Marketing Most Effective When Targeting Personalities

The truth is that advertisers spend a lot of their own time and money working on a way to tailor their advertisement campaigns that will basically meet the wants and needs of specific demographics. Different people in different demographic will obviously have different wants and needs which is generally the number one reason that it is so important for advertisers to do this type of advertising. As one may think about it, someone who is retiring will have a totally different perspective than someone who has just graduated college and headed out into the workplace for the first time in their life.

And while there are certain demographic categories that basically help advertisers to reach certain groups of people, even within those groups, there are still a ton of differences between those people. People who are in the same demographic group could actually be polar opposites when it comes down to personality, which has a lot to do with the consumer behavior of a person. A recent study was released by the Psychological Science, which made a suggestion for advertisements, stating that if they are tailored to target certain personalities, they will likely have more success reaching certain customers.

The author of the study, Jacob Hirsh, said that persuasive messages are usually targeted towards groups of people, generally based on their demographics. However, Hirsh believes that the effectiveness of these advertisements could actually be improved by simply targeting specific people, based on the type of personality along with their specific demographics. Hirsh, along with two co-authors, conducted a study with approximately 324 individuals. The advertisement that was displayed to each of the individuals was tailored based on their personality characteristics. And, as expected, their research showed that the advertisements were far more effective when they were displayed on a more personal level, targeting people based on the type of personality they have. Advertising messages were more compelling to those whose personalities matched up with the specific advertisement and what was said in the advertisement.

For the year of 2012 alone, which is only halfway through, billions of dollars have already been spent all around the world on advertisement. There are all types of advertisements, ranging from political campaigns, products, economic campaigns, and a whole lot more. With this new research proving that consumers will often relate better with an advertisement that matches up with their personality, it is believed that billions more dollars will be put toward advertising that targets people based on their personality in the near future, especially if these advertisers want to have the most success and actually get the consumer interested in what they are advertising, whether it is a consumer product or if it is on political candidates.