Understanding consumer psychographics

Consumer psychographics in a nutshell

Consumer psychographics is a combination of marketing and psychology, designed to determine the "why" behind consumer decision-making. Psychographics seeks to understand the cognitive characteristics that affect consumer behaviour, such as their fundamental attitudes, personality traits, interests, beliefs, values, and lifestyle.

By understanding consumer psychographics, marketers can segment their audience more accurately and develop targeted campaigns that appeal to their audience's specific needs and desires. Ultimately, consumer psychographics is a powerful tool for businesses to connect with their target audience and increase leads and sales.

Psychographic profiling

One widely accepted model for determining personality traits and building customer profiles is the OCEAN (or "Big 5") model. This model looks at five key personality indicators and to what degree these traits represent each customer:

• Openness – Willingness to try new things, open to new ideas or experiences, intellectual curiosity, creativity and desiring adventure.
• Continuousness – Tending to be self-disciplined, goal-oriented, proactive in decision-making, hard-working and ambitious.
• Extraversion – Seeking social interaction and stimulation, talkativeness and assertion in social settings, excitability.
• Agreeableness – Showing concern and empathy for others, cooperative and friendly,trusting, and non-judgemental.
• Neuroticism – A susceptibility to mood swings, emotional instability, and self-destructive thinking. Traits of pessimism and fearfulness.

Once profiled, marketers can cluster customers into groups (or typologies) of people who have similar traits and, in turn, similar purchase decision-making indicators.

Psychographic segmentation

Segmenting an audience is key to any successful marketing campaign. By grouping people with similar characteristics, marketers can more easily target their message and achieve better results.

There are four recognized types of segmentation: geographic, demographic, behavioural and psychographic. Each has its benefits, but only psychographics considers why consumers make decisions.

It is common for marketers to combine several layers of segmentation to gain a more holistic understanding of their consumers and deliver a more tailored message. For example, a campaign might combine location, marital status, ethical values and social standing to increase its chances of success.

Understand your customers at a deeper level with psychographic segmentation

How is psychographic data collected?

Psychographic data can be collected using traditional methods such as quizzes or surveys, interviews, analytics, or data provided by 3rd party companies.

With the emergence of AI and machine learning technologies, it is now possible to collect psychographic data from websites, online platforms, mobile applications and social media interactions via sophisticated algorithms and predictive models.

Such tools allow us to understand and predict individuals' unique consumption preferences based on what motivates them psychologically and emotionally and advertise products or services more effectively through personalized marketing campaigns.

Practical applications of psychographic segmentation:

Create relevant content
Whether for your website, social media platforms or ad creatives, your design, imagery, and written content should closely reflect the findings from your psychographic analysis. Building campaigns that target your primary audience segments will deliver a better user experience and a higher ROI (return on investment).

Harmonize your SMS & email marketing
Simple changes to email templates and SMS messaging, specific to each audience segment, can transform your marketing campaign from guesswork into a psychographic strategy that captivates your customers. For example, suppose you know that your high-value customer is health-conscious and cares about social responsibility. In that case, you can target them with ads for organic products or eco-friendly initiatives.

Exceed customer expectations
Collecting psychographic data can also help you see where your company falls short of your desired audience's expectations. Identifying these gaps allows you to refine your product offering or service to be more attractive to your target audience.

Advantages of psychographic segmentation.

By understanding what motivates your target audience, you can more effectively craft your message and create a deeper connection. In addition, psychographic segmentation can help businesses identify gaps in their marketing strategies and product offerings.

Overall, the use of consumer psychographics for audience segmentation allows businesses to:

• Improve marketing spend efficiency and ROI (return on investment).
• Improve customer experience and increase visitor engagement.
• Increase revenue by aligning products and services to high-value customers.
• Increase customer loyalty through refined brand interactions.

In today's competitive marketplace, psychographic profiling can give your business the edge it needs to succeed.