Study: Americans Fall Into One Of 6 “Deal Personas”

Experian is out with a study of “deal personas.” It seeks to measure how different consumer groups identify themselves and their interest in offers and discounts. The data are drawn from the “Spring 2013 Simmons National Consumer Study, a comprehensive survey of 24,374 US adults.” Experian says these data can be projected to the entire […]

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Deals-shutterstock-imageExperian is out with a study of “deal personas.” It seeks to measure how different consumer groups identify themselves and their interest in offers and discounts. The data are drawn from the “Spring 2013 Simmons National Consumer Study, a comprehensive survey of 24,374 US adults.”

Experian says these data can be projected to the entire US population. If that’s true, then every adult in the US would fall into one of six primary deal orientation categories according to the study.

Among the total US adult population, 42 percent of people are totally or largely impervious to deals while the remaining 58 percent can be influenced to varying degrees by the availability of promotions. Here are the categories:

  • Deal-seeker influentials — 18 percent: they aggressively seek deals everywhere
  • Offline deal seekers — 13 percent: they use traditional media more than digital to find deals
  • Deal thrillers — 14 percent: they love deals but mostly from preferred retailers and stores
  • Deal takers — 12 percent: passive deal responders; they’ll accept deals where they appear and may change their behavior in response to offers
  • Deal indifferents — 34 percent: this group is unlikely to respond to deals
  • Deal rejectors: — 8 percent: positively deal phobicDeal personas Experian

Below is a ranking of several shopping variables or considerations for each deal persona and their relative importance to each group:

Deal personas

What’s most interesting here is the consistency across groups: price and service rank lower than store environment and brands, which are the most important factors for all groups.

The report drills down and discusses each category and a few implications for marketers. Obviously, the big takeaway is: from an ad creative (or email marketing) standpoint, retailers and brands should segment their promotions and messaging and shouldn’t (or don’t need to) take a one size fits all approach.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Sterling
Contributor
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

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