As consumer researchers we are all probably pleased about some of the recent progress in the area of understanding and researching consumers. A variety of approaches and methodologies are now available that examine the consumer from every conceivable angle. To my mind, however, no approach has been more enigmatic or has been held with such high expectations as that of personality research borrowed from the field of psychology.

The whole concept of personality and its relationship to how consumers respond has always had a lot of intuitive appeal to consumer researchers. If—as this feeling goes—we can only isolate and understand the basic driving force that predisposes consumers to act in certain ways, and personality traits must be one of those driving forces, then our jobs, of course, could be made much easier.