Doing the assigned reading for the Consumer Behavior class the other day,
a specific paragraph caught my attention...
Brand Personality (Solomon, p223). The paragraph refers to a survey starting a description of an "apple-holic", characterising the average apple device user as an unkind person with little empathy. Apple users are a “selfish elite” (Solomon, p223). The typical apple user /lover is a wealthy, well-educated, power-hungry, over-achieving, sophisticated, self-centered 30-50-year-old workaholics with an overwhelming interest in business and finance.
For a person convinced of the greatness of the Macintosh software and the quality of its apple devices (owning an ipod, iphone and a macbook) strong words to read in a college textbook... of course not the opinion of the author, but still.
Brand Personality (Solomon, p223). The paragraph refers to a survey starting a description of an "apple-holic", characterising the average apple device user as an unkind person with little empathy. Apple users are a “selfish elite” (Solomon, p223). The typical apple user /lover is a wealthy, well-educated, power-hungry, over-achieving, sophisticated, self-centered 30-50-year-old workaholics with an overwhelming interest in business and finance.
For a person convinced of the greatness of the Macintosh software and the quality of its apple devices (owning an ipod, iphone and a macbook) strong words to read in a college textbook... of course not the opinion of the author, but still.
Am I this described person, or will I become one of
this characteristics one day only because my first mp3-player was an ipod and
my first laptop a macbook? Well... obviously, this description is more a
stereotype than the average reality.
With this picture of the typical user of this well-known American product in mind, I browsed through the web and found an interesting description of the typical user of a very well-known German product... the stereotypical BMW driver.
Actually
there exist scientific research on this. The author Inga Kastens published a
book in 2008 about linguistic branding: the language of brands - development,
implementation and potential impacts of the branding approach.
In her book, Kastens (2008, p206) describes the stereotypical BMW driver like the following…
In her book, Kastens (2008, p206) describes the stereotypical BMW driver like the following…
Gender: BMW drivers are generally men – the stereotype man with
the following
characteristics: logical, rational, loves competition, future oriented.
characteristics: logical, rational, loves competition, future oriented.
Style of driving: BMW drivers like driving and as often as possible. They have a general
interest in cars, drive offensive, fast as well as reckless and risk causing an
accident.
Job: BMW drivers are generally young and carrier-oriented, are able to assert
themselves and do not mind to dislodge another person if necessary to
satisfy their needs and reach their goals.
Lifestyle: BMW drivers place high value on their image and lifestyle. They are
spoiled, sophisticated and like to treat their self with nice and expensive
things.
That must feel as bad to a passionate BMW driver as the statement about apple users in the textbook to a apple lover... one thing they both have in common: the brand personality - the person becomes the product and the product becomes the person. The user kind of adapts the humanized characteristics of the product he/she uses.
I even found some cartoons and an interesting video supporting the
stereotypical BMW driver's characteristics...
'Give it a rest, man! Chip-tuning does
nothing!!'
'Move aside you ass!
Otherwise I'll shove your trunk in your glovebox!
OK, Ill take this one.'
Otherwise I'll shove your trunk in your glovebox!
OK, Ill take this one.'
It's important he gets used to the photoflashes (speed trap camera)!'
'My new distance warner! If I fall back more
than two meters, it beeps!'
speech bubble: 'No! Don't do that Mr. Mueller!! First the blinker than the flasher!
