Decoding Preferences: Astrology, Blood Types, and Segmentation
By Kana Feng
Throughout human history, various frameworks have emerged aimed at categorizing individuals, ranging from the ancient practice of astrology to contemporary theories like blood type personality trait theory. These systems, rooted in different cultural and philosophical contexts, reflect humanity's enduring fascination with understanding and classifying human behavior and characteristics.
Despite their diverse origins, they share a common thread: the impulse to segment and classify people based on perceived traits. This enduring tradition underscores our innate desire to make sense of ourselves and others, seeking patterns and explanations to navigate the complexities of human existence.
For February’s Theme of the Month* meeting, W5er’s explored and shared answers to the 11 questions from Tim Farris’ book Tribe of Mentors.
For one of the questions, a fellow W5’er introduced her interest in Astrology and made this handy graphic of each W5er’s astrological sign:
Slide from W5’s Theme of The Month Deck
This reminded me of the Blood Type Personality Trait theory that’s been around in Japan since the early 20th century (when ABO blood group systems were first discovered) and popularized in the 1970s through several influential books.
The overall idea is that a person’s blood type (A/B/AB/O) is associated with certain personality traits (link info). It is a concept many in Japan believe to an extent and often a topic of conversation when getting to know one another, even among coworkers. Although there is a question of whether there are self-fulfilling prophecy effects at play, there does seem to be some truth to this theory in Japan.
Beyond this, there are countless examples of categorizing people in the wild—Age Ranges/Generations, Myers-Brigg personality types, Enneagrams, What Disney Princess are you via Buzzfeed Quizzes, etc.
Humans are fascinated with categorizing and segmenting humans as a way of making sense of the world and the people in it, and it’s no different in the world of marketing.
Segmentation in marketing research spaces comes in all shapes and sizes. Some segmentations are straightforward and based on demographics, while others are more complex and use statistical methods, based on a combination of demographics, psychographics, and behavior.
Whether astrology, blood types, or marketing research segmentation, the underlying principle is the same―understanding and categorizing similar groups of people to predict behavior and their preferences.
Here at W5, we’ve helped businesses conduct segmentations of all kinds and complexities. Understanding the segments that exist in the market and their preferences provide insight for marketing and product teams to effectively strategize and develop relationships with their key market segments.
Interested in learning more about W5’s Segmentation work? Check out this client-side interview where we discuss how Segmentation helped East Fork understand what drove purchase and loyalty among current customers and how to leverage those attributes to bring new customers to the East Fork family.
*Interested in seeing other Theme of the Month content? Check out these posts: