Depending on who you are as a person – even after trying to fully align this post with your professional  interests – you may not give this post a read beyond this first sentence. And that’s exactly the point of this post.

The content marketing world is heating up. Customers are saturated with an overload of information being thrown at them. And brands are finding it much more difficult to get their messages through.

Everyone is now talking about context. And the rise of data analytics and digital technologies are making it more feasible to build this so called context. Still, very few are able to initiate customer relationships other than offering a promotion when a customer is near by, or based on what customers bought before. Even with all that, given the abundance of promotions, there is suspicion about your great bargain offer as customer scramble to investigate if what they are being offered is indeed a good deal (price, quality, fit, etc.).

 

In this post I’d like to highlight a very interesting concept of personality types, that may enable us to boost the effectiveness of our promotions, build better context and strengthen our long term relationship with our customers. An examination of personality types may be a great way to begin to build relationships based on the inherent nature of our customers – all else remaining equal, what offer and positioning is likely appeal to them. Which part of our offer will they most resonate with?

Jay Rosenberg at The Quant Method (www.quantmethod.com), sent me this very intriguing email a few months ago. How should the offer copy be different for different personality types? Basically, according to their analysis, there are four major personality types (with further granularity available of course). Each of these personality types would respond to a different version of the same offer. I’ve included a brief description and a suggested copy of the offer as an example provided by Jay.

Olympian Personality Type – Likes fun, adventure, flash…  (BLACK FRIDAY FUN STARTS TONIGHT. AWESOME DEALS & SURPRISES! DOORS OPEN AT 12:01 A. M. Early Bird Tickets handed out 2 hours before store opening.)

Thinker Personality Type – Traditional, loyal, likes recognition and appreciation, serious, detail-driven and thoughtful…. (OPEN EARLY FOR LOYAL CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU. OUR LEGENDARY BLACK FRIDAY SALE IS ON! Get details here. — PEFECT TRADITIONAL GIFTS. SPECIAL VALUES. ONLY ONCE A YEAR — )

Mastermind Personality Type – Time-sensitive, likes new ideas and innovation, likes options to choose from… (DON’T WAIT FOR BLACK FRIDAY. SHOP OUR SUPERS DEALS ONLINE NOW! 100s OF NEW, INNOVATIVE GIFTS NOWHERE ELSE AVAILABLE. Save TIME & MONEY. FREE SHIPPING on every order.)

Diplomat Personality Type – Dreamer, likes options and possibilities, relationship and family oriented…. (BLACK FRIDAY– Dream-come-true storewide values! You’ll LOVE our DOORBUSTERS! OVER 1000 deals. YOUR CHOICE! Bring friends & family. Treats for kids (of all ages)! FREE SHIPPING on every order — delivered right to your door.)

Exciting, right? I thought so too.

For example, from the above personality types definition, an in-store offer on mobile for Mastermind type shoppers will probably require features that allow them to compare other available options immediately to make a decision. Sort of like what Progressive Insurance did with their online rate quotes but of course they may not have based it on personality types. Similarly for Olympian personalities, an aligned offer could be to buy and join the ranks of customers who are recognized on a special forum?

How do we apply this concept to our business or venture? And how can we take this methodology beyond just better defined messaging? Moreover, how can we build memory or history of behaviors especially in a B2C business and mass advertising. Moreover, how can we use this concept beyond 1-1 messages in mass settings such as billboards and banners – rotate them with different messaging? How should we integrate other companies into the mix to boost our entry points into the customer ecosystem even further.

All of these are still questions to be answered, but including personality types is still a great way, and a step above the traditional segmentation and uplift analytics.

In my book “Dancing the Digital Tune”, I explained 5 principles that will help us get through the clutter and move towards sustained customer engagement. The principles offer strategic frameworks to create a solid link between emotional branding and physical experience, to provide external reinforcement for spur of the moment decisions and by more strategically creating partnerships and cohesion between both our own, and the products of other industry players. Personality types are a great tool to include in the design of those initiatives. Perhaps when I post message to promote this blog post, I’ll use 4 different messages and see what happens. (other than folks blocking my posts).

Here’s to creating context, and getting through the clutter!