Summarize Articles #4

DEMOGRAPHICS

Psychographics Are Just
as Important for
Marketers as
Demographics
by Alexandra Samuel
MARCH 11, 2016

LAURA SCHNEIDER FOR HBR

Marketers are used to thinking and speaking in demographics, since slicing a market up by age,
gender, ethnicity and other broad variables can help to understand the differences and
commonalities among customers. Think “our target audience is 14- to 34-year-olds” or “we are
launching a campaign aimed at urban Latinos.” But psychographics, which measure customers’

2COPYRIGHT © 2016 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

attitudes and interests rather than “objective” demographic criteria, can provide deep insight that
complements what we learn from demographics.

Until recently, however, it was a lot harder to get psychographics than demographics, and even if you
had psychographic data, it wasn’t always obvious how to make it actionable. The internet has
changed the relative importance of demographics and psychographics to marketers in three key
ways: by making psychographics more actionable, by making psychographic differences more
important, and by making psychographic insight easier to access.

To see the value of psychographics, let’s look at the case of the family tech market and what exactly
gets missed when we assess that market through demographics alone (the subject of my presentation
at SXSW). Yes, families with different incomes, or with younger and older kids, make somewhat
different technology purchases. But their reasons for purchasing are much more closely tied to parent
psychographics.

Parents who trust their kids to make their own tech decisions (whom I call “enablers”) tend to
evaluate their tech purchases in terms of fun and entertainment value. Parents who focus on
minimizing screen time (“limiters”) gravitate towards software and devices that support their kids’
literacy, math, and academic skills. Parents who actively guide and encourage their kids’ technology
use typically look for purchases that offer a balance of fun and educational value, and that offer ways
to engage and play as a family.

When you understand these kinds of psychographic differences, online marketing tools will make
your insight actionable in a way that was nearly impossible before the heyday of Google, Facebook,
and Twitter. Using psychographics allows you to do smarter keyword targeting – for example,
targeting one message about your programming game to parents who are searching for “kids
programming” and another message to parents who are searching for “kids videogames fun.” Once
you know the key differences in what your customers care about, you can target Facebook ads to
parents who’ve liked specific pages or identified particular interests; you can figure out the hashtags
that different psychographic groups use on Twitter, and target different tweets (or even different
accounts) to those groups.

The internet has made these kinds of psychographic differences much more apparent and relevant to
both consumers and marketers alike. It also makes it easier to find like-minded souls, so people
spend more and more time engaging with people who share their particular interests and attitudes,
even if they’re from a different community or country: those online tribes help to consolidate
psychographic differences, and lead people to identify more and more with their communities of
interest or value rather than their geographic or demographic community.

At the same time — as anyone who’s ever read a YouTube comment thread can attest — online
discussions are often intense and polarizing. The psychographic identities that develop and deepen
online can erupt into active conflict between groups, which provides both opportunities and

3COPYRIGHT © 2016 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

https://medium.com/@awsamuel/what-the-new-parenting-wars-mean-to-your-business-infographic-52580ae0ac9c

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2016/events/event_PP53609

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2016/events/event_PP53609

challenges for marketers. Conflicts can help you identify key psychographics: the Facebook
arguments between pro- and anti-screen parents inspired my research into parents’ tech attitudes.
But conflicts can also make it difficult to speak to your audience, since a marketing strategy that
extolls the play value of a tech device would turn off some parents, while delighting others.

That’s exactly why psychographic data is so essential: it gives you a roadmap for navigating these
types of divisions and sensitivities. Here, the latest generation of online research tools is a
tremendous asset. Online customer communities let you ask about a range of consumer attitudes: my
own data on 10,000 North American parents was gathered from two such communities. Social media
analytics let you identify trends in interests and attitudes, and even use sentiment analysis to help
dig a little more deeply into psychographic attitudes. Social media monitoring is hugely valuable, too,
since the organic conversations that emerge online may help you spot emerging issues or
psychographic clusters.

While the internet has made psychographics more important than ever, today’s research, analytics,
and ad targeting make it newly possible to turn those psychographics into the foundation of a robust
market research and marketing strategy. Indeed, in the best-case scenario, thoughtful use of
psychographics will help you develop not only the messages and campaigns but also the products
and services that specific customers want and need.

Alexandra Samuel is a speaker, researcher and writer who works with the world’s leading companies to understand
their online customers and craft data-driven reports like Sharing is the New Buying. The author of Work Smarter with
Social Media (Harvard Review Press, 2015), Alex holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University.
Follow Alex on Twitter as @awsamuel.

4COPYRIGHT © 2016 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Work with me

Sharing is the New Buying: How to Win in the Collaborative Economy from Jeremiah Owyang

https://hbr.org/product/work-smarter-with-social-media-a-guide-to-managing-evernote-twitter-linkedin-and-your-email/11856E-KND-ENG

https://hbr.org/product/work-smarter-with-social-media-a-guide-to-managing-evernote-twitter-linkedin-and-your-email/11856E-KND-ENG

Copyright of Harvard Review Digital Articles is the property of Harvard
School Publication Corp. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or
posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users
may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

Place your order
(550 words)

Approximate price: $22

Calculate the price of your order

550 words
We'll send you the first draft for approval by September 11, 2018 at 10:52 AM
Total price:
$26
The price is based on these factors:
Academic level
Number of pages
Urgency
Basic features
  • Free title page and bibliography
  • Unlimited revisions
  • Plagiarism-free guarantee
  • Money-back guarantee
  • 24/7 support
On-demand options
  • Writer’s samples
  • Part-by-part delivery
  • Overnight delivery
  • Copies of used sources
  • Expert Proofreading
Paper format
  • 275 words per page
  • 12 pt Arial/Times New Roman
  • Double line spacing
  • Any citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard)

Our guarantees

Delivering a high-quality product at a reasonable price is not enough anymore.
That’s why we have developed 5 beneficial guarantees that will make your experience with our service enjoyable, easy, and safe.

Money-back guarantee

You have to be 100% sure of the quality of your product to give a money-back guarantee. This describes us perfectly. Make sure that this guarantee is totally transparent.

Read more

Zero-plagiarism guarantee

Each paper is composed from scratch, according to your instructions. It is then checked by our plagiarism-detection software. There is no gap where plagiarism could squeeze in.

Read more

Free-revision policy

Thanks to our free revisions, there is no way for you to be unsatisfied. We will work on your paper until you are completely happy with the result.

Read more

Privacy policy

Your email is safe, as we store it according to international data protection rules. Your bank details are secure, as we use only reliable payment systems.

Read more

Fair-cooperation guarantee

By sending us your money, you buy the service we provide. Check out our terms and conditions if you prefer business talks to be laid out in official language.

Read more
Open chat
1
You can contact our live agent via WhatsApp! Via + 1 929 473-0077

Feel free to ask questions, clarifications, or discounts available when placing an order.

Order your essay today and save 20% with the discount code GURUH