Magazine: Personalities standing in front of the shelves

How much do we know our buyers? Do we know what is going on in their heads when they are standing in front of the store shelves? The starting point of Kantar-Hoffmann’s NeedScope model is a Carl Gustav Jung type approach: based on interviews they identify various consumer personality types and the related shopping attitudes. The NeedScope model attaches colours to the different personality types: red, purple, blue, brown, orange and yellow. From the six types we can get to know the characteristics, motivations and emotions shoppers bring to the store.

Andrea Harcos
qualitative research director
Kantar-Hoff mann

How is all of this done? Kantar-Hoffmann accompanies shoppers on their shopping trips, observe them and make in-depth interviews with them afterwards. Minimum 2 stores are visited together and shoppers are asked to comment on what they see and experience, and they make their decisions speaking their minds. Red shoppers are dynamic, brave and independent. Purple ones are assertive, blue shoppers are smart, conscious and comparing, and brown ones tend to care about others. Those who belong to the orange group are friendly, while those in the yellow category are spontaneous, happy and carefree.

How do the shoppers belonging to different categories shop? For instance red ones are seeking innovative products and unusual designs. Blue customers are driven by number and rational things. They are the type that checks whether the price is the same as indicated on the shelf when paying.

The average shopper belongs to the orange category: they can be convinced about buying a certain product with rational reasoning, but they don’t make calculations – they want efficiency. Those brands that are targeted at a specific type of shopper personality have a set of values that attracts the given group of consumers. The main differences between the various shopper personalities are their attitudes towards the different product categories. In this respect the same consumer can have different personality types in different product categories. //