Comparing Consumer Personality and Brand Personality: Do Fashion Styles Speak of Who You Are?

Teenagers, especially African American teens, are an important target market for fashion retailers. Identifying what type of customer is interested in which brands is a principal concern. This study investigated how fashion brand personalities are similar to people’s personalities and whether people may prefer a particular clothing brand based on their own personal traits. We hypothesized that individuals prefer brands that share similar personality traits to their own. In particular, we expected that there would be significant correlations between people’s Big Five Personality Trait scores and how much they desire a specific brand personality. All together, we found that the Big Five Personality Factors are generally not related to participants’ preferred brand personalities. Out of the 25 hypothesized relationships, only four were significant. Extraversion was positively related to emotive and sociable brands, and agreeableness was negatively related to sincere or trusted brands. Therefore, if a brand is marketed as outgoing or sociable, then investing in attracting extraverted customers could be useful, and the brand should target people who are high in extraversion. Otherwise, brands should consider different factors besides the Big Five Personality Factors for identifying potential customers.