Demographics and Psychographics: What Are They? - by Keira Todd

Keira Todd is Digital Business Accelerator Apprentice at Allegis and is writing for the Community Blogging Team.

I, Keira Todd, aim to drive change and hope to empower those around me.

You're now on this journey with me where we will drive our inspirations, motivations and visions.

I want to welcome you as we embark on this journey together.

Demographics explain who your buyer is, while psychographics explain why an individual buys.

Why do businesses and individuals target specific audiences when trying to deliver to a niche market? It’s a smart way to develop the correct engagement and traffic to specific topics, media content and products etc. The media is constantly tailored to different niches, demographics and psychographics.

So what are different types of demographics?

Age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education, and employment. 

Different types of psychographics?

Personalities, lifestyles, interests, opinions, attitudes, beliefs and values.

Marketing and advertising can be more effective when targeting specific psychographics. For example, if you are writing in a magazine which is targeted towards a more wealthy audience, you may look into qualities such as income and values. If you understand what interests this audience then you can create a more effective piece of writing. You want to write as if you understand the reader and as if they are reading your work  which is tailored to them.

There are, however, debates around whether targeting specific psychographics and making assumptions as such, could create a barrier in society between different individuals and psychographic groups. Now, others could argue that this is a healthy barrier but the opposing argument is that it makes it harder to establish relationships.

We are constantly influenced by the media and what we see day-to-day. This is governed by specific demographics and psychographics  that tailors what we see on a daily basis. Everything that we see in life is a part of marketing and advertising. For example, your personalised adverts when you're scrolling on social media, the bags you carry your new clothes that you just bought, the event you watched online with sponsors, the social media giveaway that you tagged your friends in.

The different categories listed below are different psychographics. They are categorised into different lifestyles and personalities:

The Aspirer - they seek status.

The Explorer - they seek discovery.

The Mainstreamer - they seek security.

The Reformer - they seek enlightenment.

The Resigned - they seek to survive.

The Struggler - they seek to escape.

The Succeeder - they seek control.

This links into marketing and advertising as it shows clear categories of where your audience will most likely relate to and understand your ways of marketing. Knowing your audience and knowing how to target them is a really beneficial trait to have as it will add to the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising strategy.
 
Social media is the modern day's largest marketing tool and is also influenced by the categories listed above. It is a skill to understand your audience and who is being targeted and where your audience will be mostly accessing marketing material, such as billboards, adverts, social media and newspapers/magazines.

It is an advantage to be aware of different parts of the media. This will help you understand the ins and outs of how different companies work, to also clearly notice marketing stunts and to engage into different businesses.

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