Demographic vs Behavioral vs. Psychographic Segmentation Explained

Demographic segmentation is a key strategy for reaching your target audience effectively. You can easily analyze your survey results and sort responses by demographic variables using SurveyMonkey’s tools to understand your data and create insightful results. Advanced SurveyMonkey tools allow you to go beyond surface-level metrics and collect meaningful demographic data directly from your target audience.

Large markets like the fitness market use psychographic segmentation when they sort their customers into categories of people who care about healthy living and exercise. Companies like American Express, Mercedes Benz, and Best Buy have all used segmentation strategies to increase sales, build better products, and engage better with their prospects and customers. By understanding your market segments, you can leverage this targeting in product, sales, and marketing strategies. Through psychographic segmentation, the brand would dive into the deeper values and beliefs of its target audience.

• Segmenting the market this way also allows the marketer to present the most relevant information to the audience.
• This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team which comprises of MBA students, management professionals, and industry experts.
• Cultural segmentation can be applied to existing customer data to measure market penetration in key cultural segments by product, brand, and channel as well as traditional measures of recency, frequency, and monetary value.
• Online banking products may then be more successful when marketed to a receptive group of online banking users.
• Knowing who’s using your products or services – how many demographics there are and how they differ – is an important step in improving your offering.

Segmenting the market this way also allows the marketer to present the most relevant information to the audience. In South Korea, where consumers prefer creamy beverages, Starbucks offers Jeju Honey Peanut Latte and Happy Cheese White Mocha.6 For example, in China, where tea tends to be the beverage of choice, Starbucks offers a lengthy menu of tea-based drinks like Red Bean Green Tea Frappuccino and Black Tea Latte. Not only would it likely cost less to advertise in specialty magazines like these, but the ads would be more relevant to the company’s desired customer base. Most marketers have limited advertising budgets, so using one marketing message to reach a broad audience may garner a few new customers, but it’s likely to come at a high advertising cost. It’s estimated that the average person sees an astounding 4,000–10,000 advertising messages each day.3 That’s why it’s critical to target the right market.

Psychographic segmentation

Positioning is the final step in the S-T-P planning approach; Segmentation → Targeting → Positioning. When the segments have been determined and separate offers developed for each of the core segments, the marketer's next task is to design a marketing program (also known as the marketing mix) that will resonate with the target market or markets. There are approaches to assist in evaluating market segments for overall attractiveness. There are no formulas for evaluating the attractiveness of market segments and a good deal of judgment must be exercised. Alternatively, the secondary target group might consist of a small number of purchasers that account for a relatively high proportion of sales volume perhaps due to purchase value or purchase frequency.

Now that we know the workings of demographic segmentation, it's time to look at some of its variables in action, that is, the way they are employed by other brands. Collecting information about prospective customers enables start-ups to create relevant products and services tailored to the market. One can leverage this information to power advertising, content creation, and audience engagement on different social media platforms. In addition, you can analyze website traffic and engagement metrics to understand the online habits of your demographic segment. There are several ways to collect demographic data, some of which are listed below and provide valuable insights into the demographic characteristics of your target audience.

Religion and Ethnicity

Geographic criteria—nations, states, regions, countries, cities, neighborhoods, or zip codes–define geographic market segments. Because people and their needs change, effective approaches for segmenting a market can also evolve over time. In most cases, this represents a large universe of people or organizations that are similar in some ways but different in many other ways. This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Market segmentation can build brand awareness and authority in your niche.

Geographic segmentation

Products, salespeople, and distribution networks can all be organized around a central, specific location. When specific subsets of customers are targeted, your marketing content can become more relevant and effective with the audience you are targeting. Customers are more likely to engage with content relevant to their needs and interests.

The most successful brands combine these factual traits with deep psychological insights and real-time behavioral tracking. Delivering this kind of tailored, highly relevant interaction is the absolute foundation of an exceptional customer experience. Within seconds, the software appends the contact record with the person's job title, location, company revenue, and industry.

They reference that they are “TikTok’s The concept of demographic segmentation favorite cold brew,” feature user-generated content made by younger customers, and have messaging on the page made for younger females. For example, millennials may spend most of their time on Instagram and Facebook, while seniors prefer email inboxes. Skinny Confidential features UGC content from young users, and their copy uses vocabulary geared towards young females. You wouldn’t want to spend your time and money making sure your campaigns make sense to seniors—that would be a waste.

Demographic segmentation is a powerful marketing strategy that involves dividing a larger market into distinct segments based on specific demographic attributes. In this guide, we'll delve into the art and science of dividing your audience into distinct segments based on key demographic attributes.

Understanding and communicating your survey’s purpose is critical to help people feel comfortable answering these questions. For instance, young age groups are typically more familiar with technology, but Baby Boomers may need less tech and are less interested in it. Companies use generational demographic variables to create marketing messages, packaging, and campaigns that appeal to specific age groups. Marketers like to know how many people live in a household and what their ages are.