A road map to marketing to the neurotic, conscientious, agreeable et al.

A study by Peter J. Renfro, Samuel D. Gosling and Jeff Potter takes a fascinating look at geographical variations in personality traits. The possibilities for marketers are obvious–for starters, different versions of communications for different parts of the country based on what we know about the “Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness” of the people who live there. Frankly, it’s also just worth a look just to see if the author’s findings match up with your pre-conceived notions of what people are like in different states. Louisiana, for instance, turns out to be one of the ten most neurotic states. So much for laissez les bon temps rouler.

You can get the full study here and the Cliff’s Notes version here.