What is Psychographic Segmentation? A Complete Guide for Marketers

Even after browsing example after example of psychographic segmentation, are you still struggling to wrap your head around the concept? You can take comfort in the fact that many marketers are in the same position as you, as they wonder what is psychographics in marketing.

Market segmentation remains an integral part of communicating with your target market, but imagine how great it would be if you could get an accurate idea of what your audience is thinking. That is psychographic segmentation. Think of it as a superpower that can get you as close as possible to actually reading the minds of your target market. Today, you’re going to unlock this superpower! In this text, we’ll do more than just define psychographic segmentation. We’ll cover how and why you should apply psychographic segmentation examples to your marketing strategy, explore the potential challenges you may face and examine many other key considerations.

Definition of Psychographic Segmentation

Psychographic segmentation involves dividing an existing target market based on the following:

• Lifestyle
• Values
• Beliefs
• Activities
• Interests

… and just about everything else that makes them who they are. As you’ll see later on, it’s not about knowing the psychographic market segmentation definition in marketing. The application of its examples is more important. After all, the categorization framework provides more than just a chance to segment your audience: it also allows you to draw insights into what your target audience wants and how you can connect with them.

Market Segmentation: Psychographic vs. Other Methods

Of course, there are other segmentation strategies you can use independently or alongside psychographic segmentation. Still, it’s important to be able to determine which method is which. Doing so will allow you to properly implement your targeting efforts. Refer to the table below to understand what makes psychographic segmentation unique:

How Are Psychographic Segmentation Examples Unique?

Psychographic information is tough to acquire. Unlike the other three methods we discussed above, psychographic data is not something that you can get hold of easily. The best psychographic segmentation examples are based on extensive research, surveys and interviews. Conversely, you don’t have to put the same amount of effort into acquiring geographic or demographic data. However, in terms of your overarching marketing and advertising campaigns, the proper implementation of psychographic segmentation examples will have the greatest impact. Knowing how your buyers think will allow you to create better, more personalized messaging. Great psychographic segmentation examples demonstrate the power of branding and enhance the impact of other methods.

Key Components Available in All Psychographic Segmentation Examples

We’ve already touched on why acquiring this type of segmentation data is worth the effort. However, which ingredients are required to make successful psychographic segmentation examples? Understanding these key components will help you build a more precise and effective strategy, allowing you to connect with your audience on a deeper level. From personality traits and values to lifestyle choices and emotional triggers, each element plays a crucial role in designing quality psychographic segmentation examples for all types of marketing.

Personality

There are many ways to assess a personality. However, if you want something that will aid in forming psychographic segmentation examples, stick with tests and definitions that are already recognized within the field of psychology. Our favorite here is OCEAN:

• Openness tells you how open they are to new ideas;
• Conscientiousness explains to you how mindful a person is of those around them;
• Extroversion measures how outgoing they are;
• Agreeableness refers to how kind and cooperative they are;
• Neuroticism tells you how emotionally unstable the person is.

Although the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator isn’t based on science, you may also consider using it to allow your audience to decide where in the psychographic segmentation examples they belong.

Values

Understanding an audience’s values helps you uncover what is important to your target market. Some of this can be drawn from demographic data. For example, it’s safe to assume that a person following a particular religion will hold the values aligned with those of their denomination. Many psychographic segmentation examples tend to focus on this component because people like to support brands whose values align with what they believe. It can help deepen brand loyalty and expand your reach.

Lifestyle

Your audience is more than their potential consumer habits. Therefore, psychographic segmentation examples should consider their lifestyle. Some people have specific interests, and others may face certain obstacles in life. Finding out where they fit in the psychographic segmentation examples you have created will help identify the unique pain points you may be able to solve. Your knowledge of psychographic segmentation examples will help you yield improved outcomes by aligning your campaign with their habits and passions.

Social Status

Income will play a huge part in social status. While this may be a demographic characteristic, it also has a significant impact on what your psychographic segmentation examples will look like. With more money, a person can access luxury items and enjoy greater convenience. This means that their expectations in terms of service delivery may change as well. If you’re catering to various income levels, we’re confident that your psychographic segmentation examples will show a direct correlation between a client’s expectation of luxury and their take-home pay.

How to Gather Data to Form Your Psychographic Target Market

Now that you’re aware of the components that you need to make up your examples, it’s time to figure out how to gather that information. There are many ways to build your own psychographic segmentation examples, and you don’t have to use them all. Consider the following to determine which to use:

• Time;
• Ability to gather responses;
• Resources for analysis.

Are you ready to take the first step in creating your own psychographic segmentation examples? Explore the different ways that you can generate useful data.

Surveys

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to gather information, you can never go wrong with a survey. They’re easy to create and deploy, and there are numerous solutions available, both free and paid. In terms of psychographic segmentation examples, they can be a great way to gather initial insights to refine your data collection strategy down the line. That being said, this doesn’t usually work as a standalone method. Although all kinds of question-and-answer formats can be created here to form your psychographic segmentation examples, remember that you still need the person to complete the survey in order to gather your data. So, we only recommend this for simpler projects.

Interviews

Interviews allow you to generate in-depth insights. These have been behind many great psychographic segmentation examples. To do this, you need to prepare a list of questions, but don’t feel obligated to stick to the script. Deviating from your prepared questions allows you to clarify certain matters and organically respond to the interviewee’s answers. And, why is this important for quality psychographic segmentation examples? It allows you to cover things that you may not have considered in your original list of questions.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are similar to interviews in the sense that they’re open-ended. However, here, you act more as a facilitator than an interviewer. Your job is to guide the group to ensure that everything stays on topic. Meanwhile, they can discuss their opinions, interests and other things so that you can explore the emotional and psychological connections that drive purchasing behavior and form your psychographic segmentation examples.

Reviewing Existing Information

If you don’t have a lot of time, the good news is you don’t have to acquire everything first-hand. You can gather information for your psychographic segmentation examples through existing data. As an alternative starting point, you can look for trends. Try asking the following questions:

• Do your brand’s followers tend to be budget-conscious?
• Do they believe in environmental sustainability?
• Do they support certain causes?

Of course, digging for information through existing sources will involve more than asking these three questions. Your journey to creating psychographic segmentation examples doesn’t have to rely completely on you. Consider using AI and machine learning tools to make cleaning, processing and analyzing the existing data easier.

Competitor Analysis

The techniques you used to build psychographic segmentation examples can also be applied to your competitors. While you shouldn’t rely only on this data, it can be helpful in establishing benchmarks for segmentation. And just like with the other options we presented for making psychographic segmentation examples, the best course of action for you will depend on your budget, time and other resources.

Applying the Theory: Psychographic Segmentation in Marketing

Successful psychographic segmentation examples can be applied to different aspects of marketing. Well, scratch that. They’re not just something that CAN be applied; you MUST apply them. Quality psychographic segmentation examples often serve as the heart and soul of any marketing effort. After all, if you can’t consistently produce materials that resonate with all key audience segments, are you really extracting the most value out of your ad and resource spending?

Personalized Messaging and Advertising

With psychographic segmentation examples already allowing you to reach the hearts and minds of your audience, you’ll be able to create content for every profitable segment. For example, you’ve discovered that a part of your audience cares about the environment. So, you highlight every eco-friendly feature that your product or service offers. This same messaging may not resonate well with those who are budget-conscious. Psychographic segmentation is important here because it allows you to gain a better understanding of your audience. A more thorough understanding means more personalized messaging, and more personal, targeted advertising means better responses from every part of your target market!

Content Marketing Strategy

You don’t just need to make an impact on your target market during the sales process: your psychographic segmentation examples will also be useful for your content marketing strategy. This includes the content you should be making and its subject matter. For example, if you know that one segment is always looking for quick solutions, then it makes sense to create video content. Use psychographic segmentation examples to work out how to keep your sub-audiences engaged.

Branding

Your brand should also align with what your audience believes in. You don’t necessarily have to cater to every segment because not everyone cares that deeply about what they buy. So, to act based on the psychographic segmentation examples you created, consider which groups are most likely to have a positive reaction to your brand positioning. However, as you build your community, make sure you don’t alienate anyone. For instance, if the psychographic segmentation examples show that some members of your audience deviate greatly in terms of their beliefs, avoid focusing on contentious issues.

What is a Psychographic Segmentation Strategy Going to Do for You?

Considering how competitive practically every market is today, simply knowing who your audience is may not cut it. And even if you’re at the top already, wouldn’t you want to use well-executed psychographic segmentation examples to further widen your edge over the competition? That’s exactly what this method of segmenting your audience can achieve. In the following subsections, we’ll discuss the specifics and determine why using psychographic segmentation to guide your strategy can be highly beneficial.

Deeper Audience Insights

This is perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to refer to psychographic segmentation examples before launching any campaign. Deeper insights give you a better understanding of your audience. Since you grasp how they think, you are better poised to serve them. That’s why quality psychographic segmentation examples are so powerful! And here’s a little secret: the other benefits that we’ll discuss are all based on having deep audience insights.

Improved Targeting

As helpful as it may be to aggregate all data for macro-analysis, there’s still beauty and purpose in zooming in a little. That’s what you can achieve with psychographic segmentation examples. The minor (or perhaps even major) differences in the values and lifestyles of your target audiences will help you with targeting. By treating them as separate groups, you can create more effective campaigns. Looking at psychographic segmentation examples can be used to gain inspiration, but the way you segment should always be based on the insights that you’ve drawn.

Better Brand and Product Positioning

Using psychographic segmentation examples, you’ll be able to position your brand to appeal and resonate to all your target markets, creating messaging that aligns with how your audience thinks. This will also help you in many other ways, including:

• Better engagement and brand trust;
• Better sales figures;
• Improved brand loyalty.

Just remember that this is something that’s built over time. These points are also not easy to measure. This is why your successes here may be attributed to other things, such as the quality of your ad campaign.

Opportunity to Expand into More Markets

The way you apply psychographic segmentation examples doesn’t have to be limited. As you learn about how your audience thinks, you’ll be well-poised to identify opportunities to expand. If you identify psychographic segments with strong potential, you can incorporate them into your marketing campaigns to expand your reach. And as is the case with existing markets, you’ll also get better engagement and conversion rates.

Challenges in Psychographic Marketing Segmentation

This mode of segmentation is not without its challenges. It’s important that you are aware of them so that you know how to address them. More importantly, the potential issues that we’re about to discuss are a great reminder of something that you should keep in mind as a marketer. You can’t take anything — even the best implementation of psychographic segmentation examples — at face value. There are many things that can (and do) influence the outcome of any analysis or data-gathering process.

It’s Hard to Get an Unbiased Sample

Think about it: if you ask people to do a survey right now, who would be more likely to respond, a friend or a stranger? It’s for this reason that psychographic segmentation examples may not comprehensively reflect all the potential segments of your target audience. That’s why it’s important to have more than one way of gathering data for forming psychographic segmentation examples. By doing so, you’re helping eliminate the bias of only getting data from those who are most passionate about your brand.

Quality Psychographic Segmentation Examples Are Difficult to Create

A lot of time and resources go into collecting data to perform segmentation. If you’re working with a small team or even independently, creating psychographic segmentation examples of your own may be hard to accomplish. Of course, if you can use the more resource-intensive options, such as focus groups, you may be able to generate richer analytics. However, we believe something is better than nothing! Any effort that you put into creating psychographic segmentation examples will have an effect on your marketing strategy.

You May Need to Update the Psychographic Profiles Continuously

People change, meaning segmentations may evolve as well. Consumers are constantly being educated and sold to. With the right information and triggers, the psychographic segmentation examples that worked for campaigns in the past may not work today. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that you need to have a team working 24/7 on these profiles. Just use the tools available to you to continually monitor the psychographic segmentation examples that work for your advertising campaign or content marketing strategy. As long as your data is updated in real-time, part of the work is already done!

Psychographic Segmentation Example Implementation in Marketing: A Quick Step-by-Step Guide

Since we already discussed the different aspects of psychographic segmentation examples in marketing, bringing all these processes together is pretty easy! Just complete the following.

1. Collect your data: We recommend using both quantitative and qualitative measures so that you can break free from the usual psychographic segmentation examples and find ones based on data.
2. Identify the key psychographic components: Focus on differences and distinctions based on trends so you can identify ways to make your own psychographic segmentation examples.
3. Segment them: Create segmentations based on the insights you gather.

That’s it! The next steps will depend on your specific campaign goals.

Psychographic Segmentation Examples Implemented in Successful Campaigns

Of all the successful campaigns that involved psychographic segmentation, these are our favorites:

• McDonald’s ads around the world: McDonald’s is one of the most popular fast-food chains on Earth. While there are smaller psychographic segmentation examples in local markets, the two main ones are related to how people see eating: as a bonding activity and as an experience.
• Nike’s Just Do It campaign: We’d argue that this one has been so effective that even the mention of the tagline brings the brand to mind. Now, this may only be a single slogan, but it addresses at least two psychographic segmentation examples: those looking to push their limits and those wanting to get started.
• Absolut’s Family You Choose: This LGBTQIA+ pride campaign is great because drinking is usually something you do together with friends and family.

A Look into Future Trends: What Will Psychographic Segmentation Examples Look Like in the Future?

While the heart of marketing will still be there in 50 years, the way psychographic segmentation examples are generated is constantly evolving. If you want to ensure that your efforts are both efficient and effective, have a look at the trends that we’ve observed. Many of these can already be incorporated into your future marketing strategies!

AI and Machine Learning to Generate Deeper Insights

We have already touched on the role of AI in creating quality psychographic segmentation examples. However, what is it about artificial intelligence that makes it such a great fit for marketing?

• It can take on repetitive tasks so that you have more time for more important work.
• Even though it already bases its analysis on existing psychographic segmentation examples, it will become more effective over time.
• AI works at a speed unmatched by anyone in the world!

Artificial intelligence is already integrated into existing tools in certain forms. Be sure to make the most of it!

Dynamic Segmentation

Remember that we wrote that creating psychographic segmentation examples will become more challenging in the future due to shifting values and lifestyles? There’s a way for you to keep up. With dynamic segmentation, psychographic segmentation examples don’t stay static. They are updated as new information comes in so that your campaign is always relevant and up to date. Streaming services are a great example of dynamic segmentation: you get different recommendations based on the things you watch.

Use Psychographic Segmentation Examples as Your Inspiration

If you haven’t formed a strategy to try out this type of segmentation, now’s the time to do so! With our guide, you can achieve the same levels of success as the psychographic segmentation examples that have driven numerous other well-known campaigns. And with MGID, we’ll be by your side through the entire process! We have all the resources you need. Sign up to translate your psychographic segmentation examples into successful campaigns! We’re not going to lie; it can be challenging at times. But just remember this one question: what does psychographic targeting mean in marketing? It means an opportunity to get the roots to go deeper, helping create brand loyalty that will benefit your company for years to come.