소비자 구매행동은 혈액형과 연관이 있는가? (Blood Type and Consumer Behavior: Fact or Fiction?)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국소비자학회
· 수록지 정보 : 소비자학연구 / 23권 / 2호 / 107 ~ 134페이지
· 저자명 : 석관호, 구지은

초록

소비자의 혈액형에 따라 시장을 세분화하거나 제품을 추천하는 혈액형 마케팅이 빈번히 사용되고 있다. 본 연구는 이와 같은 혈액형 마케팅이 과학적인 사실에 바탕을 두고 있는 지를 검증하고자 하며, 이를 위해 소비자 구매결정 과정에 영향을 미치는 개인의 소비행동 특성변수에 초점을 맞추어 해당 변수가 혈액형과 관련이 있는 지를 연구하고자 한다.
소비자 행동 연구에 따르면 소비자 구매결정은 총 5개의 단계로 구성되는데, 욕구의 인지. 정보탐색, 대안의 평가, 구매, 구매 후 행동으로 이루어진다. 소비자 개인의 특성변수는 (1) 소비자 구매결정 각 단계와 관련성이 있는지, (2) 혈액형에 대한 특성을 반영할 수 있는 지를 기준으로 선택되었다. 그 결과 욕구 인지 단계에서는 소비자의독특성 욕구(need for uniqueness), 정보 탐색 단계에서는 인지 욕구(need for cognition), 대안 평가 단계에서는 위험추구(risk taking) 성향, 구매 단계에서는 충동구매(impulse purchase) 성향, 구매 후 행동 단계에서는불평행동(complaining behavior)이 개인 특성변수로 선정되었다.
사전조사에서는 혈액형별 성격과 혈액형별 소비행동의 특징에 대한 지식, 그에 대한 믿음을 측정하였다. 그 결과,혈액형과 성격 간의 관계에 대해서는 대부분의 응답자들이 알고 있으며, 절반 이상의 응답자가 실제로 두 변수간의관련성을 믿고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 혈액형과 소비행동 간의 관계에 대한 지식이나 믿음은 상대적으로 약하지만27%의 응답자가 혈액형과 소비행동 특성간의 관련성에 대해 보통이상으로 인지하고, 37%의 응답자가 혈액형과소비행동 특성의 관련성에 대해 보통 이상의 믿음을 가지고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 사전조사에서는 또한 독특성 욕구, 인지욕구, 위험추구 성향, 충동구매 성향, 불평행동과 같은 소비행동이 어떤 혈액형에서 가장 많이 나타날 지에대한 믿음(lay belief)을 측정하였다. 그 결과 응답자들은 각각의 혈액형이 특정 소비행동과 밀접히 연관되어 있음을 강하게 믿고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 구체적으로는 AB형은 독특성 욕구가, A형은 인지욕구가, B형의 경우 위험추구 성향, 충동구매 성향, 불평행동이 두드러질 것이라 믿고 있었다.
첫 번째 실증 연구에서는 대학생들을 대상으로 앞서 선정한 개인의 다섯 가지 소비행동 특성변수를 측정하였다.
분석 결과, 혈액형은 소비행동 특성변수와 관계가 없는 것으로 나타났다. 다섯 개의 소비자 개인 특성변수 모두 혈액형에 따른 차이를 보이지 않았으며, 이는 혈액형과 소비행동 간에 유의미한 관계가 없음을 나타내는 결과라 볼수 있다.
두 번째 실증 연구에서는 독특성 욕구, 인지 욕구, 위험 추구 성향, 충동구매 성향을 자기 보고(self-report)가아닌 다양한 선택 상황에서의 소비자 의사결정을 통해 측정하였다. 그 결과, 첫 번째 연구와 마찬가지로 혈액형에따른 차이를 보이지 않았다. 본 연구의 결과들은 일반적인 믿음과는 달리 혈액형과 소비행동 간에는 유의한 관계가없음을 보여주었다.

영어초록

Market segmentation and product differentiation based on consumers' blood type is frequently practiced in Korea. For example, a fusion bar recommends different side dish menus to consumers with different blood type. This research investigates whether the blood type marketing is grounded by scientific evidence showing consumers behavior is related to blood type.
This research examines associations between blood type and five dimensions of consumer behavior characeristics that are related to consumer buying decision process. Research on consumer behavior has suggested that consumer decision making consists of five sequential decision stages: Need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase,and postpurchase behavior. We selected five consumer behavior characteristic variables that are related to each stage of the decision making process and are supposedly related to lay beliefs about the characteristics of blood type. Specifically, we selected need for uniqueness (need recognition), need for cognition (information search), risk taking (evaluation of alternatives),impulse buying (purchase), and complaining behavior (postpurchase behavior) that represent the buying decision process. This research examined whether the five consumer behavior measures are related to blood type.
A pretest explored university stduents’ knowledge and beliefs about the relationship between blood type and personality and the relationship between blood type and consumer behavior.
Respondents were well aware of the personality characteristics of each blood type and more than half of the respondents believed that personality and blood type are related. Beliefs and knowledge about the relationship between blood type and consumer behavior were weaker compared with those of the relationship between blood type and personality. We also measured lay beliefs about which blood type consumer is most likely to be related to need for uniqueness,need for cognition, risk taking, impulse buying, and complaining behavior. The results showed that the respondents have strong lay beliefs about the association between blood type and specific consumer behaviors. Respondents believed that need for uniqueness is most strongly related to blood type AB and be weakly related to blood type A or O. Need for cognition is strongly related to blood type A, but weakly related to other types. Consumers with blood type B are believed to be most likely to seek risk, buy with impulse, and complain after experiencing dissatisfaction. In sum, these findings suggest that people have stereotypes of blood type with respect to certain dimensions of consumer behavior.
Study 1 examined the relationship between respondents’ blood types and the five dimensions consumer behavior characteristics. In the study, respondents self reported their consumer behavior traits such as need for uniqueness, need for cognition, risk taking, impulse buying,and complaining behavior. We also manipulated the order in which ABO blood type is measured.
In the ABO first condition, blood type was measured before measuring the five consumer behavior traits. In the ABO last condition, blood type was measured after the five consumer behavior measures. It was expected that, as gender stereotypes, measuring blood types first should activate blood type stereotypes, resulting in greater differences across blood types. The results of study 1 showed that blood type is not related to consumer behavior. For all the five consumer behavior measures, we found no significant differences across the consumers with different blood types. In addition, activation of blood type stereotype did not change the result. The findings of this study indicate that there is no significant relationship between blood type and individual difference characericists of consumption behavior. One shortcoming of Study 1 is that consumer behavior characteristics were measured by self-reports, which may not reflect actual consumer decisions. Therefore, we conducted Study 2Study 2 further examined whether blood type is related to various consumer decisions that are related to need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, and purchase.
Specifically we tested the relationship between consumers’ blood type and purchase of unique options (i.e., need for uniqueness), decision making time (i.e., need for cognition), choice of risky option (i.e., risk taking), and impulse buying intention (impulse buying). Specifically we tested whether respondents’ blood types were reslated to various consumer decision makings such as the extent to choose unique versus ordinary choice options, the amount of time taken to search for product information before making choice decisions, the likelihood of choosing risky over safe options, and their willingness to buy without planning in a given purchase situation.
The results showed that blood type was not significantly related to these consumer decision makings In sum, the results of the current research demonstrate that consumers’ blood types are not strongly related to consumer behavior, contrary to some beliefs that blood types are related to certain types of consumer behavior. However, future research using different methods (e.g.,analyzing shopping data of different blood types) should present more compelling evidence regarding the association between blood type and consumer behavior. Another direction for future research is to test the influence of blood type marketing on consumer perception, attitude,and purchase behavior.

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