Psychographic segmentation: how to increase communication ROI by examining values, beliefs and motivations - return on investment

For many years, demographics have governed how communication target their campaigns. The problem is that even though individuals in a specific demographic category share some common characteristic, such as age, sex or income, the psychographics of these groups--their values, motivations and beliefs--are not homogeneous. There are multiple motivations for a behavior, and people in a specific demographic category have a wide range of attitudes. Although demographics can turn up objective facts, such as that your target customer owns a car, they can't tell you why the person bought the car. Psychographics can. They measure the motivations behind a behavior, including why individuals in a specific generation or income bracket will accept or reject a message, act on it or ignore it. Using psychographics can help communicators improve the quality and accountability of their campaigns by zeroing in on the most receptive audience for their message.

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