Tell Me What You Love and I'll Tell You Who You Are: Consumer Psychotypes

We have already talked about how we like to carry out  various studies when working on projects, using the example of the rebranding of the Larsen Park. Вcottage village. In this article we are going to take a closer look at the types of consumers — and at the same time, using our data, try to find out which type you belong to.

“There are two types of people” — Many jokes and folk sayings begin with this phrase. But in fact, we identify four main types of consumers according to their psychotypes

• Traditionalists.
• Hedonists.
• Idealists.
• Rationalists.

Some things are clear from the name, but we will tell you more about each one to help you recognize yourself.

Traditionalists

They work very hard and therefore spend little time with their families. They value peace and stability, follow a strict daily routine, love traditions, and honor the family.

They see their role as ensuring the well-being of their family, so men of this psychotype are breadwinners and defenders, and they also fulfil the social role of head of the family. Women strive to create and maintain a family hearth. These people tend to buy property as an investment and as a means of storing money, which means they rarely buy, but they do so with due diligence.

Traditionalists relax rather passively: either at home with their family or in a small circle of friends, they like to go out, dig in the garden, build, or repair something. They love Soviet and Russian films, TV series and comedies.

They do not spend much time on personal development, which manifests itself in the improvement of any skill or profession, they may attend training courses if they are required at work. Among events, they sometimes prefer concerts of their favorite artists, sometimes the theatre, when Russian classics are performed. But they love sports - they are the most loyal fans, and they make up the largest crowds at folk festivals.

The traditionalists' sport usually remains in their youth - it is either weightlifting or martial arts. They also value team sports, but Traditionalists can't stand it when the rules change, or the judges make what they consider to be an unfair decision.

They tend to travel within their own country and to the same places. These are the people who really love all-inclusive holidays because a difficult holiday is not for traditionalists.

Hedonists

There is a literal name here. They worship pleasure and momentary joys, are not shy about their desires, and are sometimes willing to sacrifice their work for the sake of pleasurable emotions. They believe in getting the most out of life, being in motion and not being a 'grey mass'. They probably have no idea how their day will end.

They value family and loved ones, but are also fans of travel and entertainment. Major purchases are made impulsively, influenced by trends and fashion. They do not like shopping that involves wading through paperwork because they want it here and now.

They value family and loved ones, but are also fans of travel and entertainment. Major purchases are made impulsively, influenced by trends and fashion. They do not like shopping that involves wading through paperwork because they want it here and now.

They read mostly journalism and fiction, but do not devote too much time to reading. Their interests are wide-ranging - they rarely concentrate on one subject, but it is balanced by the superficiality of knowledge. They go to personal training, they may catch fire in some new direction and begin to study it, but they dive shallowly and for a short time.

They go to concerts, sometimes unplanned. These are usually foreign groups, provocative or fashionable performances. They can also go to sports events, if this sport is considered fashionable in the company of hedonists. They don't really like folk festivals, but if they do, they become the epicenter of attention there.

They go to the gym to get keep fit, have a bit of attention and new acquaintances. But there is no serious sport in the life of hedonists - for that you need to dive, to endure serious and monotonous stress.

They love to travel, and to new places every time. It is best if the rest is active and interesting - an excursion, SPA treatments, tourism, dancing, and delicious food.

Idealists

They live very quietly and regularly, social life is not very active. They spend a lot of time with family and friends, who provide support and security. They focus on their feelings and experiences, paying particular attention to spiritual and emotional growth. They believe that people should live in love and harmony, without quarrels and conflicts.

They see their role as ensuring the well-being of the family through the development of spiritual intimacy. Harmony with the world and care for nature are also considered important.

They prefer quick and cheap purchases, because spending money on something big and expensive is hindered by doubts, worries and financial possibilities.

They spend all their free time either with their family or with their hobby (usually related to needlework or creativity). They like to read novels, poetry, lyrics, go for a walk in the park or read a psychology book and watch educational programs. They are unlikely to relax in a large and noisy company.

Idealists strive for development, they can get carried away with an idea and begin to immerse themselves in it. But they won't study it very deeply or for very long. Sometimes they may go to an interesting lecture or workshop, but even there they will remain quiet, "in the crowd".

If they go to concerts, then only chamber concerts, local ones. They will not go to noisy events, because they do not like crowds and unpredictable actions, they will feel uncomfortable.

They are indifferent to sports. The maximum is something relaxing, like yoga or pilates, certainly in mini groups.

They do not travel very far, most likely to countries with a mild climate. They relax passively, looking at the sights, studying the local culture and being inspired by the beautiful landscapes.

Rationalists

It is often said of these people that “I see the goal, I see no obstacles”. They believe that a person's job is to work hard and achieve brilliant results. They live dynamically, but according to a plan.

Work takes up a lot of time, often to the detriment of family matters. But Rationalists see it as both a source of income and an opportunity for self-realization. They attach great importance to career advancement.

They buy property deliberately, in line with their goals. If you want to make the right impression, you can buy a prestigious brand or an expensive car.

There is little free time in the traditional sense, so they try to make the most of every minute — for example, by going out or learning something new. A hard day's work forces them to seek relaxation, so they often prefer to relax in nature.

They develop by reading business literature, attending industry conferences, lectures by experts and speakers who are ideologically close to rationalists.

Sometimes they can go to an exhibition or a museum, but more often they just go to the cinema as a holiday. They may purposefully go to a concert or a performance with deep meaning. They do not go to sports events or mass festivals.

They can do sport, and if they do it as a holiday, then sport becomes a hobby. If they do any kind of sport, it is most likely to be for personal goals. They prefer individual sports that require consistent skill development.

Travelling is divided into two types. The first is active exploration. They like active or extreme tourism that requires training, skills and equipment. For example, hiking in the Altai, rock climbing, downhill skiing or kayaking. The second is more balanced. These rationalists like unusual trips, for example to visit a special theatre or to study an unusual species of animal. both types can combine travel and business trips.

I didn't find myself in any of the psychotypes

This can happen if you have a mixed type. For example, a hedonist and an idealist. And there are very few people in the world who combine all four types — that is a rare quality.

How have we all understood this?

See how different we are? And this is just a basic division into four psychotypes, but inside there are, for example, archetypes that have dark and light sides and at least 24 behavioral strategies! But let's not dig too deep yet — let's try to find out how to use such information for business benefit, using our project to create and promote the Larsen Park cottage village brand as an example

So we have four psychotypes, and these are:

• Four completely different behavioral and survival strategies.
• Four different world views.
• Four fundamentally different points of view.

Как эти люди будут покупать дом? Определённо это будут четыре абсолютно разных сценария.

How are these people going to buy a house? There will definitely be four very different scenarios.

Our Opencore strategists have to do some real detective work — they have to conduct in-depth interviews with people who have bought a house in our price range within the last year. They have to determine the psychological profile of the respondent, formulate their purchase scenario, compare it with other scenarios of the same psychotype to find out what is common, what are the differences, whether there are similarities with scenarios of other psychotypes.

This is how we describe the buying strategy that is characteristic of the four basic psychotypes for the market. For some markets, it is necessary to assign more scenarios, for which there is an additional segmentation into archetypes. Not only does the buying strategy depend on the psychotype, but also the house itself, how it will be used and many other factors.

How does this help us?

We really do learn a lot of information about a potential consumer. But how can we use it to build a new brand? It is all very simple. Thanks to in-depth interviews, we can find out how people in different categories behave in certain situations. For example, we can assess brand attitudes.

For example, we learn that the brand's consumers are traditionalists. They think like this — “guarantee and fulfil!” You have to talk to them in simple everyday language, monosyllabically, through stereotypes and patterns. People like to look at centrally oriented images, realistic images, simple, open and contrasting colors. Going back to our suburban property example, this is what it would look like to traditionalists:

If our audience are hedonists. This psychotype is all about the here and now! This means that we already know how to talk to them — because hedonists love beautiful, ornate language, with lots of metaphors and epithets, emotional, using borrowed words. They love dynamic compositions and symbolic imagery. And now we know how to build advertising communication:

If we are talking about idealists, they believe that “slow and steady wins the race”. We know that idealists like sensual language, moderate detail and lots of adjectives. They like balanced compositions with low dynamics, complex muted colors and moderate contrast. And again, we know how to build communication — communication for idealists in suburban real estate would be like this:

Rationalists believe in “don't know, don't tell”. They like clear and understandable language without vivid emotions, with complex terms and professional vocabulary. They like mixed compositions with stable structures, moderate dynamics and contrasts, and muted colors. Again, a ready-made template for communication that would look something like this:

Here you can read how Psychea's segmentation helps to create advertising messages, using the example of four well-known chocolate brands. Thanks to this information, we were even able to shoot the perfect ad — it came out exactly as our target audience described it, and can be seen in the header of our client's website.

At Opencore, we know that without good, quality, in-depth research, we will not get a good result. As for us, we enjoy gathering information, digging into numbers, classifying and segmenting. So if you have a similar task, contact us and we will do it carefully and meticulously, and you will get an effective result.

Subscribe to the newsletter