The Ins and Outs of Psychographic Marketing
One of the many important factors to consider when crafting an effective marketing strategy is identifying the brand’s primary audience, their demographic, as it takes into account how brand image is interpreted and consumed. However, understanding your audience should not stop there.
Psychographic marketing focuses on the in-depth aspect of a customer’s buying habits. It zeroes in on the psychological traits, as interpreted from the gathered data, that explain the reasons how and why a buyer consumes. Now, what is psychographic marketing? It is the application of the gathered psychographic data in a marketing strategy.
Psychographics vs Demographics
Demographics, as we all know, identifies who a brand’s most prominent audience is; they deal with information that tells us any surface-level information about the brand’s customer pool. This includes, but not limited to, the consumer’s age, sex, race, educational attainment, geographic location, and marital status. On the other hand, psychographics is concerned with, to name a few:
1. Lifestyle
Analyzing a consumer’s day-to-day life provides insight on their routine and activities,which products and services they are usually interacting with, and which ones they will most likely engage with.
2. Personality and Attitude, and the changes they go through over time
When creating personalized marketing strategies, it is important to consider the consumer’s personality (which can be analyzed and categorized using the OCEAN model) as it also dictates their attitude towards different kinds of marketing approaches. This is especially relevant with long-time clients, as it provides necessary information to correlate changes in consumer habits and marketing preferences.
3. Values
In recent years, when the ethicality of a business’s image and practices has been put under the microscope, it is important to consider the values a consumer holds, as some will only interact and consume from brands that align with their personal values.
4. Interests
Like with any good audience targeting strategies, analyzing the consumer’s interests — their hobbies, favorite pastimes, media they interact with — is required, as they are the ones being marketed to. It allows for a more personalized marketing strategy, making it so that consumers feel catered to, not just fed with generic approaches.
Psychographic Segmentation vs Behavioral Segmentation
Both types of market segmentation have a plethora of similarities, and you are not to blame if you’re not able to differentiate the two. Behavioral segmentation focuses more on a consumer’s purchase habits — What urges them to spend money on a product? Is it the vouchers, the loyalty program they’re in, the sales? Do their purchases increase during certain holidays or certain dates? How do they view the brand? How do they use the product or service? While psychographic segmentation, on the other hand, explains and allows the brand to understand the reasons why the consumers are behaving a certain way.
How to collect Psychographic Data
- Surveys and Quizzes
One of the easier ways to collect data for psychographic marketing is to create surveys and/or quizzes that consist of curated questions.
- Focus groups and Interviews
Getting up close and personal with the consumers by forming focus groups allows the brand to see the distinctive personalities and attitudes of their consumers in person.
- Social media
Social media is the most accessible mode of gathering data, as some consumers are not afraid to express their opinions and provide reviews regarding the products you sell or services you’re providing.
- Market research
Market research is a necessary step in crafting audience targeting strategies. It allows the brand to see the products and services they’re offering through a consumer’s eyes.
Pros and Cons of Psychographic Marketing and Segmentation
Pros
1. Provides better understanding of consumers
This kind of market segmentation provides the brand the opportunity to create a fuller and in-depth consumer profile, as it deals with intimate details of the consumer’s life and psyche.
2. Personalized marketing
The data being collected from the consumers is composed of very personal factors, thus, using said data, it makes way for the creation of audience targeting strategies, or effectively curating extremely personalized marketing strategies.
3. Improves marketing strategies
When you know everything there is to know about who your consumers are — what, how, and why they consume — you will be able to improve the gaps in your marketing strategy created by only relying on surface-level information.
Cons
1. Time-consuming and costly
The data to be analyzed when utilizing psychographic segmentation is, admittedly, a large quantity, especially with the various aspects under it. With the amount of information to be processed, it is inevitable that it will take a significant amount of time and manpower. This is not ideal if your marketing campaign is closely approaching.
2. Subjectivity
Although there will be similarities in the responses, it can’t be denied that the data being dealt with in psychographic segmentation is complex and subjective. These are factors that concern ever-changing aspects of a person’s psyche, it will be difficult to measure objectively and amply apply to longitudinal marketing campaigns.
3. Complexity
Compared to when employing other market segmentations, psychographic segmentation requires more complex and diverse methods for data gathering, evidently making it the least of most marketing agencies’ options.
Psychographic segmentation and psychographic marketing are not new concepts. They are, however, complex market research methods that recognize the intricacies of a brand’s consumer pool, which creates a solid foundation for personalized marketing strategies that impact the target market on a more intimate level. While the benefits outweigh its limitations, it is important that you are aware of the latter before you integrate these methods in your marketing strategies in order to avoid any issues during planning and execution.
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Key Takeaways
- Psychographic segmentation involves the collection of more personal information compared to demographic segmentation, particularly about the consumer’s lifestyle, personality, attitude, values, interests, and many more.
- Although similar-sounding, psychographic segmentation differs from behavioral segmentation as the latter deals with the consumer’s purchasing patterns and habits.
- In order to gather psychographic data, one must employ a variety of data collection methods, ranging from surveys and quizzes to doing in-depth market research.
- Although psychographic segmentation and marketing has its benefits, it is not without limitations. It is time-consuming, costly, subjective, and complex, but it also provides a better understanding of a brand’s consumers, which improves already-existing marketing strategies, making it more personal and curated for consumers.
References
6 Psychographics Examples for Proper Marketing Segmentation. (2025, June 7). Indeed. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/psychographics-examples
Jones, N. (2023, March 31). Behavioral Segmentation Defined with 4 Real-Life Examples. Yieldify. https://www.yieldify.com/blog/behavioral-segmentation-definition-examples/
Psychographic Data Explained [Definition, Uses, Pros, & More] | Mailchimp. (n.d.). Mailchimp. https://mailchimp.com/resources/pyschographic-data/
Sehwail, M. (2024, September 10). 5 psychographics examples for your marketing campaign. FullSession. https://www.fullsession.io/blog/psychographics-examples/
What are the benefits and challenges of using psychographic segmentation in marketing? (2023, August 17). https://www.linkedin.com/advice/3/what-benefits-challenges-using-psychographic-1c