Whether you’re choosing “selects” for a mailing list, Facebook ad, radio, TV, print or even solo ads to a private list, you’ll be asked to pick from the demographics they have on their subscribers, members or buyers. Age, gender, race, income, geographic area, job title, company SIC code and all the other choices are not fixed items. In other words, they are not absolutes, but the results of decisions people have made in the past. (For more on this topic see also An Inch Wide, A Mile Deep, Part 1: Demographics)
Psychographics Are WHY We Make Our Decisions
When crafting the perfect message to, say, someone who makes $180,000 a year or lives in an exclusive gated community, I don’t have enough information to speak to her intuitive, emotional and empathetic brain (where all decisions are made). I only have tactical, analytical data… and I need more.
As a marketer I want to understand what causes someone to MAKE those decisions in the first place? What are the reasons, the inner drivers behind our life choices?
Their “Whys” are the underlying drivers, their psychographics.
For example, if I’m marketing for the Sierra Club, I may make demographics selections of people with a more liberal political bent, highly-educated, who drive a fuel efficient (or hybrid or electric) car, who subscribe to or support environmental or other socially-conscious charities, publications or groups. Why? Because their life choices demonstrate their underlying value structure…their “Why” includes caring for the environment and people around them.
Do other people who don’t fit these demographics not care about these issues? Can’t a conservative, NRA member, extended-cab pickup driver, high-school educated blue collar worker care about the environment too? Absolutely. But, as an attorney might state:
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of its absence.” In other words, some will, others won’t.
As a marketer I have to accept there is a monetary cost for each contact. I cannot afford to reach everyone, so I have to make decisions that NARROW my market and test into more consistent demographics. Look for markers that indicate or even predict their behavior. These help you understand their underlying drivers: their psychographics.
The more I can narrow my focus, the more precise I can make my message.
Trust yourself to go an “Inch wide and a mile deep.” The more precisely I can speak to their Whys, the more response and conversions I will achieve.
How does this affect the way you look at your markets, and the people you’re trying to reach?
