Psychographic Segmentation: Effective Tips To Follow 

In today’s competitive business landscape, the customer is king. You must learn how to better know your customers and understand their preferences well. This is crucial for enhancing your decision-making and coming up with business strategies that effectively target your audience. This is where psychographic segmentation helps you.  

As the name suggests, segmentation refers to separating humans or objects into water-tight compartments based on their characteristics. Psychographics is the study of human tendencies to understand why customers prefer one product over another.  

Hence, psychographic segmentation is the marketing analysis technique where companies research the lifestyles and preferences of their clients and explore how those habits can affect their product’s market. 

Why is Psychographic Segmentation Done? 

Psychographic segmentation is done primarily to locate the preferences of the target audience. Suppose brand X sells room heaters, among other electronic and electrical devices, and is currently based in Srinagar. They are planning to open two new stores, one in Delhi and one in Mumbai. 

 While room heaters will be a hit in the extremely cold winters of Delhi, the same won’t be the case in Mumbai houses. Mumbai weather hardly turns too cold to be able to bear, and therefore room heaters won’t have a good market there. 

This is why behavioral segmentation is essential. It is crucial for the manufacturer to examine the clients on various parameters, including their society, geography, economy, etc., to know if they will be interested in buying a product or not. The psychology of the clients is an equally significant factor.  

Trends affect the psychology of people, especially in the fashion industry. Bell Bottoms, for example, hadn’t been in trend for the longest time, but they are back with a bang. People love to flaunt these pairs of jeans.  

Similarly, lifestyle impacts the psychology of people. Residents of metro cities are likely to be more conscious about their sugar intake. Hence, sugar-free ice creams can find a market there. 

ALSO READ: Why is Geographical Segmentation Important for Marketing? 
 

How To Do Psychographic Segmentation? 

Understanding the psychology of the already existing clients is easier. If your company maintains a website, you can request that users accept cookies so that you can monitor what they do there. This clarifies their purchasing practices. You may find out more about your clients by looking at the social media posts they enjoy. 

If your company is large enough, you can work out an agreement with search engines to share data about your customers’ online browsing habits. Another excellent source of information about what the public wants is reviews written about you, your rivals, and your company.  

Nevertheless, all of these things take time and are expensive. For these jobs, you will require a committed crew. The first significant step is gathering the data, but organizing and evaluating it is more complicated too. 

• Personality 

It is the foremost variable influencing an individual’s behaviour in the market. Personality is the cognitive traits of behavior exercised dominantly by individuals. It is intrinsic and unique to each individual, yet we can draw some outlined personalities.  

Introverts, creative, rebellious, emotional, opinionated, friendly, etc., are some examples of different kinds of personalities. Brands can group people with similar traits and understand and evaluate their needs to launch products for various target audiences. 

• Lifestyle 

People living in metro cities are always on the move, while people living in the villages have a scattered and slow-paced life. Lifestyles also change with changing professions.  

• Social Status 

Whether people will opt for luxury products or products meant for the masses is decided by their social status. Classes dress a certain way, eat a certain way, and travel a certain way. These ways are unique to different classes depending on the power of income they earn. 

• Attitude and Ideology 

Attitudes and ideologies of the masses also influence the market. Two people earning the same amount of money will spend it in different ways. One might want to save every possible penny to invest in their house, while the other might believe in ‘you only live once.’ In the latter case, expensive bouquet shops may thrive, while the former might only dedicate flowers to a deity.  

• Trends 

Opinions of individuals change with changing seasons and trends. Nicotine might have been considered good for people who wanted to quit smoking at some point. But the realization that it is addictively worked as a negative factor leading to the downfall of its market. 

Conclusion 

Organizations that know their customers well will succeed in today’s competitive market. With psychographic segmentation, you better comprehend your audience. It examines their attitudes, convictions, morals, and character attributes.  

Businesses can create marketing efforts that feel individualized to each group by categorizing clients into various categories based on these characteristics. Customers are happier and show greater brand loyalty as a result. Psychographic segmentation is necessary for organizations to build enduring customer relationships because today’s consumers seek personal experiences. 

Thus, market segmentation of this kind is extremely important in evaluating the commercial success of a product. Doing psychographic segmentation before launching the product can help companies know where exactly a product should be launched. Sometimes, such analysis can motivate them to launch a new product altogether.  

It is more effective than other kinds of segmentation because the world quickly adapts to the principle of individualism. The Internet has been working efficiently in breaking multiple barriers. Hence, more than geography and society, an individual’s will and wishes determine the market. However, it can be negatively used by companies to deepen the existing cleavages in society.