Smart product brands : the interrelation of smart products and buyer personality traits

The adoption of digital voice assistants, e.g., smart speakers, is a megatrend, and several brands are currently sharing the market. A key question for smart speaker providers is who the users are to derive successful marketing strategies. This study examines the personality structure of brand users and highlights the factor of age as a determinant of the potential use of smart speakers. Using data from an empirical discrete choice experiment, we estimate a mixed logit model and use respondents’ age and personality traits as inputs. While brand and price are the most influential determinants for the adoption of smart speakers, age and personality point to differences in the preferences for certain smart speaker brands. In a subsequent simulation study, we examine shifts of market shares in several age cohort-based markets when a relatively unknown but cheap brand enters an established market, thus highlighting the importance of age cohorts when developing successful marketing strategies for innovation product brands.