psy·cho·graph·ics
/ˌsīkōˈgrafiks/
noun: psychographics
- The study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria, esp. in market research.
Psychographics are the attributes that describe the personality, attitudes, beliefs, values, emotions, and opinions of customers, and prospective customers. Demographics describe “who” people are, Psychographics explain “what” people are. Psychographics can help define “why” people buy what they buy and how to gain their attention and motivate them to buy. By creating Psychographic Profiles, marketers are able to understand the motivational and non-conscious drives of a target audience.
Are you marketing to Demographics or Psychographics? There’s a BIG difference…
Psychographics can easily be misunderstood or incorrectly applied. It’s quite common to contrast them with demographic variables such as age and gender, or with behavioral variables such as rates of use. In fact psychographic variables and the other major analytic variables are synergistic. Each is related to the other and affects the other. A marketing approach that is focused solely on one such area can miss the point and, more importantly, not convey critically important information.
Demographics often look at a person from the outside while Psychographics delves inside the person making Psychographics a critical tool in marketing. People don’t buy something based on their age, race, or gender ONLY. They have far reaching internal motivations for purchasing that must be defined, diagnosed, and addressed for a comprehensive and successful marketing approach.
Psychographics are used to define persons by their interests, personal moral codes, attitudes and experiences. Most marketing efforts are targeted toward a demographic market alone where the quantifiable parameters of persons such as gender, age and marital status are all important. Marketers get trapped into selling to what is going on outside (demographics) and ignoring what is going on inside (psychographics).
Defining your clients by their demographic data is going to fall far short of garnering new prospects. Without Psycographic understanding, there is little to no clarity on their personal beliefs or their interests and attitudes toward what products or services you have to offer.
Defining your clients’ Psychographics can go a long way to defining what your prospects and future clients might be interested in. It’s not as simple as “what is your age?” It’s “WHO WHAT HOW and WHEN” that Dr. David F. Parker of Parker Associates asks. Dr. Parker has spent a great deal of his career focusing builders and developers on just this sort of thinking. Defining the Psychographics of the communities he has helped place are first and foremost in his defining the types and mix of products within communities he has been involved with. His clients know this and trust his many years of experience in the field of Psychographic Analysis, and the proven success to show for it.
PTC Computer Solutions takes that same knowledge from Dr. Parker to apply it to web site design and development. Regardless of the products or services offered, understanding a prospect’s Psychographics will go a long way to offering them the right marketing delivery. Ask some pointed questions from your clients to define the marketing toward your prospects:
- Who are your favorite role models?
- How do you get to work?
- What car do you drive?
- What restaurant do you eat at when you eat out?
- What hobbies are you involved in?
- When do you feel most relaxed?
There are many questions to ask. The questions are not ones of demographics. These are Psychographic questions that help define the mentality of your client and future client. If you need help with defining your Psychographic market, contact David F. Parker at Parker Associates or work with PTC Computer Solutions on your web marketing strategies.
Don’t market to a demographic … market to a mindset, a code of values, a type of person. Start interviewing your clients. Talk about what is important to them and what they are interested in as individuals. This type of information will reveal clearly how to start (or stop) marketing to them and your prospects.
If you are looking to get noticed on the Internet but don’t know where to begin, let PTC Computer Solutions help you get started or help improve your current website and website marketing plan. We can plan a full budget for your company and complete any web marketing efforts you wish to achieve in order to deliver a consistent and effective message to your prospects. Contact David W. B. Parker (when you think of “W. B.” think of WeB) at davidp@ptccomputersolutions.com or go to www.ptccomputersolutions.com for more information.
By David W. B. Parker
President
PTC Computer Solutions
11/5/2013
