Demographics are so yesterday…they served us well in the Industrial Revolution era. But in the Internet Revolution where everyone on the planet has a microphone in their hand and can freely publish virtually anything they want and engage with anyone they want, it’s time to move into the world of Psychographics.
I often find during this conversation that many don’t really know the difference between the two and assume they are doing both when they are “targeting” their desired audiences. They aren’t…in fact, they are very different because it causes you to think entirely different.
Definitions according to Webster…
- …the statistical characteristics of human populations (such as age, income, location and others) used especially to identify markets…a market or segment of the population identified by demographics.
- …market research or statistics classifying population groups according to psychological variables (such as attitudes, values, fears or other personal characteristics)
Here’s the problem…demographics categorizes people by a general group and then assumes the behaviors of all the people within those groups are the SAME. This means that if we found a group of people that make $100,000 – $150,000 that they all behave the same way and want the same things so if we target this group with our offers they should all be interested. We all know today how ridiculous that is and has been for a while. For example, this would mean that a millennial tech worker at Google making $150,000 (most likely a lot more) has the same interests in buying our products/services as the 55 year old engineer at Boeing working on airplanes. This is the problem with demographics…they are too general and usually miss the mark.
But this worked when we use traditional media marketing techniques which “spray and pray” within our segment…we blast everyone with the same ad/message and hope to get 1% of the respondents to accept it and engage with us. Three things happen with this model today…
- No one has time to read generic ads/messages aimed at everyone and they have to decide if it fits with their interests…this is a dead model even though many well-known agencies still sell it to many companies…but the returns are still abysmal
- No one buys this way today…this is “push marketing” where if I push enough stuff at you over a long enough period of time you will eventually buy from me…this was an Industrial Revolution model and today I have too many choices to listen to your repetitive messaging…I turn you off
- Think in terms of the reverse impact…if you hope to get 1% acceptance from this strategy, what happens with the other 99% getting bombarded with this message over and over…they turn you off and probably remember how annoying you were and make a mental note to never buy from you in the future
Today your audience wants you to market specifically to them…give them products/services and messages that are specifically aimed at HELPING IMPROVE THEIR LIVES. This is where PSYCHOGRAPHICS comes into the picture. If you are going to achieve this, you need to know one key thing…
WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC, INDIVIDUAL, AND RELEVANT THINGS THAT WILL CHANGE/IMPROVE YOUR CUSTOMERS LIFE?
This is where companies fall short today…they simply don’t know what these characteristics are of their customers…they don’t know the PERSONAS of their desired audience. It takes work and time to understand these detailed characteristics of your audience. Rather than invest the time and energy into finding these out, many still default to the “spray and pray” model using demographics because it is much easier and is something they know how to do. When this happens, the customer ignores your message and eventually ignores your products/services.
PSYCHOGRAPHICS and PERSONAS are very closely related…in fact for simplicity purposes, you can think of them as the same approach. You take time to learn very specific details about the behaviors of your desired audience and then give them products or services and content that will help improve these parts of their lives.
For example, if we go back to our demographics example of the two very different people that fit into our $150,000 income bracket and overlaid it with psychographics, you might find something like this with the millennial audience
“Young married couples, buying first house, driving economy cars, looking to start a family, likes to be outdoors, supports certain NFP organizations, enjoys eating out, drinks beer, likes to be part of groups, etc., etc., etc.”
If you knew these “behaviors” and characteristics of their “persona” you could tailor your messaging specifically to helping them with these items and have an infinitely better chance they might pay attention…because you are HELPING IMPROVE THEIR LIFE. This is the key difference with understanding the psychographics of your audience. It is absolutely critical today if you want to connect or engage with your audience. Anything else and they don’t have time for you and will simply ignore your messaging.
When we help companies become CUSTOMER CENTRIC/OBSESSED, understanding the PSYCHOGRAPHICS and PERSONAS is vital…it is an absolute requirement to be successful in talking to and engaging with your audience. Without this, you can’t become obsessed over your customer…you simply don’t know them well enough to interact with them in a meaningful way. But when you do…they feel much more connected to you and your messaging. And if you provide this help often enough and with enough value to them, they actually look forward to getting it.
How would your world change as a company if your desired customer audience actually looked forward to getting your messages and was asking you for more? What kind of dialog and exchange could you have if they actually asked you questions, inquired to get more detail, and thanked you for helping them do better at what they do.
By understanding the PSYCHOGRAPHICS of your audience, you are connecting at a much deeper level than ever before with your customers. If you can always keep the following statement in mind you can create much more customer obsession and create much more value for both you and your customer…THE MORE YOU CAN HELP YOUR CUSTOMER IMPROVE THEIR LIFE, THE MORE THEY WILL HELP YOU IMPROVE YOURS.
