber Company, opened by Van
Doren brothers (Paul and James), Gordon Lee, and Serge D'Elia on March 16 th 1966 at 704 East
Broadway, Anaheim, California (Connelly, 2016). Paul Van Doren sold the company in 1988 for
saving the money of McCown De Leeuw & Co. around 74.4 million USD, then the company is being
merged into North Carolina brand which based on VF Corporation in 2004 (Vans, 2013; Transworld
Surf, 2004). Vans shoes has brand personality of laid back, classic, and unique, since the company
remained for something they have confidence in. Vans needs to position itself (brand positioning) in
their consumers mindsets as The Best Skating Shoe, since Vans shockingly supports who play
skateboarding. When people see Vans shoes, the company wants their consumers to think that the
shoes are stylish, comfortable, and fun, in order to make them feel sentimental and prideful of a
"classic" shoe and create the brand loyalty (Davis, 2013; Niemuth, 2005).
1.3
Dr. Martens
Dr. Martens boots were initially presented in 1947 by dr. Klaus Marten in United Kingdom
and the sales had developed to be a great amount that they decided to open a factory in Munich, 1952.
Overall sales of Dr. Martens became firmly by the middle of 2010 and was evaluated as the 8 th fastestgrowing British company in 2012. More than 100 million pairs of Dr. Martens have been sold from
1960 and the company gives 250 unique shoes model in 2010. Dr. Martens company opened their 14
new retails locations in the United Kingdom, United States, and Hong Kong around 2009-2011, which
also started their clothing line from 2011 until now. Their main target markets are teenagers to young
adults. The potential customers are from the ages range of 13 to 25 years old, both male and female.
Dr. Marten targets people who consider themselves to be unique and stylish rather than the nonspecific standard design society. Dr. Martens has a characteristic thick-soled shoes and boots made by
Dr Martens Airwair (formerly R. Griggs) which sold in special stores and real retailers. The chunky
style has developed beyond classic, black, and lace-up boot to involve over 1,000 varieties of shoes,
boots, and sandals for adults and kids. Dr Martens Airwair, one of the UK's greatest shoemakers, came
back to the work-boot roots when their sales are dwindled, yet returned to get its feet wet elsewhere.
Dr. Martens brand Personalities: Leather, Brown, Classic, and Retro.

2.

Literature Review: Website Personality

The late internet research addressed the personality issue since Atkinson and Kydd (1997)
found out about people characteristics for having fun would impact the usage of World Wide Web
(WWW) and their consumers purchase decisions are likewise influenced by the personalities of the
service people. The companys websites are ordinarily being used for supporting the marketing teams,
including promotional activities, arrangements, service, and sponsorship (Palmer and Griffith, 1998).
Websites additionally are contained the characteristics that both brand and human are being arranged,
and the characteristics are clearly being used to create unique personalities for differentiated the
products (Wagner, 1997). Chen and Rodgers (2006) defined website personality as arrangement of
qualities which related to human personalities and information development that associated with

Consumer Behavior - Group 3

Assignment 1.3: Motivation, Personality, and Emotion
website, which resembles both human and brand personality definitions. Website personality would
incorporate the viewpoints that related with the website behavior, such as, saw convenience and saw
value (Davis, 1989), and in additional of emotional aspects which associated with human and brand
personalities, such as, excitement and diversion (Aaker and Bruzzone 1981; Wells, Leavitt, and
McConville 1971).
As indicated previously by Poddar et al. (2009), website personality is developed from store
personality, which estimated by D'Astous and Levesque (2003) as enthusiasm, sophisticated,
genuineness, solidity, and pleasantness, which might be appropriate in the online environment also.
An Enthusiastic website is related to its structure and design in order to generate the easy experience
for visitor. In term of Solidity, it refers to the websites performance in the properly professional
function, such as a wide range of selection and easiness to access. The sophisticated website refers to
the kind of website layouts and general design. Another factor of website personality is Genuineness,
it is related to the security. Last but not least, the website pleasantness described as they have no loud
and make irritatingly noise. As also indicated previously by Chen and Rodgers (2006), Shobeiri et al.
(2013), and Podder et al. (2009), website personality has this below characteristics and subcharacteristics.
No.

Characteristics

Sub-characteristics

Enthusiasm

Welcoming
Enthusiastic
Lively
Dynamic
Friendly
Appealing

Sophisticated

High class
Chic
Elegant
Stylish
Exclusive

Genuineness

Honest
Sincere
Trustworthy
Authentic
True

Solidity

Compatible
Reputable
Eye catching
Well organized
As a leader

Pleasantness

Not annoying
Not irritating
Not superficial
Up-to-date

3.

Result and Discussion

Consumer Behavior - Group 3

Assignment 1.3: Motivation, Personality, and Emotion
3.1

Demographic Index
For demographic index, the results show in different kinds of charts. First, the pie chart tells
about the percentage of male (29%), female (67,7%), and others who participants in this survey and
the total is 31 respondents. The purpose of genders focus is to know the differences of genders that
affected the personality they felt toward the 3 websites and which websites they feel more familiar
with their own personalities and the brands itself.

Second, the bar charts above show which brands that more familiar to the respondents before
this survey is being held and which websites of the brands that the respondents ever accessed before
this survey being held. The first bar chart shows that Converse brand (100%) is more known than
Vans brand (87,1%) and Dr. Martens brand is the least known (54,8%). The second bar chart shows
only 15 respondents ever accessed Converse and Vans websites (48,4%), only 10 respondents ever
Dr. Martens website, while there are 10 other respondents who never accessed the 3 websites.

Consumer Behavior - Group 3

Assignment 1.3: Motivation, Personality, and Emotion

Third, the 3 bar charts above show the preference website that chosen by each gender. For
female, there are 13 respondents who prefer to the personalities of Vans website which reflect
themselves and the brand itself rather than the personalities of Dr. Martens (10 respondents) and
Converse (5 respondents) websites. In other hand, there are 14 respondents who do not prefer the

Consumer Behavior - Group 3

Assignment 1.3: Motivation, Personality, and Emotion
personalities of 3 websites. For male, there are 7 respondents who prefer to the personalities of Vans
website which reflect themselves and the brand itself rather than the personalities of Dr. Martens (4
respondents) and Converse (5 respondents) websites. In other hand, there are only 2 respondents who
do not prefer the personalities of 3 websites. For others gender, they prefer the personalities of
Converse and Dr. Martens website which reflect themselves and the brand itself.
3.2

CONVERSE Website

No.

Characteristics

Sub-characteristics

Mean

Enthusiasm

Friendly

4.19

Sophisticated

Stylish

4.19

Genuineness

Honest

4.06

Solidity

Reputable

4.10

Pleasantness

Not irritating

4.03

In term of website Structure, visitors show that Converse website is Friendly for the visitors.
It's very true because they show all the variety of product lines on the left bar, so that it facilitates
customer to find their own favorite items. Definitely, they are really stylish in white and new shoes
style. About Genuineness, the website is honest. Website visitors also feel that they are Reputable
since CONVERSE is really well-known shoes brand. Lastly, the website is not irritating.
3.3

Dr. Martens Website

No.

Characteristics

Sub-characteristics

Mean

Enthusiasm

Lively

4.19

Sophisticated

Stylish

4.19

Genuineness

Trustworthy

4.23

Solidity

Eye catching

4.29

Pleasantness

Up-to-date

4.00

For the Dr. Martens home page, the results illustrated that their structure is Lively, it's
because not just display menu bar at the top, the website also shows their product lines in very
different way. Although it seems to be difficult to follow all the sections, from the product to photo
gallery and even some online video, but it's very unique. Definitely, the most of respondent think the
website is extremely stylish, as well as secured. Moreover, this kind of design make the website Eye
catching and Up-to-date.
3.4
No.

VANS Website
Characteristics

Sub-characteristics

Mean

Enthusiasm

Dynamic

4.06

Sophisticated

Stylish

4.26

Genuineness

Authentic

4.06

Consumer Behavior - Group 3

Assignment 1.3: Motivation, Personality, and Emotion

Solidity

Well organized

4.16

Pleasantness

Not irritating

4.16

Most of respondent agreed that Vans Website structure is Dynamic, it means that the website
is a kind of active and full of energy. And absolutely, the website is very stylish because it displays
their new arrivals with gorgeous men/women/children models. The website is secured also. The
important thing is website being organized well. This characteristic is very clear that they show menu
bar fully, and following with advertising banners, then Photo Gallery. All of these factors focus on the
Vans shoes, as well as the signature of Vans Brand (the white stripe). Finally, as we can experience,
the Vans website feel really cozy, have no irritation.
References
Chen, Q. and Rodgers, S., 2006. Development of an Instrument to Measure Web Site Personality.
Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 7, No.1, page 33-46
Connelly, L., 2016. Happy 50th, Vans: How the Iconic Shoe Brand Born in Anaheim has Kept on
Surviving. The Orange County Register. Retrieved October 1st 2016, from
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/vans-707801-shoe-company.html
Davis, J., 2013. Vans Brand Adv. Prezi Presentation. Retrieved October 5th 2016, from
https://prezi.com/7waax8ktaqbc/vans-brand-adv/
Held, 2008. The Century Old Sneaker Maker Has Been Undergoing an Overhaul Since it was Bought
by Nike. The new global VP for footwear talks about the classic retro shoe. Retrieved October
6th 2016, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2008-04-25/converses-all-starimagebusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice
Niemuth, B., 2005. A Lesson in Branding. Target Marketing: The Secret to Marketing Success.
Retrieved October 5th 2016, from http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/a-lessonbranding-28095/all/
Poddar, A., Donthu, N., and Wei, Y., 2009. Website Customer Orientations, Website Quality, and
Purchase Intentions: The Role of Website Personality. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 62,
page 441450.
Rodriguez, 2015. Converse Breaks 'Made By You' Campaign for Chuck Taylors. Retrieved October
6th 2016, from http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/converse-breaks-made-campaign-chucktaylors/297320
Shobeiri, S., Laroche, M., and Mazaheri, E., 2013. Shaping e-Retailers Website Personality: The
Importance of Experiential Marketing. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 20,
page 102110
Transworld Surf, 2004. VF Corp to Buy Vans For $396-Million Dollars. GrindTV. Retrieved October
1st
2016,
from
http://www.grindtv.com/surf/vf-corp-to-buy-vans-for-396-milliondollars/#O53WoVpgAsCd0MA3.99
Vans, Inc. History: Funding Universe. Funding Universe 2012. Retrieved October 1st 2016, from
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/vans-inc-history/
Vans, 2016. Vans Home. Retrieved October 1st 2016, from http://www.vans.com/