The journal describes how promoters tailor messages to the motivational traits of their intended audience. They could influence the audience’s perception, for example, to buy a good, vote for a politician, encourage or discourage some behavior. The human personality affects the thought and action patterns of individuals. Essentially, advertisement messages have a design that captures the individual attention of people based on what inspires their mentality and perception and that which their personality matches.
Customizing advertisement messages to the personality desires of the prospective buyers increases the chances of the goods or services is preferred. The authors, Hirsh et al. (2012) give an overview of the Big Five personality dimensions. The extroverts seek social recognition, agreeable personality values maintaining positive relationships, and neurotic people respond to threats or uncertainty. Conscientious individuals value effort, order, and credit, while open individuals are supporters of innovation and intellectual capabilities. The five-dimensional personality traits describe the relationship between personality and choices made by people, whereby personality guides preferences and actions.
The research involved 324 American participants who were to rate the level of persuasion of advertisement messages. The messages uniquely persuaded the various personalities into their multiple levels of preference. For instance, the extroverts responded well to the message promising excitement by the XPhone, and the neurotic individuals were targeted by it guaranteeing safety. Ideally, all the personality traits were touched and motivated by what they valued individually. Customized messages, indeed, have more impact than generalized messages in any form of promotions or publicity.
Corporates spend a lot of money on advertisement, some using more than a quarter of their revenues to market their products through advertising. The journal estimated the 2012 global expenditure on the promotion to about 530 billion American Dollars, with about a five percent annual increase in spending on publicity. The preceding fact highlights the vital role advertisement has on the success of companies. Indeed, an adequately advertised corporate entity grows exponentially with existing customers maintained and new ones inspired.
Message tailoring ensures goods, services, or people’s publicity increase to the benefit of the organization. The advertiser aims at attaining congruence between the message and personality. The emotions of the targeted user are motivated simply by tapping into the appeals of their nature. The situation is called regulatory fit; the person’s history and desire influence their choice of products, services, or goods. Generally, the customization of messages serves the purpose of persuading prospective clients.
Persuasive messages, despite their numerous advantages and benefits, can also have negative implications. The preceding is especially true when the tailored messages are of low quality. Ideally, advertisements put a lot of detail and profound emphasis on their statement. The effect could be detrimental when they are of poor quality, especially to their promoter and beneficiary. If it is a business, the marketed goods or services could lose their relevance, leading to unexpected losses.
Personality traits are the key influencers of human choices and attributes concerning tastes and preferences. The human personality is best defined using the Big Five Personality dimensions of extroverts, agreeable, open, conscientious, and neurotic. Extroverts are individuals whose joy is in social attention, while agreeable people value good interpersonal relationships. Conscientious people prioritize order and honor, while open people value innovation and intellect. On the other hand, a neurotic personality is sensitive to threats and personal safety concerns. In essence, messages tailored to address the various personality motivations achieve good returns and lead to more sales if they involve advertised products. However, the persuasive messages would have negative results when made with low quality. Nevertheless, tailoring of messages based on personality traits bears good results and convinces their intended audience.
Reference
Hirsh, J. B., Kang, S. K., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2012). Personalized persuasion: Tailoring persuasive appeals to recipients’ personality traits. Psychological science, 23(6), 578-581. Web.