Psychology

Modern marketing is less pushy than yesteryear’s — and I love that. It’s less about forcing your message on people and more about helping. However, personality marketing is one strategy that still dances the line between savvy and shady to many, including yours truly. As marketers, we work to get inside the heads of our audience and understand what makes them buy. We learn who they are, their age and interests, but personality marketing pushes the envelope into psychometrics or deeper psychological traits. It also raises the question of when marketing turns manipulative, and it’s not one to be shrugged off. Let’s talk about what personality marketing really is and how to use it effectively and ethically. Table of Contents What is personality-based marketing? The Controversy of Personality Marketing How to Implement Personality Marketing into Your Strategy Ethically What is personality-based marketing? Personality marketing actually goes by many names. Some call it personality-based marketing, others personality-theory marketing, and some even psychometric marketing. But no matter what you decide to call this strategic rose, it’s when a marketer takes into account deeper psychological traits of their ideal customers to reach them more effectively. I know what you’re thinking: “This just sounds like buyer persona research or segmentation, Ramona. HubSpot loves that stuff.” And yeah, we do and they’re pretty similar. But personality marketing goes beyond surface demographics like age and gender. It stretches into motivations, fears, values, relationships, and even emotional states. There are several different personality theories brands can explore here (e.g., Myers-Briggs, DiSC), but one of the most popular is the “Big 5” or OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. UK-based market research agency Brandspeak breaks down the five traits for us: Openness: Intellect or imagination, curiosity, and creativity Conscientiousness: Tendency towards organization/structure Extroversion: Energy source in regards to interactions with others Agreeable: Orientation to others; how they get along with others Neuroticism: Confidence, how comfortable someone is in their own skin Source Whatever factors you end up analyzing, personality marketing aims to unpack the “why” behind the more obvious qualities (what) and buying behaviors (how). Need help organizing all your audience information? Download our free buyer persona templates. Benefits of Personality Marketing So, the goal of the strategy is to understand your buyer better, right? Well, once you do, this can lead to some big benefits. The most direct is more relevant messaging and content. One of the most high-profile examples of personality marketing is a controversial one from Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, but the CEO of the consulting firm once explained this aspect of personality marketing well. He said, “It allows us to nuance our messaging. Rather than serving the same advert to 100 million people… [we] can sub-segment people by personality and change the creative to resonate with individuals based on how they see the world.” You can see this idea in action in the promotion of the Apple Watch. Apple targets its loyal base of techies who want the latest new gadget in the promo above, but it also appeals to health and fitness enthusiasts who want to track their movement on its website.  Source Not to mention the inherent gamification.  Each audience has very different motivations for buying so they need very different messaging to take action and Apple took the note. 64% of consumers say they’d quit a brand if their experience wasn’t personalized or relevant, so this is not an outrageous idea. More personalized and relevant messaging can mean increased connection and trust in your brand, as audiences feel like you “get” them. This creates a better customer experience, and ideally, over time, all of these elements come together to increase conversions and even sales. The Controversy of Personality Marketing As with any marketing, personality marketing has to be done strategically to reap the benefits, but more importantly in this case, it needs to steer clear of the dilemmas and controversy that can come with it. What’s the big drama with personality marketing, you ask? It really comes down to privacy and ethics. Data Privacy In an age where data breaches and privacy settings are a normal part of life, critics are concerned with how brands gather the psychological details they use in personality marketing. Whether it’s through forms on their website, market research, or inferences based on social media, marketers have to be careful about where they are gathering their psychometrics and if they have the legal rights to use. According to Twilio’s 2024 State of Customer Engagement Report, 60% of consumers say protecting their data is the top way to build their trust. So, it’s clear consumers today are increasingly aware of how their data is being shared and used. Any misuse of this can be extremely damaging to your brand. Meta, Amazon, and T-Mobile are just some of the corporations that have faced backlash and gotten fined for data breaches and privacy violations. Ethics In addition to how they’re getting their data, personality marketers need to be wary of how they’re using that data. This is the big one for me. You see, I love marketing; it’s what I’ve wanted to do since I was a teenager. But I’ve always struggled with this perception that marketers are manipulative. To some, we’re out here trying to trick others into buying things, making false promises to steal money. We’re like the stereotypical “sleazy car salesman” or whoever sold Jack those magic beans in “Jack and the Beanstalk.” It’s an ugly image to attach yourself to. That’s largely why I was happy the industry had turned more inbound by the time I entered the workforce, but now personality marketing adds a different layer of potential misconduct. Personality marketing encourages brands to cater to their target audiences’ deeper concerns and tendencies. This is great if we use it to create a better experience for consumers and give them what they need — but the fact is not everyone uses this information for good. Think about it: Leading with a pain point