Branding

Psychographics and a Deeper Understanding of Consumer Behavior

Appropriate segmentation of the consumer market enables the manufacturers, sellers and retailers to target their products more accurately to the desired segments of the society. There are several bases on which the consumer market can be segmented, the most common of which are the following:

Demographic bases include: age, gender, ethnicity, occupation, marital status, family size, household income etc.
Geographic bases include: countries, regions, states etc.
Behavioral bases include: product knowledge and usage, individual attitudes and responses etc.
Psychographic bases include: lifestyle, interests & activities, values and attitudes, social class, personality etc.

Out of the above, psychographic segmentation is of much more importance to the marketers.

psychographics-definition image — psychographics definition

However, it is important to know both the demographic and psychographic information about your customers in order to target them effectively for marketing purposes. A combination of both the sets of data enables the marketers to form a detailed picture of the existing as well as future buyers of their products.

The Distinction between Demographic and Psychographic Information:

Demographics and psychographics are two distinct categories of information pertaining to the consumers. Whereas demographics relate to basic facts (such as buyer’s age, gender, marital status, income etc.) concerning the buyer; the psychographics relate specifically to the psychological factors that influence the buyer’s behavior (such as hobbies, habits, values and spending habits etc.).

Here is the sample demographic information about a Nutritional Counselor:

Gender: Female
Age: Between 40-60 years
Marital Status: Married two teenage children
Professional Information:
- Deals with issues of weight gain/loss, Diet and Diabetes,
- Energy drain, Hormonal imbalance etc.
Annual Household Income: £50,000

Following is the psychographic information concerning the same Nutritional Counselor mentioned above:

Concerned with health and personal appearance
Maintains a healthy lifestyle, though hard pressed for time
Finds greater fulfillment in devoting to her career and family
Spends much time online during the free time and in the evenings, specially on Facebook and other social networking sites
More concerned about the quality of the items that she buys, rather than their cost
Prefers to spend quality time with a small group of her friends

The examples given above illustrate the distinct type of information obtained from demographic and psychographic analyses. Demographics alone give a hazier outline about your target audience. It gives you some idea about the social segment to which the person belongs and about the challenges generally faced by the people belonging to such segment. However, the demographic information does not give you a fuller idea about what actually moves the person to take shopping decisions and to act on them. On the contrary, the psychographic information is much more insightful.

(Source: The Evolution of Data #infographic)

Ways of Obtaining Psychographic Information:

Following are two ways of obtaining psychographic information about your target audience:

Direct interviews with your existing clients/customers:

Depending on your relationship with the clients, you can ask them, directly or indirectly, about their personal interests and tastes; and what they usually do during the weekends and free time. If required, you can disclose the purpose of your enquiry.

Alternately, you can ask similar leading questions to persons known to you and who, you think, fit with your ideal clients/customers.

In case you want a larger sampling, you can send out a survey questionnaire to your customers. Generally your customers would be happy to cooperate and be honest in their submissions, if you are honest with them. They would respond happily if you tell them that you can serve them better if you understand them and their requirements fully well.

Investigating your website analytics

This is behind-the-scene method of obtaining the psychographics about your customers. This is done by investigating your customers’ interactions with your company’s website. It will reveal you the data concerning your customers’ interest in the content of your website and your special offers. It will reveal what moved your customers to click on any particular content of your website, and what moved them to call back or buy the items displayed or referenced on the website.

Applying Psychographics to Marketing

While getting psychographic data about your customers is important, the meaningful application of the insightful data to your marketing techniques is what matters most and makes it really effective.
Once you understand what motivates the customers to buy, you will have to provide exactly what the customers want. Simply providing deep discounts would not persuade the customer to buy the items they do not need or in which they do not have any interest.
Thus psychographic information about your customers can be used in various ways to personalize your marketing techniques.