Understanding your customers is the single most important factor contributing to your brand’s success. As marketers, we’re always on the lookout for ways we can more deeply understand and relate to people. We get to know people based on demographics, geographics, and psychographics—but we’ve stumbled upon another interesting way to get to know your customers: psychogeometrics.

Psychogeometrics is a theory that was developed by Dr. Susan Dellinger in 1978. It centers around 4 shapes, and each shape describes a particular way people communicate with the world—from how one interacts with others, to career choices, choosing friends, dealing with stress, and making decisions.

Pick one of the following shapes

Don’t think about it, just select the one you’re immediately drawn to.

Ok. Got your shape?

Let’s see if it describes you. Take a look at the characteristics below—and don’t forget to share your shape with us on social media!

Circles are the social butterflies and best communicators of the shapes. In advertising, these are the people who really need to connect to the emotion and humanity of your material.

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Really care about others, about all people

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Will do whatever it takes to make co-workers, friends, family happy

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Smooth the waters and keep the peace

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Interested in interpersonal relationships; “read” others well

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Best communicators and listeners of all shapes

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Excellent “people” problem solvers and team players

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Holistic thinkers

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Positive Traits

Friendly, nurturing, persuasive, empathetic, generous, stabilizing, reflective

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Negative Traits

Over-personal, melancholy, manipulative, gossipy, self-blaming, apolitical, indecisive

Personal Habits

Communicates face-to-face, easygoing, joiner, often in charge of social events, prefer small groups, old-fashioned and sentimental, complimentary, neatness not a priority, artistic, reader, loves to fix things

Squares are the most detail-oriented of the shapes. These are the folks who are going to want to read every nitty-gritty detail about your product or service.

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Hard worker, determined to get the job done

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Most structured of all shapes

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Emphasize organization and logic

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Need life to be predictable; everything in the right place at the right time

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Very detail oriented (almost compulsive)

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Excel when instructions and requirements are clear

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Better at following a plan than designing one

P

Postive Traits

Organized, detail-oriented, knowledgeable, analytical, persevering, perfectionist, patient

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Negative Traits

Meticulous, anal retentive, procrastinates, cool or aloof, resistant to change, loner, complains

Personal Habits

Love routines, lists, calendars, likes tangible things (i.e., put it in writing), promptness, neatness, cleanliness, precision, attention to detail, social loner

Squiggles tend to be the creative type. They’ll get the job done—but they want to have fun while doing it.

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Symbolic of creativity; most unique of all shapes because it has no closure

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More configural when processing information

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Able to produce truly great and new ideas

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Challenge the status quo

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Future oriented; more interested in possibilities than reality

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Excitable; energized by change

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Uninterested in details, facts, figures

P

Postive Traits

Think outside the box; optimistic; energizing

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Negative Traits

Hard to “nail down;” will be off to other activities; doesn’t pay attention to details

Personal Habits

Fast mover; interrupts a lot; loses things; daydreams constantly; seeks stimulation; enjoys new people and new situations; rebel; life of a party; spontaneous; will talk to anyone

You’ll usually find triangles in leadership roles. These are the thirty-thousand foot view thinkers, so when it comes to marketing, it’s best to reach out to them through headlines and bullet points.

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Ambitious and focused toward the top

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Leaders

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Very competitive

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Loves to make decisions for self and others

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Able to focus on the goal of the moment

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Needs to be seen as “right” by others; has trouble admitting mistakes

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Movers and shakers, best politicians

P

Postive Traits

Leader, focused, decisive, ambitious, competitive, athletic

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Negative Traits

Self-centered, overloaded, dogmatic, status oriented, political, driven

Personal Habits

Early arriver, good “scooper” of situations, fidgety, interrupter, power handshake, game player, informed, good problem solver, prefers small groups

It seems that the shape people identify with the most typically identifies their communication style pretty accurately, but if you would like to take the test developed by Dr. Dellinger, visit this link.

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