Skip to content
iQ 360
An integrated communications agency
360
  • Home
  • Our Work
  • Capabilities
  • About
  • Join Us
  • Blog
  • Contact
We build + protect reputations

Psychographic Segmentation Can Smarten up Your Marketing

09.21.22 | by iQ Staff
  • Share via
Digital
  • Share via

Marketers traditionally rely on geographic and demographic breakdown to define their target audiences. However, relying solely on these methods can leave you with over-broad, and thus less effective, targeting.

Another dimension, known as psychographics, helps to target audiences with additional precision by incorporating individual preferences and habits into the customer profile. Psychographics look at what influences buying behaviors, such as beliefs, values, lifestyle, social status, opinions and activities.

Trying to reach large, diverse markets often fails to connect and convert customers because the data is superficial. Marketers can now understand their customers on a deeper level and use that knowledge to identify segments they can serve effectively.

 

Leveraging psychographic segmentation

Using personality traits can help narrow the focus and increase return on ad spend (ROAS) by identifying the best channels to deliver ads, position a product effectively, and craft messages that stick. Research shows that psychographic, combined with demographic segmentation, yields strong results.

 

Why it works

We’re inundated with marketing messages all day long. Thousands of stimuli demand our attention. To cope, the human brain attempts to organize and interpret information through selective perception, in which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world. Nuanced targeting that customizes messages and delivery modes according to unique personalities is the way of the future.

 

Selective perception’s four stages

 

1. Selective exposure.

We are not exposed to information on channels we do not access. For example, a person may only watch CNN, but not FOX, or may read The New York Times, but not The Washington Post.

 

2. Selective attention.

We look for and pay attention to messages consistent with our beliefs and attitudes. For example, you probably instantly discard solicitations from organizations whose values differ from yours.

 

3. Selective comprehension.

We interpret information so it is consistent with our attitudes and beliefs. For example, we may see a pink lawn mower and assume it will not work as well as a black lawn mower because of our associations with the color pink.

 

4. Selective retention.

We are more likely to recall messages consistent with our beliefs and ignore or forget things what do not align with our view of the world. For example, you may easily forget statistics that don’t support your decisions.

 

Selective perception helps our brains manage and interpret information and helps explain how two people may witness the same event but have different recollections and interpretations of what happened, how important it was and if it was “good” or “bad.”

Psychographics leverage these “mental shortcuts” to shape marketing programs and improve performance.

 

How do I use psychographic segmentation?

 

1. Observe your customers.

Watch how they navigate your physical shop or website. For example, you might dig into your web analytics to see what pages are visited most and how long customers spend there. A significant amount of traffic to your Diversity and Inclusion page, Sustainability Report, or community giving pages may indicate that current visitors value buying from a responsible company.

This seems obvious but now there are tools to do the obvious more effectively. You can review the demographics and interest reports within Google Analytics which will segment your website’s visitors based on pre-defined characteristics.

 

Source: Google

 

You can go further by interviewing customers to learn what motivates them to purchase your product.

You can use psychographic segmentation to understand current customers or identify ways to break through to new segments and expand your market share.

 

2. Build customer profiles.

As you build your customer profiles, consider using tried and true tools like Strategic Business Insight’s VALS framework. VALS is one of the most popular commercially available classification systems based on psychographics. It classifies U.S. adults into eight primary groups based on responses to a questionnaire featuring four demographic and 35 attitudinal questions.

Psychographic segmentation can seem overwhelming because it requires you to navigate ambiguity, so lean on existing frameworks to take some guesswork out of building your segments.

 

3. Position your product, service, or brand.

Use psychographics to develop a brand and messages that resonate with your target audience. For example, when communicating with “thinkers” who are motivated by ideals, you might focus more on your organization’s vision, values and community impact as opposed to other brand traits.

 

4. Pick your channels.

Psychographics can help optimize channels (e.g., social media versus TV). For example, if you’re trying to reach “trendsetters,” you may select Spotify in lieu of traditional radio.

 

Leveraging psychographics, marketers bring a laser focus to their targeting efforts, and may have a better chance of staying competitive in a crowded market.

  • Share via

Top Picks for You


September 14, 2022

Don’t Get Caught Red-Handed “Greenwashing” Your Enterprise →

August 17, 2022

Inside a Digital Marketer’s Toolbox Part 3 →

Post navigation

 Don’t Get Caught Red-Handed “Greenwashing” Your Enterprise
Calling All ESG Moderates 

Categories

C-Suite
Tactics & Tips
Visual Communication
iQ Insights

Must Reads

August 7, 2019

5 Tips For Creating Content That Matters →

September 4, 2019

6 Ways to Boost Your SEO Strategy →

May 29, 2019

Get Media Coverage For Your PR Event [INFOGRAPHIC] →

Stay in the know with our quarterly newsletter
Loading...
iQ 360

We believe in the power of communication to change the world

808.536.2729
Privacy Policy | ©2023 iQ 360 Inc. All rights reserved.
We are a certified minority- and woman-owned business.
iQ 360

We believe in the power of communication to change the world

808.536.2729
Privacy Policy
©2023 iQ 360 Inc. All rights reserved.

We are a certified minority- and woman-owned business.

Privacy Policy

Last updated on June 5, 2018.

 

This privacy policy explains our collection, use, disclosure, retention, and protection of personal information collected through our website, www.iq360inc.com (the “Website”).

 

  1. Information We Collect

We collect personally identifiable information about you, including your name, email address, and phone number, when you send an inquiry to us on the contact form on the Website.

 

  1. How We Use Your Information

We will use your information only to respond to you regarding the reason you contacted us. We will contact you by the means by that you have consented to us contacting you, as you indicate when you submit an inquiry to us via the Website.  We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization.  We do not send any promotional emails; however, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about changes to this privacy policy.

 

  1. Cookies

 

  1. Storage of Information

Personally identifiable information that you submit to us via the Website is processed and stored, if at all, in the United States.  We will not keep your personal data for longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.  We determine the retention period based on the purpose for which the information was obtained, our legal obligations, and our technical and business requirements. 

 

  1. Your Access to and Control Over Information

You have the right to opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You may do the following at any time by contacting us via info@iq360.inc.com or 808-536-2729:

  • See what data we have about you, if any.
  • Change/correct any data we have about you.
  • Have us delete any data we have about you.
  • Express any concern you have about our use of your data or if you feel that we are not abiding by this privacy policy.

  

  1. Security

We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the Website, your information is protected both online and offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

 

  1. Updates to This Statement

This privacy policy may be subject to updates.  Any material future changes or additions to the processing of personal information as described in this privacy policy affecting you will be communicated to you through an appropriate channel.  For example, we may email you to let you know about updates to the privacy policy.

 

 

Subscribe

Emails collected through this form will be used for marketing and business updates. We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to information that you voluntarily give us. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone. You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website. Please see our privacy policy for full details.