Rogue Thoughts

In an earlier blog I discussed recommendation engines on the internet such as amazon’s and Itunes’ and the algorithms behind it. They usually do not take into account metadata about persons, such as demographic or psychographic data. That makes a lot of sense, because it would require the customers to fill in a lot of information about themselves.
Some effort is usually made in a classic segmentation paradigm (such as the one championed by Tesco) to incorporate demographic characteristics into marketing. That is the typical strategy of loyalty programs.
Not much has been made of psychographic data. First of al because it is more sensitive, but also because it is more intangible. However, the psychological science of today is reasonably agreed on the basic personality traits: the “Big Five” factors and there are standard tests to asses the score on these factors. It should be a reasonably straightforward hypothesis that your personality is a powerful predictor of your shopping habits such as product preference. Consequently the return on the marketing spend depends on the fit between the product and the personality traits. I would think that there is potential here.
One way to do it is to look at adopter categories. We know a good deal about these from the diffusion of innovations literature (the central work is Everett Rogers’ “Diffusion of Innovations”). According to this literature there are 5 basic types of persons related to the adoption of a new product: Innovators, Early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.
The article in Wikipedia describes them thus:

Innovators
Innovators are the first individuals to adopt an innovation. Innovators are willing to take risks, youngest in age, have the highest social class, have great financial lucidity, very social and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators.
Early Adopters
This is second fastest category of individuals who adopt an innovation. These individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the other adopter categories. Early adopters are typically younger in age, have a higher social status, have more financial lucidity, advanced education, and are more socially forward than late adopters (Rogers 1962, p. 185).
Early Majority
Individuals in this category adopt an innovation after a varying degree of time. This time of adoption is significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters. Early Majority tend to be slower in the adoption process, have above average social status, contact with early adopters, and show some opinion leadership
Late Majority
Individuals in this category will adopt an innovation after the average member of the society. These individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of skepticism and after the majority of society has adopted the innovation. Late Majority are typically skeptical about an innovation, have below average social status, very little financial lucidity, in contact with others in late majority and early majority, very little opinion leadership.
Laggards
Individuals in this category are the last to adopt an innovation. Unlike some of the previous categories, individuals in this category show little to no opinion leadership. These individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents and tend to be advanced in age. Laggards typically tend to be focused on “traditions”, have lowest social status, lowest financial fluidity, oldest of all other adopters, in contact with only family and close friends, very little to no opinion leadership.

Now, my point is that just as it is possible to make tests to ascertain the big five personality tests, it is possible to make tests to ascertain which of the five adopter categories you belong to.
With this knowledge it is possible to market new stuff to the innovators, who will appreciate it a lot more than the laggards, and old stuff to the laggards, who will appreciate it much more than the innovators. I guess what I’m trying to say is send me an offer for the new google phone and not the Nokia 6700…

The marketing effect wold be much greater for the company and the customers who will receive the marketing will get experience more relevant offerings.