Psychographics and life style, Reference group influence in Consumer Behaviour

Psychographics 

psychographics describes people in terms of their day-to-day activities, interest, opinion, personalities and personal values. Psychographics research mainly focuses on the measurement of AIO (Activity, Interest, and Opinion).

A psychographic profile indicates how well each lifestyle statement describes him or her. AIO response reveals the lifestyle of an individual. They can be contrasted with demographic variables (such as age and gender), behavioral variables (such as usage rate or loyalty), and firm graphic variables (such as industry, seniority and functional area).

 

Psychographics should not be confused with demographics. For example, historical generations are defined by psychographic variables like attitudes, personality formation, and cultural touchstones. The traditional definition of the "Baby Boom Generation" has been the subject of much criticism because it is based on demographic variables where it should be based on psychographic variables while all other generations are defined by psychographic variables, the Boomer definition is based on a demographic variable: the fertility rates of its members' parents.

When a relatively complete profile of a person or group's psychographic make-up is constructed, this is called a "psychographic profile". Psychographic profiles are used in market segmentation as well as in advertising. Some categories of psychographic factors used in market segmentation include:

1. Activity, Interest, Opinion (AIOs)
2. Attitudes
3. Values

In fact, psychographic connote the idea of consumer and involve the investigation of three different aspect which are used to assist market strategic –

1. Life style
2. Personalities
3. Demographics.

The marketer can use this information on personality and psychographic for segmenting customers, for positioning products for designing media strategy e.tc. Psychographics can also be seen as an equivalent of the concept of "culture" as used most commonly in national segmentation. "Psychographics is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles".

Demographics vs Psychographics

CATEGORY	DEMOGRAPHICS	PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Definition	Statistical data that defines a population based on measurable factors.	Psychological characteristics that explain consumer attitudes, value, interest and lifestyle.
Focus	Who the consumer is external characteristics	Why the consumer behaves a certain way internal motivation.
Example	Age, gender, income, education, occupation, marital, status, location	Lifestyle, values, personality, beliefs, interests, motivations, buying habits.
Type of Data	Quantitively measurable, numeric data	Qualitative behavioural, emotional, and subjective data.
Collections Methods	Census data, Surveys, government records, employment statistics	Surveys, interviews. Focus groups, social media analysis, psychological profiling.
Example in Business	A company targets woman aged 25-40 with a premium skincare product.	A company targets woman who prefers organic and cruelty free skincare products.
Example in Advertising	A car ad highlighting affordability and fuel efficiency for middle income families	A car ad emphasizing adventure and thrill for consumers who seek excitement and freedom

Life Style 

The concept of life style is highly co related with consumer's value system and his personality. Life style is reflected by consumers AIO (Activity, Interest & Opinion). The basic logic between the life style segmentation is that consumers who engage in different activities and have different interest and opinion from others can be clustered together to form a homogeneous segment. Then research can reveal the product usage pattern that is unique to this segment. This enables the marketers to understand as how is product fit into the customer general pattern of behavior.

Life Style Characteristics

1. It is a group phenomenon: A personal lifestyle bears the influence of his participation in social group and the influence of his relationship with others.
2. Lifestyle pervades various aspect of life:  Knowing the person conduct in one aspect of life may enable one to product how the person may be having in other areas.
3. Lifestyle implies a central life interest:  For every individual there are certain interests that are central to his life like family, work, politics e.tc.
4. Life style may vary according to sociologically relevant variables:  The rate of change in the society has a great deal to do with variation in life style.

Approaches of study of life style

1. AIO Approach – One of the most popular ways for segmentation, targeting and positioning is to study the life style variable through an activity interest and opinion inventory. In constructing an inventory of such lifestyle statement first go through market research and could be of help in isolating psychographic variables.
2. Life style Approach – In India life style profile of kids, junior executive, housewife e.tc have been prepared. These categories exhibit different value system and life style pattern. A study of those patterns then in turn gives the idea to marketer of various products whether their offering will fit into their respective lifestyle or not.

Reference Group 

A reference group is the group whose imitation an individual does while forming values, beliefs, attitudes, opinions and behavior. In general reference group is a group is a group of people whom you refer while making buying decision. It influences consumer behavior by building aspirations for the individual and helping him to choose the product for a particular lifestyle. They are small groups and consist of family, close friends or any other group of people you associate with reference group affect consumer by importing information.

Types of Reference Group 

1. Membership of a Group –
• Primary Vs Secondary – A primary reference group is one with which the individual has frequent face to face contact. Member exerts significant influence on each member example – family. Secondary reference group is one in which interaction with other members is less frequent. The power to influence is far less than primary group. Example – club members.
• Formal Vs Informal – A formal group is one in which some sort of structure and in some cases, there could be specific member requirements. Informal groups are those that have no special membership or attendance requirement other than some common interest thus friends form an informal group.
• Aspirational Group – All the above-mentioned groups are membership group. A group to which an individual does not belong is known as Aspirational group. Here individual may attempt to emulate group member d by acting, dressing and even thinking the way they see that the member does.
2. Positive Vs Negative Group – Reference group can also be classified as to whether they attract or repel the individual. Positive groups are those with whom a person wants to be identified whereas negative groups those whom a person avoids are being identified.

Reference Group Influence 

Reference group tends to influence individual consumption behavior in at least two ways –

• They offer hints to an individual as to what kind of consumption pattern he should aspire for.
• They define items appropriate for a member to lead a particular life style.

There are broadly three types of reference group influence. It is important to distinguish among these carefully since the marketing strategies depend on the type of influence involved.

1. Informational Influence – This occurs when an individual uses the behavior and opinion of reference group members as potentially useful bits of information. For example – you may like to try a new burger introduced by McDonald because a friend with similar taste recommended it.
2. Normative Influence – This occur when an individual fulfils group expectation to gain a direct reward or to avoid a sanction. One may thus wear reebock shoes and not action brand to avoid being ridiculed by another member of the group who always sport the best possible brand.
3. Identification Influence – This occur when an individual uses the perceived group norms and values as a guide for his own values as a guide for his own attitude and values. Thus, the individual is using the group as the reference point for his own self-image.

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