What Is Psychographics and How Does It Differ from Demographics Segmentation?

Of the many possible segmentation techniques that you can use to further your market research work, none is quite so powerful as psychographics. But what is psychographics and what does it look like? Read on to find out.

What is Psychographics?

Psychographics can be best defined as a general term for attributes that correspond to personality, values, and lifestyle. This term is commonly used in a marketing context and is often utilised for market research purposes.

There are several components that make up a psychographic profile, such as:

Psychographics play a crucial role in narrowing down a target market. When you have a comprehensive profile of what your target customer looks like, it can help a lot in determining the right marketing activities for your business to engage in.

The following are some psychographic examples to better illustrate how psychographics work.

Let’s say that you’re running a meal-subscription service and you’re interested in branching out into offering a vegan menu option. You know that you’re targeting women in the age range of 20-30 years who live in the city.

Your ideal psychographic profile might look something like this:

The first profile is clearly a better target, but the second might also have the potential to be interested in your product. The best way to decide is for you to engage in further market research activities to determine who you should target.
 

Difference Between Demographic and Psychographic Data

We’ve touched upon what psychographic data looks like. But what about demographic data?

Demographic data is actually something that you’re more likely to already have in hand. Also called demographics, this type of data provides information on the following from an individual: age, gender, and occupation.

A quick way to differentiate demographics from psychographics is that psychographics shows the inner element; "why" the target buys the product, while demographics remind us of the target image—of "who" buys the product.

Aside from demographics and psychographics, another data point that plays an important part in market research is geographic data. In the previous section, the catering business is targeting people who live in the city—considering the nature of the business, better geographic data would narrow down the area that the business services.

Summary

Psychographic data collection is a tool that can greatly amplify the success of your marketing activities. Adding psychographic data components to your customer profile means better customer targeting; which translates to better leads for your business.