Psychographics: Your Key to Better ROI

A marketer’s job is to segment a population to better target a message or idea, thus increasing return on investment. One way they do this is through demographics. Demographics provide a marketer with segmentation on the foundation of gender, age, education, occupation, income, marital status or ethnic background (Kardes, Frank R.; “Consumer Behavior and Managerial Decision Making,” 1999).

Another method is by geographics. Geographics allows the marketer to segment by boundaries (eg., cultural attitudes between those who live in the north or south (Kardes, Frank)).

However, neither method provides a full picture of the consumer. That is where psychographics comes in. Psychographics segments consumers by lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs and characteristics (Shimp, Terrence A.; “Advertising, Promotion, and Supplemental Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications,” 1997).

What it is

Psychographics is the study and analysis of the social group, which can be used to assist in the design, creation and use of more effective communication tools. “It helps us understand who we are communicating to – what they might respond to positively or negatively, where their psychological, emotional and even spiritual switches may be found, according to their ‘values’ and ‘lifestyles.’ We can use it to help us anticipate the psychological response of specific individuals or audiences to just about anything” (Finkleman, Harold; “Psychographics,” 1997).

The key to success is in understanding each of these groups and their relationship with different components. If you were starting a campaign that needs to reach several of the personality types, the information gained from psychographics allows you to find certain colors that have a positive component for some groups, negative to others and neutral to others.

You may also want to examine your message components – words, colors, shapes, symbols, textures, sizes, etc. – to ensure you have at least one or more positive components for each group. Psychographics would also allow the marketer to find the right mixes of media to reach the targeted consumers.

What are you?

It is easy to assume that we know and understand the characteristics of our consumers, but do we really know? Take a few minutes to take the VALS™ survey to see where you would fit within the psychographic segmentation. You may be surprised at your own attitudes. Click here to take the survey:
www.sric-bi.com/VALS/presurvey.shtml