Performance in marketing with psychographic segmentation

 

Using segments of the population in marketing is a good way to target the largest number of people, according to different criteria. This is why the segmentation strategy is essential for marketing actions. Psychographic segmentation is a branch of strategic segmentation. Find out in this article.

What is psychographic segmentation?

Psychographic segmentation is a marketing technique that consists of segmenting or dividing customer categories. This categorization of the clientele is based on the lifestyle of each client, i.e. their social status, beliefs, work and opinions on various subjects. It makes it possible to better target customers and target the ideal market during marketing campaigns.

Careful! Psychographic segmentation should not be confused with behavioral segmentation. Psychographic criteria are analyzed from the motivations of the target clientele. On the other hand, behavioral criteria are based on purchasing behavior.

Psychographic segmentation, however, cannot work on its own. It is most often accompanied by socio-demographic segmentation and many segments of their complementarity. This is because demographic segmentation shows you a particular target customer, while psychographic strategy determines the reason for the purchase. In addition, the result of each analysis is very different: the sociodemographic segmentation is quantitative while that of the psychographic is qualitative.

It is a very important element for the marketing strategy. The more you understand your customers, the more you can offer a marketing mix or marketing mix that matches their demand.

Psychographic segmentation tools

Performing psychographic segmentation is not an easy task. To properly target customers, the different purchasing criteria must be included in the choice of the customer's target. Strong segmentation must bring several variables into the customer analysis.

• The personality of the customer

This aspect of your target accounts mainly in the segmentation process. You need to take into account their behavior to achieve strong segmentation. This marketing analysis is very similar to behavioral targeting.

• Lifestyle

Different lifestyles also influence the flow of your product. For example, sporting goods sell more among sports people. You can also establish the appropriate marketing strategies according to the customer groups you have formed.

• Social status

This variable influences in particular the marketing pricing strategy. Each "social class" has special criteria for each product they buy.

• Activities, interests and opinions

This variable analyzes the passions and interests of client types. This is the most difficult psychographic criterion to use for customer segmentation.

• Attitudes

The education that each person has received is a great influence on these attitudes and purchasing behaviors. For this category of targeting, the expert customer and the marketing team must show great imagination, but also have a very acute customer knowledge.

How to do psychographic segmentation?

Psychographic segmentation has become increasingly important today to identify and target customers. People tend to group according to their interests, and this makes it easier to use this type of segmentation in addition to others to form customer segments. Here are the main steps in the segmentation work:

Collecting psychographic data

This is the first step in segmentation. You need to ask several questions to different groups of customers who are interested in your products. It's an easy step since customers easily talk about what they're passionate about, such as sports, music, movies or the books they read. This step makes it possible to define the customer profile at first, but also a better segmentation.

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Conduct surveys

This is the easiest way to get psychographic data. For this, it would be beneficial to let your target express themselves freely. Choose the right questions to get relevant and quality answers. You can, for example, opt for QCM typology questionnaires.

A good survey should have two parts:

• One, which lets customers express themselves. You can ask them what they want from a product or what they need most on a daily basis.
• Another that aims to identify targets and understand them. It is in this second part that the MCQ can be applied.

Interview customers

Even though online questionnaires and newsletters work very well, it is more efficient to conduct face-to-face interviews. For this, questioning satisfied customers is not enough, it is also necessary to approach those who do not appreciate the product.

Establish focus groups

Discussion groups or forums on the internet aim to create a market research panel. Individuals or respondents in these focus groups are recruited to complete surveys. For some time now, these focus groups have been replaced by online survey software. This software is more efficient and faster to set up market research, but also a return on investment.

Using digital tools

One of the most effective methods of psychographic segmentation is the analysis of digital tools. It is based on social media statistics. So you can study comments, reactions, and shares to determine which new customers are interested in your products.

Why use psychographic segmentation?

Defining the purchase criteria of your target is good, but for what? Psychographic segmentation gives you above all a competitive advantage, since you know your customers better. But psychographic segmentation also serves many purposes for product promotion.

To get a little closer to customers

Traditional marketing just aims to satisfy as many people as possible. It is therefore only a question of quantitative need. When you use marketing segmentation (especially psychographic segmentation), you better meet each customer's expectations. The goal of psychographic segmentation is therefore to create personalized products to meet their expectations.

To better know the market

Market segmentation makes it possible to know which customer category is most inclined for the product and thus determine the next marketing actions. Targeting the market most interested in the product also increases or optimizes the price (discover our guide on marketing pricing strategy). Indeed, many segments are willing to pay more for the product to meet their demand.

To be more efficient, you can divide each industry or customer segment into sub-segments.

To increase the effectiveness of inbound marketing

Segmentation is a way to define your marketing budget, but also the strategy to do so. Inbound marketing and marketing automation are the means to attract customers and thus increase your conversion rate. Thus, if you do psychographic segmentation first, you will be able to define a particular target.

However, you should be careful if your company is a B2B company. You need to direct your segmentation to the company's industry.

Other market segmentations

Apart from psychographic segmentation, the market is made up of many other segmentations.

Socio-demographic segmentation

It groups clients according to social or demographic norms, i.e., gender, age, occupation, marital status and number of children. It does not directly impact purchasing segments, but makes it possible to categorize the quality of products according to the requirements of segments of the population.

It is very easy to set up and can very well be included in the questionnaires of other segmentations.

Geographical segmentation

Customer demand for a certain product also depends on geographical criteria. The shopping segments in one area or another depend on the climate and location of the city, but also on the type of housing that exists there.

Behavioral segmentation

It is very close to psychographic segmentation. It studies the customer's behavior in front of the product. In the behavioral criterion, you can also observe the frequency of purchase, the type of product purchased, the means of payment...

Thanks to e-commerce sites (discover: how to create an online sales site or e-commerce site?), the analysis of behavioral criteria is even more developed. With tracking systems, you can follow the customer throughout their online shopping.