Psychographics: the alternative to traditional forms of
target marketing based on demographic segmentation, or put simply, the targeting
of what people do rather
than who they are.
Commonalities determine grouping of consumers: shared
affect, shared behaviours, and shared experiences. These are encompassed in
cultural attributes that influence how people respond to the environment around
them. Dive in.
Those who fear psychographics seem to out of some relentless
adherence to ‘traditional’ forms of communication, in which picturesque consumerist mascots are pieced together
from the scraps of buyers long past, first-world wet dreams just waiting to surrender
themselves entirely to the glory of the Brand™.
*ahem* Onto the point.
For the sake of simple categorisation and the distinctively
human tendency to prefer things in groups of three, we can think of
psychographics in three ways. There’s the driver
(or what motivates someone to do something), there’s the action itself, and there’s the reward.
Shared affect can be considered as the driver. It is how
people react to their immediate environment, which influences what they will do
in future. It’s the feeling of wanting
that people get that motivates them to do stuff. This is the simplest way to
determine collective desires.
Status, wealth, power, satiation, validation, reciprocity, and balls-to-the-wall fun are the most commonly shared desires.
Take status, for instance. Peoples’ immediate environment –
work, home, social contacts – may emphasise status as necessary for success or
acceptance. If people with such motivations buy within your category, the
question is: “how can my product give these people status?”
Shared behaviours are simple. It is the action itself. The
buying behaviour. The most useful thing that marketers can do here is consider
the steps people take to attain their desires. So, if we take our status
example, what do people who seek status typically do to attain it? Can these
steps be translated into the buying of the product?
Obviously, the goal is to make the action as easy as possible. There shouldn’t be
any obstacles whatsoever between the consumer and the product. If they want it,
there should be nothing stopping them from having it now.
Shared experiences are simpler yet. They are the endgame;
how people feel once they have attained their desires. Typically, with any
desire or product or behaviour or motivator there are only three possible
outcomes: satisfaction, dissatisfaction, or indifference.
Marketers will often frame such outcomes as hopeful
imaginings. It’s almost a war to see which company can make the grandest empty
promise. These are all but useless if they do not link back to the actual
buying behaviour.
Strip it back. People buy products with the hope that they
will receive a good product. Just
like people who desire status do so in the hope that they will become more
popular or better liked, or have a greater opinion of oneself. Whatever it is,
figure it out.
Show parallels between these two things. Create associations
between the desires consumers hope to satisfy and the steps that must be
taken in order to get to the thing that rewards them with such.
Affect, behaviours, and experiences are all wrapped up in
the bubbling, colourful mess of 3am stir-fry that is culture. Often, greater
attention is given to sub-cultures than the general culture. But it is the latter
that births the former, so why ignore it?
There are preconceptions
and stereotypes surrounding almost
every category. PC gaming is for nerds who have never touched a woman. Coffee
shops are chock full of hipsters. Cologne is bought by sleazy men who think
they’re hot shit. Anyone who owns a smart watch is quite obviously a raging
douchebag.
Identifying the preconceptions in whatever category you’re
selling from is a good first step, as these will influence how people react, consider,
and buy within it. Stereotypes influence how people react to the environment, creating
a shared affect and desire for things intangible. See how it cycles?
That is psychographics. Shared affect: drivers and desires.
Shared behaviours: the steps that consumers take to get them. Shared
experiences: what people hope to gain from doing so. And shared cultural
attributes: stereotypes of those who buy within the category.
Note that I wrote an entire blog post on psychographics
without using the words ‘emotion’, ‘connection’, or ‘engagement’. That’s no
accident.
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