Logic Versus Love, Demographics Versus Psychographics
What’s the best approach to dating? Some people operate purely on logic, moving their way through relationships in a methodical manner, one calculated date after another. You’re the same age, live in the same area, and work in the same industry, so logically you’ll make a great couple. Others choose to let their hearts take the reigns, driven by their emotional impulses and their soul’s deepest desires. All the boxes are checked, but something doesn’t feel just right, so breaking it off and chasing something new is the way to go in hopes that you find something, or someone, even better. Is one approach more “right” than the other? Who are we to say – we’re just branding experts. What we do know is that when it comes to audience segmentation, having a healthy dose of both demographics (all logic, all the time) and psychographics (opinions, attitudes, and all the mushy-gushy), is essential to accurately understanding your audience and building an emotional connection with them. Afterall, building a connection with your audience is a lot like dating. So, what’s the right approach?
First, let’s talk about the value of the quantitative, logic-driven, black-and-white set of data called demographics.
Demographic characteristics are those that allow us to segment audiences into groups based on quantifiable criteria. Some examples of demographic metrics we use in our unique process that we call Razor Branding™ include gender, age, location, marital status, number of children, education, profession, employment status, and income. When developing our branding strategy, we use these demographic criteria to define and redefine your target audiences, develop messaging that speaks specifically to them, learn exactly when and where we can connect with them, and establish trustworthy relationships.
This is done by creating Demographic Profiles, which typically look something like this:
- Female
- Age 35-40
- Lives in Northern Louisiana
- Married
- Mother of two small children
- College graduate
- Speech-Language Pathologist
- Average annual income of $50,000
Sounds like a nice person, right? Maybe you’re the same age, live in the same area, and work in the same industry, so logic says all the boxes are checked and you should make a great couple, or that you’ve got your target audience narrowed down. Here’s the thing though – having a demographic profile is essentially like going on a blind date. You don’t know a whole lot about the person that isn’t already available online, and the uncertainty of who they are deep down might make you sweat a little. To know if you’re truly a compatible pairing and to understand how to build a (hopefully) everlasting relationship with them, you’ve got to dig into their psychographics.
Psychographics – the opinions, attitudes, and mushy-gushy
Psychographics, like demographics, are metrics that also help us identify and categorize audiences. Unlike demographics however, psychographics take a qualitative approach instead of a quantitative one. Some psychographic metrics we use include interests, values, personality, lifestyle, and opinions – which are often gathered through conversations and focus groups, due to their highly subjective nature.
Once all of this is gathered, we’re able to create Psychographic Profiles which look a little something like this:
- Values spending time with family
- Interested in traveling and home renovations
- Values spending time with friends and family
- Takes pride in her profession and finds it rewarding
- Thoughtful of others and often puts others’ needs above her own
- Budget-conscious when spending on self, but makes exceptions for her children
Now she really sounds like a really nice person, right? When demographic profiles are paired with psychographic profiles, you start to get a pretty good idea of who a person is in relation to your brand. As with demographic profiles, however, psychographics are still only half of the story. If the only information you knew about this person was that they valued spending time with family and were budget-conscious, but had no idea where they lived, how old they were, or if they had kids or not, your love story would be doomed from the beginning. The addition of demographics are the difference between this person being your grandparent or your soulmate, and the difference between your business forming an emotional connection or falling flat.
What does this have to do with branding?
After collecting this quantitative and qualitative data, we are able to create a highly accurate depiction of who your target audience is. Both of these audience segmentation methods, while valuable in their own respect, are made more valuable by their pairing. If only demographic criteria were considered, we wouldn’t have an accurate view of your audience’s opinions, attitudes, or pain points, which are all essential when trying to motivate consumer behavior. If only psychographic criteria were considered, we would be trying to reach people who are the wrong ages, the wrong occupations, and live in the wrong areas, making our efforts completely off-base. However, when we compile both sets of the data, we are able to gather an empathetic understanding of who exactly it is we’re talking to. We know where they live, how old they are, what they’re willing to spend money on, and what pain points might hinder or encourage their engagement with your brand. When we know exactly who we are talking to, we can build personality profiles that bring these statistics to life, and then develop messaging, strategies, and creative that builds awareness, loyalty, and eventual advocacy.
If you want to learn more about the value of personality profiles, check back here in a couple weeks. Or, if you want to know right now, give us a call. We may not be able to help with your love life, but we can provide some pretty sound ways of helping you connect with your audience.
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RUSSO is a strategic branding agency that uses consumer insight to change the conversation; forming emotional connections with the target audience. To learn more about Razor Branding visit brandrusso.com, or CLICK HERE to schedule a meeting with one of our Business Development Managers.
