The iconic series of television commercials pitting personifications of Macs and PCs against each other imprinted in the public mind an image of Apple as a company for young, cool, hipsters. By contrast, the PC persona was embodied by a traditional, straight-laced, fuddy-duddy character. Microsoft later counterpunched with commercials representing PC users as creative and spontaneous. Marketers seek to position brands with appealing attributes in the hope that consumers will select these brands to feel better about themselves merely by association.
A recent series of commercials for Samsung turned the tables on Apple by parodying the social phenomenon of waiting in line to buy the latest iPhone. While a group of young people wait expectantly for the doors to open, a young man on the line is joined by his parents, thus casting Apple in the unfamiliar role of being out of step with a younger demographic.
Efforts to understand the underlying motives that attract consumers to particular brands began in the 1940s as motivational researchers turned to psychological theorists and sociological analysis of social class distinctions in order to better understand consumer behavior. These early efforts were chronicled by Vance Packard in his landmark 1957 book, The Hidden Persuaders. Packard argued that many consumers are influenced and manipulated “far more than we realize” by persuaders seeking to exploit hidden motives and desires. Packard quoted the early motivational researcher Ernst Dichter who had famously remarked that marketers of women's shoes shouldn't focus on selling shoes, but rather, on selling "lovely feet."
Although some purchase decisions are guided by a clear-headed evaluation of product features and costs, others are influenced to varying degrees by subtle cues that appeal to the subconscious mind and trigger automatic associations we are only now beginning to understand. Armed today with more sophisticated means of probing these automatic associations or implicit attitudes, such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT), marketing researchers are plumbing the depths of the subconscious mind of consumers. Research on automatic processing suggests we are conscious beings but are not consciously aware of everything we do or the reasons we buy what we buy. After all, why do millions of iPads and iPhones fly off the shelves in the first few weeks after they are released, even if less expensive devices perform essentially the same functions?
Are purchase decisions driven more by marketers pressing unconscious buttons than by the inherent value of the products themselves?
In our lab we tested whether Mac and PC owners implicitly identified more with the brand of the computer they owned than with the competing brand. We also examined personality differences between Mac users and PC owners.
Our sample consisted of 108 college-age undergraduate students at St. John's University in New York. These students had earlier purchased either a PC (Thinkpad) or a Mac laptop computer upon entry to college as a part of a laptop distribution program. We tested implicit identification using the IAT, a widely used measure of automatic associations. The test measures differences in reaction times to particular stimuli (for example, reaction times to images of Macs and PCs) when these stimuli are paired with either positive or negative evaluative categories or self or other categories. We also tested differences between Mac and PC on the five major traits that comprise the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality: extraversion, agreeableness (friendliness), neuroticism (emotional stability), openness to new experiences, and conscientiousness.
As reported in a recent issue of the journal, Psychology & Marketing, we found no distinguishable differences in personality traits between PC and Mac owners. However, we did find an "I'm a Mac" effect, as Mac owners implicitly identified more strongly with Macs than PCs and showed more positive implicit preferences for Macs. It also turned out that PC owners implicitly identified more with Macs, but to a much lesser extent than Mac owners.
Coolness and hipness of Macs appears to have permeated the psyches of both Mac and PC owners. Although PC owners did not implicitly identify with PCs, they rated PCs higher than Macs on factors such as reliability, good features, and ease of use. Apparently you don't have to identify with a consumer product to find it useful.
Many factors contribute to purchase decisions, including pricing, reviews, and perceived usability or utility. But some product choices may be influenced by subtle cues that evoke youthful appeal or other desirable characteristics, perhaps because of an underlying belief that these attributes will "rub off" on users, making them seem cool, hip, or attractive. It is possible that automatic processing may be a stronger influence than evaluative processing in impulse buying situations in which consumers make quick or pressured decisions based on gut level reactions than careful analysis. Marketers are only beginning to crack the surface of implicit processes.
The study of automatic processes is still in its infancy. These techniques open a window for exploring consumer attitudes at a deeper level than is possible with more direct means of questioning. With implicit techniques, we can measure just how much we consumers are influenced by subtle cues in advertising. We can test how well the deodorant you use measures up on a measure of implicit freshness or whether people automatically link qualities such as taste and healthfulness to foods served at particular fast food restaurants. We might also pose questions about our own sense of self, such as whether we unconsciously identify with qualities associated with consumer products we use. It may not be the case that "I'm a Mac," but rather, that my Mac is me—at least a cool, hip, idealized "me" or the "me" that perhaps I'd like to be.