What do you know about your customers? Do you know what actually makes them buy or why they choose you?
What is psychographics? Psychographics is the qualitative methodology of studying consumers based on psychological characteristics and traits such as values, desires, goals, interests, and lifestyle choices . Psychographics in marketing focus on understanding the consumer’s emotions and values, so you can market more accurately.
A buyer persona is a profile of a typical customer based on real data. Many believe you can get a full understanding of your customers by studying demographics (e.g., age, race, job title) alone; others suggest that you also must add the most common psychographics characteristics (e.g. personality, values, attitudes, and lifestyles) to the mix for additional clarity.
1. Personalities Personality describes the collection of traits that someone consistently exhibits over time, as commonly assessed through a 5-Factor Model . Example : one personality trait that is part of the 5-Factor Model is extroversion, which measures the extent to which someone gains energy by spending time with others. If a company that sells fishing gear online discovered their average customers are men who score low in extroversion (meaning they’re mostly introverted), they might want to include images of men fishing alone, enjoying peace and solitude, on their promotional materials.
2. Lifestyles Lifestyle is the collection of someone’s day-to-day activities: their associations, where they live, where they spend their time, etc. Example : if a company that owns a meditation app finds that many of their users are single individuals who like to spend their weekends partying, the marketing team might create advertising campaigns that speak to the need to disconnect from the hectic pace of urban life—as opposed to, say, the demands of parenthood.
3. Interests Interests include hobbies, pastimes, media consumption habits, and what occupies someone’s time. Example : an online poker website may discover that a substantial proportion of its users also enjoy watching football. This might prompt the company to use sporting analogies in their ad campaigns (e.g., referring to a big tournament as the ‘World Cup’ of online poker).
4. Opinions , attitudes, and beliefs Opinions, attitudes, and beliefs are distinct psychographic categories. It’s not a black-and-white science, but in general religious beliefs (or lack thereof) can often predict political opinions and general worldview, and vice versa. Example : if a women’s clothing retailer discovered that much of their target market consists of deeply religious women from the southern U.S., they might consider displaying modest, old-fashioned dresses in their Facebook ads.
5. Values Someone’s values describe their sense of right and wrong. Example : if a food delivery service finds that their customers care deeply about the environment, they might benefit from delivering meals in biodegradable containers.