What does the brand of your car say about you? Quite often — about your character and your temperament, and this comes from market research. Which car brands interest sanguines, cholerics, melancholics and phlegmatics — and how do these preferences follow from psychoanalysis?
We will not keep the busiest of you waiting — the results are in the picture below.
How this data was arrived at, why it can be trusted and who uses it — all the details are in the long read.
I will not argue with the saying that "the best car is my car": you cannot always drive the car you would like. But you can always keep an eye on social media to see which makes and brands people like.
DataFuel, the company behind the study“A brand landing in a particular quadrant means that people with the traits of that quadrant tend to take an interest in it. It does not mean that people with different values do not buy the product”
And that is exactly what the study set out to look at:
DataFuelWe analysed the followers of the official pages of car brands on VKontakte, worked out their psycho-types from their behaviour on social media, and built a psychographic map of this market
We have been following the work of DataFuel for a long time, because out of 400+ personality typologies it:
- picked the part of typological theory that is recognised in academic circles and supported by many well-known authors working in psychotherapy
- ran a great many statistical market studies that confirm what psychoanalysis would lead you to expect, and
- these studies add mass-scale examples to our own material
By the way, quite a rich guide is building up: professions, hints on what to give as a present, favourite turns of phrase. Have a browse by clicking the topic buttons above the chart:
But let us get back to who chooses which car. And let us start with the research of another company — the one where it all began.
How introverts and extraverts read advertising differently
That car advertising for introverts and for extraverts has to be different was explained back in the day by Alexander Nix, the former boss of the legendary Cambridge Analytica, the firm caught up in Brexit and in Donald Trump's unexpected presidency.
Alexander Nix, at the time still the head of Cambridge Analytica, in a talk at the Online Marketing Rockstars Festival 2017if we knew that both of these people [the introvert and the extravert] were following the car market, we could use psychographics to target them and send them different messages
Nix showed (see the article “The five-factor model of personality, the Big Five. For Brexit and Trump”) that an introvert is more likely to be interested in socially minded products — an electric car, for instance. Introverts have to be convinced with rational arguments and facts, as in the picture below.
An extravert, according to Nix, responds to images that stir emotion — which easily ends in the purchase of a sports car.
How is temperament identified?
Cambridge Analytica used personal data from Facebook profiles to work out the dominant psycho-type of a target audience. In 2018 a series of scandals about Facebook selling information on 87 million profiles ended with Zuckerberg being questioned in the US Senate, with the bankruptcy of Cambridge Analytica and with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. The shop that studied the habits of temperaments closed on Facebook — but stayed open on VKontakte.
That shop on VKontakte is open to this day, and DataFuel does exactly this kind of work. In May 2021 DataFuel ran a study (vk.com/datafuel?z=photo-68884413_457239442) and found that:
Let me remind you that DataFuel's method splits users along two scales (which differ very little from the traditional, Jungian psychoanalytic ones):
- The new (the masculine principle, the active life position) or the familiar (the feminine principle, the passive life position)
- Emotion (extraversion) or logic (introversion)?
From this combination they derive four psycho-types: Pragmatists (Cholerics), Innovators (Sanguines), Conservatives (Phlegmatics), Romantics (Melancholics).
DataFuel's map of brand preferences looks like this, and below we will unpack it in psychoanalytic terms.
The brands sanguines prefer
Sanguines are mostly interested in:
- Fiat
- Suzuki
- Peugeot
- Honda
- Land Rover
- Ford
- Citroen
- Chevrolet
Let us recall that sanguines are active extraverts who draw attention to themselves, radiate emotion and avoid routine.
I think everyone will agree that Citroën has never made an ordinary car. Peugeot is a slightly more conservative make, but it too radiates something out of the ordinary. The analysis is rounded off by the temperament of the country of manufacture. These are French makes, and France is a narcissistic country, with a sanguine temperament.
I also remember my impressions of several Fiat models: convenient, everything done for people, flashy, out of the ordinary. Never mind that they break down — they are comfortable. Yes, this is Italy, baby! That Italians are emotional people is probably known to everyone!
Cars for cholerics
Cholerics are drawn to premium brands; 4 of the 7 brands are European.
- BMW Russia
- Audi
- Mercedes-Benz
- Jeep in Russia
- Lexus Russia
- Volvo Cars Russia
- Toyota Russia
Cholerics are decisive, active, hard-driving introverts. They know how things should be done — and they will run after everyone else to explain it.
No surprise, then, that all the main German brands ended up with the cholerics: BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz. Precise, simple, functional. Fast, built for autobahn speeds (cholerics are active, hard-driving types). And the only right colour for a BMW is black, like a tailcoat or a dinner jacket. Everything by the book.
Volkswagen deserves a separate mention. According to the study, VW leads on the number of followers AND sits in the centre of the psychographic plane. In other words, this brand can appeal equally to audiences with different values, characters and temperaments.
Brands for phlegmatics
Phlegmatics give their preference to mass-market brands, mostly Asian ones.
- Chery Russia
- Mitsubishi Motors Group
- ŠKODA Russia
- Geely
- Datsun on the Lada Granta platform
- LADA
Phlegmatics are stay-at-home introverts, and they rather like solitude.
Other people do not matter much to them, so a car that makes you a star brings a phlegmatic no inner benefit at all. Everything has to be simple and functional. If you had a browse through our guide above, you will have noticed that a snowmobile, a load of firewood or a chainsaw all work as presents for a phlegmatic. As the owner, so the car.
What melancholics love
Melancholics pay more attention to 4 brands
- Mazda Russia
- Kia Russia
- Renault Russia
- Nissan Russia
Melancholics, like sanguines, are extraverts. And like phlegmatics they are stay-at-home types: passive, tuned to friendship and to peaceful conversation over a cup of tea with the neighbours.
I remember noticing one thing about Renault while I was looking for a car: how well the colours were matched. Nothing personal about them, but the colour design comes in only three names and only in a harmonious combination.
But how do you find out your own temperament?
By the way, do you know your temperament?
If you are not sure, just take the test below
