How About A Split Personality?
By Whitney Wright, Vest Media Buyer
In an article by Beth Snyder Bulik titled “How Personality Can Predict Media Usage”, I found that most agencies concentrate so much on using focus groups and demographic data to find out what media is best suited for their target audience. In a study done by psychographic-research company Mindset Media, personality is the more effective prediction tool for media usage.
The study reinforced common notions set by demographics such as:
- Younger people consume newer media outlets like the Internet.
- Older generations still prefer print.
- People with higher incomes most likely read the daily newspaper.
- Women read more magazines than men.
However, the real WOW factor in this study is the findings based solely on personality. For example:
- People who are more daring are 50% more likely than others to be heavy consumers of all media.
- People who are sarcastic or rule breakers are 60% more likely than others to be high consumers of all media.
Below are the categories broke down by media type.
- Internet
o Internet is looking more like TV. It is becoming more of a mass medium.
o Almost everyone is using the web in some way. Making it a bit more vanilla than it used to be.
o Top Web Users ranked high in openness
o These “highly open” are 153% more likely to buy organic and are 104% more likely to drive a hybrid car.
o Top Web Users are more daring than the average person
o Low-level Internet users ranked high in stubbornness and are socially conservative who tend to look to religion and moral authority for guidance.
- Newspaper
o Optimists spend more time with newspaper than any other medium and they recycle it too.
o They are 51% more likely to go out of their way to by recycled goods.
o They are 34% more likely to drive a luxury car.
o They are 30% more likely to have bought 4 or more PCs in 2 years.
o They are 68% more likely to by organic cereal.
o They are 61% more likely to buy three or more pairs of sneakers each year.
o People that ranked high as dynamic are the largest group of newspapers readers.
o These people who are strong leaders with strong decision-marking skills prefer to read newspaper.
- Magazines
o Dynamic people (also ranked high in newspaper) ranked as the largest group of readers for magazine.
o The runners-up are people who are highly open.
o These open people are more willing to explore and are comfortable with emotions, try new foods, own large music collections, and go to the movies.
o People who rank the lowest are those who are not goal-oriented or self-motivated.
o Introverts also shy away from print.
- Radio
o Dynamic people love radio.
o These dynamics turn away from TV, but listen to the radio anywhere they can because they are always on the go.
o They are 36% more likely to click around from show to show on both TV and radio. They are always looking for something better.
o Introverts consume almost no radio
o Non-diligent people are less likely to listen to radio, but are 50% more likely to watch five hours or more of TV a day.
I found this study interesting because I really believe that our personalities dictate most of what we watch, listen to, eat, drive, or do in our everyday lives. I also believe that demographics do play a role in deciding which medium to use, but I don’t believe it should be the sole deciding factor. A good mix of demographics and personality would be the way to go to get the most bang for your buck. This blend will zero in on those people who really want to hear about your message or product.
