The document is a newsletter from XPotential titled "Market Watch - July 2013" that discusses insights into consumer behavior. It contains several articles that highlight the importance of understanding consumer personality and motivations. One article discusses how brands like Starbucks and Coca-Cola have benefited from incorporating consumers' names into their marketing. Another article examines how retailers can improve shoppers' experiences by making them feel more capable and in control of their purchasing decisions. A final article analyzes Abercrombie & Fitch's strategy of targeting only "popular and beautiful" consumers and how this has recently backfired.

1. Market
Watch
The Human
Truths Behind
Consumer
Behaviour
July 2013

2. Feature Focus
Market Watch – July 2013
Personality matters
In marketing we are constantly preoccupied with finding ways to
win over our target consumers, and gain advantage on our
competitors. The trends and technologies that appeal to our
consumers may vary from year to year, so when it comes to
building brands it is vital to root our positioning in more enduring
factors. This is why understanding the personality of target
consumers is becoming more important. Getting to grips with the
personality of consumers helps us to reach deep insights that can
guide the more permanent direction of the brand; insights focus
more on what is enduring than on what is new and say more
about the consumer than the product. Having a clear picture of
who the consumer truly is as a person; how they think, what
motivates them in their life, not just in the category can help to
guide us to the most profitable marketing choices – from
assortment to communication. Taking a step back from the brand
and the category to look at the consumer as a person and to find
insights can help stimulate new thinking to deliver activities that
the target will really connect with.
Of course brands, like people can be seen to have personalities,
and in the same way that people form friendships, they are more
attracted to brands that have similar “personalities” to them.
Although they may sometimes be attracted to aspirational or
opposite personalities, even this can be anticipated if we have a
deep enough understanding of them as people. For example,
Swaminathan, Stilley and Ahluwalia (2009) found that anxious
individuals tend to have a low view of self, so are drawn to brands
that seem to signal their ideal self concept through brand
personality. The study also found that consumers’ relationship
style was a part of their personality which effected brand choice:
those who sought intimacy preferred “sincere” brands (such as
Gap) to “exciting” brands (such as Abercrombie), whereas the
reverse was true for those who avoided intimacy.
Another piece of research conducted in Taiwan (by Long-Yi Lin,
2010) found a significant positive relationship between the
extroversion personality trait and “excitement” brand personality
in toy and game buyers. It also found that brands which appear
to have agreeable and open personalities achieve better brand
loyalty.
The deep understanding of consumer personalities is a relatively
new but growing focus in marketing, with Nielsen recently adding
a personality profiling tool to its armoury, ‘Leveraging such
personality traits allows marketers to craft their media language
and brand positioning to target certain personalities and drive
sales,’ explained Todd Kaiser, Senior Director of Nielsen
Consumer Panel Services.
A focus on true personality in understanding consumers will move
consumer-brand relationships closer towards our real life
interpersonal friendships – which are not based on shopping
habits or product preferences, but on a deeper holistic perception
of other people.
©XPotential 2013
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3. Trend spotting
Market Watch – July 2013
We want people to know who
we are
From a young age, we begin to recognise our own name as
important. It is the first thing we learn to write and likely to be the
word we feel most connected to, with personalised products being
particularly prevalent in children’s toys and accessories etc. Our
name is such a basic part of who we are that it can get overlooked
when we think about identity, however it is a word we have such a
powerful connection to that it leads to some interesting phenomena.
We even develop a natural preference for words which sound or look
like our own name. Research by Pelham et al attributes this “nameletter effect” to implicit egotism – whereby we are all unconsciously
attracted to things that remind us of ourselves. Even a small part of
our names can grab our attention and create a positive association.
At XPotential, we often talk about the RAS (Reticular Activating
System) which enables us to filter the information around us to only
pay attention to what is relevant. The RAS is part of what causes
our preference for words that remind us of our own names; our
name is of course very relevant to us. Psychological neuroscience
studies (such as Carmody and Lewis) have also shown that one’s
own name stimulates distinctive areas of the brain in a way that
sets it apart from other words and noises.
Two brands that have recently benefitted from this simple consumer
understanding are Starbucks and Coca-Cola. Both have introduced
names on bottles / cups. At Starbucks, the customer’s name is
written on their cup by the barista, helping them to give the
beverage to the right person. At Coca-Cola, as part of their “Share
a Coke with friends” campaign, names have been printed onto
bottles. Aside from grabbing attention and building positive feeling
through use of our names, both of these initiatives have cashed in
on social media culture.
At its heart social media is a tool of self expression, essentially
your Facebook profile is “you-in-a-page”, and with the
Timeline layout that features large background banner photos
as well as a profile picture the site is moving further in the
expressive direction. Although simple (and potentially not that
interesting to our friends!), photos of the cups and bottles
featuring users names have been a great social media sharing
success.
Self-affirmation is not just an attention seeking activity, it also
has health benefits. A study from Carnegie Mellon University
recently found that thinking about what is important to us as
individuals before an exam reduced the detrimental effects of
stress.
For brands, connecting with people by name is becoming an
easier possibility thanks to personalised technologies, direct
mail, mobile etc. and brands that tap into this could be seizing
a powerful opportunity. Daniel Carnegie, the author of How to
Win Friends and Influence People attributed some of his
success to using people’s names repeatedly. As he put it,
“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the
sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
©XPotential 2013
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4. Consumer connections
Market Watch – July 2013
We engage with what we care
about
Engagement has become a hot topic since the rise of social media in
marketing. In this medium, the consumer is required to take more of an
active role, rather than e.g. TV advertising where they are purely
receptive. When considering how to engage consumers in new media,
brands need to take a holistic view of what matters to them. In seeking
their engagement, we are competing for their time, not with our category
competitors but with the consumer’s whole life. Although new media
technologies can allow for creative communication innovations, if real
consumer insight is not at the heart then they will not be successful; the
vast majority of facebook brand apps have practically no usage.
Getting a discount remains the number one motivation for consumers to
interact with a brand. Most brands are not a strong enough talking point
to engage consumers alone, only 0.5% of a brand’s fans actually talk
about the brand on facebook and 80% of buyers know little or nothing
about the brands they use. Thinking about brands is unlikely to be a big
part of their daily lives.
As brands, engaging with target consumers requires insight into their
lives, and into what motivates them to act. Is it a competitive nature?
Reaching goals they have set themselves? The opportunity for self
expression? By aligning brand activities to what consumers really care
about in their lives, we create better opportunities to reach them.
For example, the Tweet-a-beer campaign by Waggener Edstrom
Worldwide and Tenfour (where Twitter users could “tweet” each other beer
money) was successful because it catered to users’ motivations for using
Twitter, i.e. to connect with each other and build friendships, as well as
demonstrate your great social life publicly! They understood that their
consumers did not care about promoting a beer brand, but they did care
about their friendships.
©XPotential 2013
Part of the importance of aligning content to what
consumers care about is driven by what psychologists
call Cognitive Dissonance, whereby we avoid
information sources, people and groups that seem to be
at odds with our views. This means that if we do not
understand our consumers well enough to create brand
content that reinforces their views and priorities, we
risk distancing ourselves from them.
As people, we engage with what we care about. “Care”
is an emotional term, and unsurprisingly it is emotional
narrative that people pay attention to and respond best
to. Therefore understanding the emotional subjects
that consumers care about is the vital first step in
creating content that will engage, rather than disappear
into the growing depths of new media campaigns that
nobody noticed.
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5. Retail Therapy
Market Watch – July 2013
We want to be capable
It seems obvious that people do not like to feel helpless or lost, yet
this basic understanding does not always guide marketing decisions
that involve the shopper. For example, the fragrance category in
many retailers is full of obstacles blocking an easy, enjoyable
experience for the shopper. Organisation of products can be
confusing, if testers are unavailable the choice is made harder and
ultimately if the perfume is locked in a cabinet or behind a counter,
the shopper is unable to complete their shop without help. It seems
as though protecting the products from shoplifters has taken priority
ahead of delivering the best shopper experience. Retailers who
reverse this can reap great rewards; when Tesco moved their
fragrance offering from behind the counter to the shelves, their sales
tripled. This represents a valuable shift in mentality from what is
best for the company to what is best for the shopper (which of course
benefits the company in return).
Marks & Spencer’s Dine in for Two for £10 offer has been a roaring
success not just because it represents good value, but because it
makes it easy for shoppers to achieve what they want (the perfect
night in). Taking the time to understand the wants of shoppers and
implementing solutions to help them achieve these goals creates a
subtle positive experience that reinforces the basic human desire we
all have to be capable, this positivity in turn helps to foster affinity
with the brands and retailers that deliver it.
This method is a big step up in reliability from testing on the
back of the hand, and again focuses on the needs of the
shopper to deliver the best possible experience in store, by
increasing the shopper’s capability to complete their in store
mission.
The human imagination is an incredible thing, and
understanding deeply how shoppers think and imagine is an
essential foundation for in-store activities. We all have
mental models for how to do things, even if we have never
done them before. If the shopper experience is far from the
mental model expectations, it will not be so easily accepted
and therefore not as successful.
The brands that win in store are those that offer the solutions
Another category where shoppers can often feel insecure in their
that most conveniently meet the shoppers’ motivations. By
choices, seeking reassurance and recommendation online etc. is
using the available marketing tools in-store to guide shoppers
cosmetics. With many stores having a no-returns policy on these
quickly and confidently to the right choice to satisfy their
items because of hygiene and safety, the consequences of making
needs, brands have the opportunity to build trust and loyalty.
the wrong choice can be a significant pain for the shopper. In order
This does mean making their choice clear and easy; the more
to help shoppers make the right choice, Boots No 7 now offers a
options we have, the less able we are to decide. An
service where a device is used to measure skin type and tone to help
overwhelming range can leave us flustered and impair our
shoppers to find the right foundation for them, so that they can be
need to feel that we are capable.
confident in their purchase.
©XPotential 2013
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6. Brand barometers
Market Watch – July 2013
We want to fit in
One brand that has fully committed to its insight is the polarising apparel brand
Abercrombie & Fitch.
Originally their positioning was clear and insight based, for American teens who strived
to be one of the “popular and beautiful kids”. Their target consumers are teenagers,
notoriously anxious about how they are seen by others, so their desire is to fit in as
part of the group – not to be singled out as different, this is reflected in the range of
“safe” clothing styles. Even aside from the teenage group, a sense of belonging and
fitting in is important for our well-being, so brands that use this understanding can
build strong connections with their consumers, when targeted correctly.
Originally the execution of A&F’s targeting was successful, however more recently the
brand’s goal of exclusively appealing to popular and attractive people has become
widely known rather than implied. In particular, following an interview with their CEO
that explicitly affirmed this (“some people don’t belong in our clothes”), the brand’s
perceived personality has gone from being popular to nasty.
Now A&F has been attacked through the social media campaign “Fitch the Homeless”
which has gone viral, with people deliberately undermining the “desirable people only”
policy by giving the brands clothes to homeless people. Since this negative publicity,
same store sales have dropped 15% (although the company claim this is due to
unrelated inventory issues). Their original insight that their consumers wanted to fit in
with the desirable crowd still holds true, but now the brand seems fascist and that is
not desirable. A recent You Gov poll found that in the UK over two thirds of us (68%)
won’t buy products from a company if it has a bad reputation, and 80% of Nottingham
University students opposed A&F taking part in their careers fair.
Ironically for this all-American teen brand, the story of Abercrombie and Fitch reflects
the progression of many American teen movies, featuring just the type of characters
they are trying to resonate with – who start out on top as “the coolest kid in school”
only to eventually fall from grace when they are exposed for being not very nice at all!
©XPotential 2013
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7. Market Watch – July 2013
Market Watch is a snapshot of current issues and
insights that can influence your consumers or
customers and, therefore, impact your brand.
If you would like further information about these
articles, their references, or about the services that we
offer, you can reach us on:
(+44) 01628 485847
or visit our website : www.xpotential.co.uk
XPotential aligns individuals, functions and
organisations, throughout the world, to create
and deliver brand equity.
Editor: Katie Mason
©XPotential 2013
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8. “We align individuals, functions and organisations,
throughout the world, to create and deliver brand
equity”
Take a look at our website
to find out more about us:
www.xpotential.co.uk
©XPotential 2014
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