Firms Launch Personality Trait Targeting Tool

Consumer insights specialist MRI-Simmons and personality, ethnic identity and behavior analyst EthniFacts have partnered, to develop a tool called the 'Big 5 Personality Suite', which uses consumers' innate personality characteristics to deliver more personalized targeting strategies.

MRI-Simmons was set up in February by consumer insights specialists GfK MRI and Simmons Research, and combines the two firms' expertise in consumer insights, media profiling and trends analysis, with one business promising to meet all clients' media insight needs. EthniFacts examines behavioral indicators, modes of contextual and situational identity, and demographic constructs to identify personality and cultural adjacencies.

The firms' new tool separates consumers into ten segments based on their desires, aversions and other motivations. Users can identify consumers based on their openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability - then apply those learnings for messaging and in media plans informed by MRI's consumer database. Using the Big 5 Personality Suite, marketers can identify the consumers most likely to embrace a brand, while uncovering the personality traits of a brand's best consumers. In addition, it allows users to predict potential new consumers and how to reach them.

Mike Lakusta, CEO and founding Partner of EthniFacts, says the collaboration provides more personalized strategies to influence consumer choices, using the Big 5 system as a framework for understanding consumers at a deeper level. Anna Welch, President of MRI-Simmons, adds: 'The best campaigns and products are based not just on generations and geographies, but also on deeply held preferences and desires. MRI-Simmons and EthniFacts are seizing a unique opportunity to elevate targeting through a sophisticated approach to personality traits, allowing brands to speak to consumers in ways that are innately compelling.'

Web sites: www.mri.gfk.com , www.simmonsresearch.com and www.ethnifacts.com .