Collecting Benefits

Thanks to TV shows like Hoarders, collecting is often associated with compulsion, eccentricity, and even mental illness. But collecting is actually a widespread human behavior driven by our deepest emotional needs, says new research by Assistant Professor Ellen Evers and William Ryan, PhD 25, forthcoming in The Journal of the Association of Consumer Research. 

Their findings can help marketers better influence a significant portion of the population. “We discovered nearly a third of people maintain collections,” says Evers. “They are actually people using pretty reasonable strategies to make sense of their lives and remember things they really care about.”

Collectors’ personality traits—including extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—largely mirrored the general populace with one exception: Collectors ranked higher on openness to new experiences. That tracked with why hobbyists collect, which was much less about status, mastery, or materialism and more about a desire to capture emotional memories through objects. Other reasons included connecting with one’s heritage as well as an aesthetic appreciation of the objects. 

The results suggest that companies marketing products should understand how objects create an emotional connection. For example, they can link certain accomplishments to new items, like how video games unlock merchandise when players complete a level. 

Organizations can prime the pump by offering items for free, such as the National Park Service offering a promotional keychain at one location that inspires visitors to acquire others. “You give away one item,” Ryan says, “and people realize it’s helping them store memories. That might be a great way to get them to keep collecting.”

The data also shows that collections naturally evolve, so having multiple items to collect might encourage that growth. Consistency also matters, as Evers found with her own habit of collecting Starbucks mugs from cities she visited—which came to an abrupt end. “I had 30 mugs, and then they changed the design, and I was done,” she says.

Above all, the researchers say, it’s important for marketers to think less about who collects and more about why they do it. 

“Rather than seek out this small, niche group of collectors to target, our research suggests it’s more about looking for circumstances that motivate people to collect these memories,” Ryan says.