PR and Branding: Using Psychographics to target your market

 published 2006

PR is becoming a more potent force in consumer brand marketing as buyers become more discerning and sceptical about how they are marketed to.

Traditionally consumers were identified by demographics - age, sex, income, geography or other ‘quantifiable’ common characteristics - and advertising was directed accordingly.

For example, advertising agencies could easily buy TV, radio and print that would reach single women 24-35 earning more than $50,000 living in a city with a population over 100,000.  

Today marketers are increasingly looking to reach consumers by focusing on psychographics - targeting those with shared common habits, beliefs or desires.

For example - targeting young women who exercise regularly, have definite ideas about what is good in food, have clear views on marriage and are striving to own their apartment.

Why is psychographic marketing becoming more important?

The days of ‘broad brush’ marketing are under threat. No longer can marketers afford to just advertise to the population at large and hope that the communication will be seen by those to whom the product or service is relevant. Understanding psychographic factors generally leads to more precise targeting and less communication (and budget) wastage.

We are moving from product to experience marketing. Years ago the role of marketing was largely to simply put the product on show and explain the features. These days’ marketers realise that sceptical consumers want more - and they need to be made to feel important, wanted and special. Identifying their psychographic characteristics is - theoretically - more likely to achieve this.

What are some of the differences between demographic and psychographic marketing?

 Marketing by demographics:

• Represents a way to deliver a product-led message economically to a clearly. identifiable audience - normally by conventional advertising.
•  Is usually more mass-market driven i.e. one communication is devised to reach the entire audience in the belief that they are all essentially very similar.
• It is simpler to devise the communication message and tool and to implement.
•   Is suited to marketing of everyday well-known and accepted products where the message is related to price or simple feature differences.

 Marketing by psychographics:

•  Involves much more targeting and finessing of messages and communication tools in order to tap into a variety of specific beliefs.
•  Usually entails using a range of PR related tools - publicity, events, sponsorship and WoM - that relate to the beliefs of and needs of women.
•  Is usually more appropriate when the marketer needs to change attitudes and beliefs and/or convince the target audience of a new product, service or way of doing something.
•  Involves more detail- but is often less costly - to implement than traditional demographic based marketing.

 How do you discover, identify and target a market by pyschographics?

Psychographic targeting can’t be done by looking up a media rate card. It normally is an outcome of specific research that provides an additional, and more detailed, insight into the target market.

Often it takes the form of secondary research which attempts to identify smaller and distinct populations within the larger target audience. Researchers will probe to identify common characteristics which reflect beliefs, attitudes, desires, behaviours etc.

Some of the shared traits that psychographic research may discover include:

•   What they aspire to.
•    How they are changing.
•    Their attitudes to their environment, situations and developments.
•    Shared/common interests and beliefs.
•    Trends and experiences.

 Can demographic and psychographic marketing co-exist?

Certainly. In fact increasingly consumer brand marketers choose to run both in tandem.

Typically, traditional advertising, using traditional media, will deliver the ‘broad brush’ messages to audiences defined by demographics.

PR will often then ‘fill in the gaps’ - targeting specifically groups defined by psychographic research, or because they are small and distinct and cannot be successfully - and economically, reached by advertising.

 How might PR play a role in psychographic marketing?

Hypothetical examples where consumers might share psychographic beliefs and attitudes are:

•   A washing powder marketer might identify a segment of their consumers that holds strong beliefs about the environment and the conservation, and quality, of water.
•   A credit card provider might identify users that share common behaviour traits and needs regarding the use of credit and management of their budgets.
•  A food manufacturer might identify a group of consumers who are vegetarians and thus hold certain views about the use of its food products.

In these instances the shared psychological views are likely to cross all demographics i.e. ages, incomes and education levels.

PR would be used to reach these target audiences in a variety of ways, but predominately in a manner that was not perceived to be conventional ‘hard sell’; rather individually targeted approaches and techniques would be developed that recognised the uniqueness of these distinct groups.

The face of marketing is changing. Consumer psychology experts are increasingly pointing to the need for marketers to better understand the customer’s brain and move from the ‘carpet bombing’ principle which advertising pioneered many years ago.

Today subtleness is the name of the game - and communicating to the consumer on their ‘turf’ and increasingly on their terms. That’s why PR is becoming such a key ingredient for many consumer brand marketers.

The author of this article - Grant Common - is an independent Sydney-based advisor who helps PR Managers get the best out of their PR Department and/or PR agency.  He also blogs regularly on topics similar to this.