Psychographic Segmentation

Psychographic Segmentation

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Segmentation, you may know means grouping of people. Psychographic segmentation likewise means a grouping of people based on the psychological traits that influence their consumption habits. Market research tools can allow analysts to conduct this form of segmentation easily. The segments of customers or consumers are based on their: social class, lifestyle, personality, interests, and so on.

Psychographic data can help you give your business a customer-centric image that is relevant for a brand in the market. Psychographic data can be considered the last piece to complete the set of a holistic view of customer’s purchase or consumption behavior. It is conducted by understanding “How” people think about your service and “What” they should buy to reach the “Why” the customer should appreciate your products/service. The psychographic survey takes into consideration the psychological journey of the customer.

To measure and predict these patterns the researchers fulfill some basic criteria such as:

  • What is the motivation behind customer’s thoughts?
  • What are the principles they follow?
  • What in fluencies them to make a decision?

Understanding customer’s demands and expectations play a major role in the marketing strategy. As a result, the data can be used as guidance to provide the market with products that are customer-oriented. 

Therefore, the belief of psychometric segmentation is that understanding the customers would help them to understand your brand.

For example, if a Chinese restaurant wants to open a branch they will have to take into consideration several factors. They need to conduct market research to consider the area with a better social circle, the food habit of the neighborhood people, and many more factors. They will put out a survey with questions beneficial for their strategy and then decide their business plan.

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Collection of Psychometric Segmentation Data

Psychometric data is challenging to collect because people are not always willing to tell you everything you want for research purposes. Moreover, you need to dig beyond the obvious data and read between the lines. You need deep insight to understand the psychological functioning of your customers.

There are several ways you can collect these data, some are listed below.

Survey:

  • This is the most common method used by all companies or organizations to understand their consumers. 
  • Open-ended questions help in surveys the most as they let customers answer freely. You can use these responses to group your customers and then take action on the suggestions. You can also use a Likert scale to gain data on your customer’s experience. Or, a Semantic differential scale to understand how your customers feel about certain services or concepts.

Third-Party

This method is quite tricky and may turn out expensive. Third-party implies that you take help from market research companies that can provide you customer data for your market. You can then use the information you require. There are two ways this method functions: focus group and customer interviews.

    • Focus Group: This includes a wide range of responses because the target of this survey consists of people from different backgrounds. The idea behind the focus group is that once a customer responds well to the object/service, they bring in more people with a similar choice.
    • Customer Interviews: These are discussions conducted with customers to collect relevant data based on their opinions. This helps create a balance because it gives you a picture of what right or wrong you are doing in your business.

Cookies

  •  Many websites use cookies to track a customer’s journey online. When a customer agrees to the cookie on a website it means they are giving permission to the website to access your personal information. A company can collect psychographic data by tracking the user’s journey and activity on social media, websites, online purchases, and other online platforms. 
  • The digital data obtained by this method gives a complete picture of the customer; who they are, what they do online, how much time they spent, their reviews, why they spent time online. This information helps a company build its online presence attractive enough to keep its customers visiting daily.
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Variables of Psychometric Segmentation

PsychographicSegmentation

Exploratory Research Guide

Conducting exploratory research seems tricky but an effective guide can help.

Customers have a special need and expectation from brands and these demands are based on a certain factor which affects their life. Companies use these factors to promote and capture the attention of their customers in the market. The following are the variables used for marketing strategies.

Personality:

  • Customer personality is believed to be strongly related to their purchase habit. Products and services can be catered to various personalities. Also, different concepts and surveys can be used to analyze different personalities. 
  • For instance, Mirror in 2018 began selling itself as an interactive home trainer. The workshop for the product advertised towards people with the personality of workout-lovers. The customers who can’t find time to go to the gym responded to this business strategy.

Lifestyle:

  • Understanding the kind of lifestyle your customers have from their social media activity or keeping track of the trends can help you create a strategy to attract your customers. Such development of products is more successful because they are created based on customer’s lifestyles.
  • For example, the “Yuppie Handbook” of the 80s was targeted towards young, urban, and working-class professionals who earned enough to spend on fashion over utility. 

Social Status:

  • Social status which is based on the income of one person often is the determining factor of their purchase behavior. Each social class has its choice of brands that they can afford. 
  • For example, a brand can aim for rich, upper-class people because their brand has a clear idea of who can afford them. High quality and high price become their brand image, with their audience being upper-class.

Interests:

  • The market observes the activities and interests enjoyed by the customers to create customer-centric products or services. Their opinions about a concept are factors that the companies or organization build their marketing strategies around.
  • For instance, digital communities are one such example of an interest group. You can find many sites dedicated to particular interests or activities focusing on customers who enjoy such options. You can find websites with movies, music videos, channels with video games, etc. all such websites target audiences who share the same interests.

Values:

  • Value is one such segment that catches the attention of the customers. You can track the values of your customers based on the data you have collected about their lifestyles, interest, social class, etc. 
  • More and more companies are targeting values related to the environment. Sustainable fashion, furniture, architecture are some examples that are now being advertised as a marketing strategy.

Examples of Psychographic Segmentation

Starbucks 

Starbucks uses psychographic segmentation while conducting market research as you can see the range of products they sell. For examples,

  • Frappuccinos and Sandwiches are catered for those who can’t drink coffee but can spend their time socializing in their stores. 
  • Top-quality beans to brew coffee for those customers who like their coffee of premium quality and have a high income. 

Starbucks advertises and appeals to their customers with a high success rate because they use psychographic segmentation. 

Foot Locker

  • Foot Locker uses the psychographic segment of Authority to track and appeal to its customers. The product badges of Foot Lockers are a stamp of approval that drives customer’s purchase behavior. 
  • They can use this behavior pattern of their customer who responds to Authority and implement it on their business strategy.
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See Voxco survey software in action with a Free demo.

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Advantages of Psychographic Segmentation

  • This market research tool can help you understand the psychological working of the customer’s behavior.
  • Segmentation depending on psychographic factors can help customize your business service and products.
  • The detailed insights from psychographic segmentation along with geographic and demographical segmentation give you a vividly clear picture of the customer’s attitude.
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