What is psychographic segmentation, and how do marketers use it in targeting different world markets?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Psychographic segmentation involves grouping people in terms of their attitudes, values, and lifestyles. Respondents are carefully selected by asking questions to assess their attitudes, values, and lifestyles. There are different companies that provide services and help in assessing these psychographic variables. Different groups are given names based on the attributes which describe their attitudes, values, and lifestyles. Automakers rely on this segmentation since the purchase behavior of a considerable size of consumers is dependent on psychographic values. A psychographic study showed that Porsche buyers could be divided into several distinct categories. One of the categories, "Top Gun" was found to buy Porsches and expect to be noticed. Proud Patrons and Fantasists, on the other hand, found such conspicuous consumption as irrelevant. Thus, automakers can design autos based on the preferences of populations grouped under each category. It is preferable to market to a mind-set rather than a particular age group. For finding such a group, psychographic studies are important. These analyses are expensive and require careful interpretations. SRI International, one of the market research organizations, has developed VALS/VALS 2 analyses of consumers based on psychographic values. A research team in Europe identified four lifestyle groups: Successful Idealists, Affluent Materialists, Comfortable Belongers and Disaffected Survivors. The first two groups represent the elite, while the latter two represented the mainstream European consumers. It should be noted that the segmentation and targeting approach used by a company can vary from country to country. Methods that can truly assess a population segment of a country should be employed for psychographic segmentation.