Who does your branding really reach?

Take a good look at the picture above.

How would you feel about owning one of these?

Would owning a Macbook make you feel more creative, expressive and cool?

Classical consumer behavior is based on that assumption. People buy brands because of the associations that come with it, associations they like to communicate to the outside world.

This is still true. But in a new research concludes that this is not true for everybody.

Turns out that there are two types of people:

• Entity theorists who believe personal qualities are fixed and direct effort won't change them
• Incremental theorists  who believe that they can improve themselves only through hard work and learning

The first type is a lot a lot more receptive to branding. As they can't change things themselves, they might rely on external factors, such as brands, to change them.

When I found this out a question came up:

What percentage of the population falls into which category?

You don't want to waste money trying to build your brand to people who aren't influenced by it. Are there other ways to drive their buying decsions? Are they more receptive to promtion or prices?

More news on the upcoming paper.