It is not always true that people belonging to the same socioeconomic or behavioural group will belong to the same psychographic group.
Marketing professionals seek to fully understand who their audience is and what motivates them. However, relying solely on demographics and behaviours alone does not provide the complete picture.
A sharper focus relies on tapping into consumer insights about why people behave the way they do, both regarding brands and purchases, and in their everyday lives.
In this article, we explore how psychographics make it easier for marketers to deliver brands, products, and messages that have real impact.
What is Psychographic research ?
Psychographics research also known as attitudinal research is the study of consumers based on their activities, interests, and opinions (AIOs).
It aims to understand the cognitive factors that influence consumer behaviour. And by gathering and analysing this data, marketing professionals and researchers can build detailed “psychographic profiles” of audience segments, enabling relevant messaging to be tailored to their needs.
Consumers are incredibly idiosyncratic and complex, so the need for depth and accuracy is key when it comes to your psychographic research. The availability of consumer data now makes it possible to pinpoint these attributes and combine them to determine whether consumers will engage with a brand or purchase a product.
In marketing, psychographics are used in tandem with demographics to understand and market to consumers’ purchasing habits.
But put as simply as possible, here’s how they differ:
Demographics gives marketers an idea of who the buyer is through dividing your market into broad strokes.
However, psychographics give marketers more power in influencing conversions through their marketing message. Demographic information, for instance, might reveal a person’s age. It is however probable that psychographic information will tell you that the person has just started a family and is in the market for baby products now.
In many cases, consumers are guided by their subjective perceptions and attitudes when making a purchase decision. Psychographics examine an in-depth aspect of the buying process in greater detail.
A combination of demographic and psychographic information, informs your buyer persona, a thorough image of the audience you serve today and would like to serve in the future.
Knowing both helps you to better segment your audience, target the right consumers, and position your product in marketing campaigns.
Psychographic Profiling
A psychographic profile is a unique description of an individual’s or group’s attitudes, habits, and interests. It is a set of consumer beliefs and behaviors that indicate who would be most receptive to your company’s offering.
Because consumers frequently base their decisions on psychographic aspects such as personal preferences or values, psychographic profiling can be quite effective. Understanding your audience’s psychological characteristics can considerably improve your outreach strategies and advertising approach, allowing you to establish an overall emotionally attractive brand.
Lets develop a very basic demographic and psychographic profile based on what we know about the ideal consumer for a nutritional advisor.
Demographic Profile:
- Single
- Female
- No children
- Aged 30–40
- Black
- Household income $500k
Psychographic Profile:
- Dealing with issues of unintended weight gain, diabetes, lack of energy, and hormonal imbalances
- Loves a good drink
- Wants a healthier lifestyle
- Enjoys dinner and is a big fan of YouTube
- Tends to favour quality over quantity
- Finds fulfilment in her career and self-care.
- Values time with a small group of friends and alone time.
Using only demographics, you get a very blurry picture of your audience — you understand their problems, but not where to locate them or what truly motivates them to act. Using psychographics provides far more insight.
DATA
Psychographic data reveals why a consumer might buy your product, allowing you to build marketing efforts that specifically target them.
Quantitative vs. qualitative
When psychographic data is properly quantified, it can be significantly more subjective and nuanced than traditional research.
Market surveys are one of the most straightforward, dependable, and effective methods of gathering psychographic data. You can ask thousands of consumers the same questions about themselves in this manner, and you’ll have a valid set of responses from which to draw the right insights to reach your target market.
Active vs. passive data
Active data is information that is readily and consciously provided by a person (think surveys). Online tracking technology collects passive data (think analytics). Neither discloses the identity of Active data is information that is readily and consciously provided by a person (think surveys). Online tracking technology collects passive data (think analytics). Neither reveals the person in question’s identity.
Demographic and behavioural data can be gathered passively, but psychographic data must be gathered actively. To get a complete picture, they must be combined.
After gathering active data, it can be combined with passive data sources to reveal hidden truths about your audience and assist you in building a strong marketing strategy.
Adopting psychographic research into your strategy
Every brand is being tasked with developing more “consumer-centric” models. Simply put, they must prioritise people over their products or services.
To get this right, brands must rely on deep data into the psyche of the target market they are attempting to reach.
Here are 6 ways to achieve this:
We’ve collected some hypothetical data using the techniques described in the previous section, so let’s put it to use in our marketing strategy.
- Motivate your buyer according to their needs.
You now know what matters to your buyer, so you’ll know exactly how to motivate them. You will provide them with the information they require to make a purchasing decision.
Offering steep discounts will not sway them. They want to know that your nutritional counselling service has helped others. They also want to know that it will improve their health without requiring a significant time investment. To appeal to them, you will highlight customer testimonials in your campaign.
2. Create accurate personas
A convincing persona brings your customer to life. It also pays to build your real-world picture of your audience on facts.
They’ll provide you with the passion points, purchasing motivators, lifestyle indicators, and desires relevant to each persona you need to design a brand and message that resonates with consumer behaviour.
3. Invest in the right channels
You may be aware that your customers are avid social media users, but you have no idea what they use it for. Understanding why people utilise it can provide you with critical insight into the type of marketing campaign or plan that will truly cut through.
Based on this recent social media report, the number of customers using TikTok monthly has increased by 32%, but short form content isn’t the only way to reach your target audience.
Longer videos of more than 20 minutes are also gaining popularity, with 89% of millennials and 93% of Gen Z interested in how-to videos and vlogs.
These are the kinds of data points you need to ensure that a campaign is a direct hit.
4. Tell emotionally compelling stories
Consumers expect brands to provide a more customized experience, and one crucial component of this is the ability to create experiences that they will engage with.
You may turn a prospect into a customer more cost-effectively if you understand the personality traits and intricacies of specific groups.
Understanding more about their hobbies and interests will help you decide what to blog about and which images to use in your next ad. If your target client enjoys baking, you should include healthy baking recipes on media channels they visit regularly.
5. Modify your brand’s and product’s strategies
Psychographics should play an important part in guiding the overall direction of a brand.
Knowing what your target audience wants emotionally from your brand and its products allows you to craft a cohesive message and offer your brand a unified feeling of purpose.
6. Include a personalised call to action.
Finally, you’ll include a customised call to action that speaks to your target buyer’s requirements, objectives, interests, and values. “Your path to a healthy living begins here — click here to begin,” you may add at the end of your ad.
You may combine that with an image of the person your target buyer aspires to be. That person could be a healthier older version of themselves, someone who has time to do what they enjoy, or someone with a well-defined physique. The image you select will be determined by the psychographic profile you’ve developed for your target buyer.
Personality traits, lifecycle stage, interests, attitudes or views, and activities are the most popular psychographics. Marketers could also differentiate between consumer groups based on their purchasing preferences, socioeconomic class, and other factors.
Personality traits:
Who is your ideal customer? How would you describe your target buyer? Do they research a product extensively before buying it? Is it more likely that they take risks and try something new? It is helpful to understand the personality characteristics of your target buyer to help you craft verbiage that will appeal to them specifically.
Lifecycle :
The key is to understand where your target customer is in their purchasing lifecycle. Have you introduced the product or potential solution to your target buyer yet? Are they in contact with your company?
By knowing the buyer’s lifecycle stage, you can determine which marketing channels are best for your business. Google ads or organic content strategies can reach people who aren’t even aware of their problems.
Interests:
What interests your target buyer? When you appeal to those interests in your marketing campaign, you are much more likely to gain their attention.
It is not always the case that interests align with activities. It might be that your target buyer is interested in travelling, but in reality they don’t feel confident enough to travel on their own. You can also explore other interests, such as fashion, pet care, and sustainability.
Attitudes or beliefs:
How does your target buyer see the world? You can determine how your target buyer sees the world by their attitudes or beliefs. If you understand the views your buyer holds, you can craft a campaign that will resonate with them rather than alienate them.
Activities:
How your buyer spends his or her free time. Are they fond of spending time on Instagram to decompress? Are they more likely to watch the latest Netflix series? On the weekends, do they spend time outdoors or in art galleries? Consumer activities can tell you about the things they’ve already invested time, money, and resources in.
You can appeal specifically to your target buyer by learning their psychographic profile. With a better marketing channel, better imagery, or better wording, your buyer will be able to visualize themselves using your product. This will increase the ROI from your marketing campaigns by generating more qualified leads than you expected.
