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 Research yields insights into consumers’ attitudes
Want to know who your target market is and what they are thinking? Research is the way to find out. Consumer market research is generally primary or secondary. Secondary research is information compiled from other sources. It is relatively inexpensive, but may not directly apply to your area or situation. Primary research is original research. It often involves qualitative methods such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and observation, and quantitative methods such as survey questionnaires. Quantitative research deals in numbers, logic and the objective, while qualitative research deals in words, images and the subjective.
Before you can communicate with your target audience, you must first identify them. Classifying your audience by demographics alone provides  only a limited picture.
For example, here is one way to describe an audience demographically:
“White men, ages 34-55, who live in South Carolina.”
Psychographics studies and classifies people according to attitudes, lifestyles, beliefs and other psychological criteria.
Examine these two descriptions, with psychographics added to the demographics:
- “White men, ages 34-55, who live in South Carolina, are married with children, have a college degree, have a white-collar job, vote Republican, attend church, and drive a foreign car.”
- “White men, ages 34-55, who live in South Carolina, are divorced with children, have a high school education, have a blue collar job, vote Democrat, do not attend church, and drive an American pickup truck.”
While both audiences share the same demographics, you can see they are completely different when psychographics are taken into account. And more importantly, you cannot speak to these two audience segments the same way.
Market research can determine who your audience is and what they want. Semaphore conducts primary research for clients, using methods such as questionnaires, focus groups, and surveys. The agency recently conducted two focus groups for a client. The research identified the target audience segments, identified competitors, and determined consumers’ views of both the client and the competition. This information will be used to better reach the audience through advertising and other tactics. For more information about how market research can benefit you, contact Semaphore at 803-799-6464. |
