Reproduced with permission of The Nielsen Company; Source: Nielsen Claritas
Purchasing behavior in different life stages
Rather than look at a target market solely in terms of demographics, life stage analysis considers what people are doing with their lives, recognizing that it may affect media behavior and spending patterns.
Purchasing behavior may also differ by life stages, such as the family life cycle, as shown in Table 3-2. Note that the family life cycle described in the table may not accurately reflect the wider range of today’s lifestyles.
TABLE 3-2 Stage in the Family Life Cycle
| Life Stage | Sample Products or Services They Buy |
|---|---|
| Single, no children (also known as Bachelor Stage) | Fashionable clothing, vehicles |
| Newly Married Couples, no children | Good furniture, new homes, insurance |
| Family Nest 1, young children | Baby food and toys, children’s items, activities, and education |
| Family Nest 2, older children | College, possibly travel and furniture |
| Empty nest, children gone | Vacations, hobbies, savings for retirement |
| Solitary survivor | Savings, accommodations, medical expenses |
Source: Adapted from www.marketing91.com/family-life-cycle
For example, Statista found in 2019 there were nearly 3.5 billion mobile social media users worldwide. (www.statista.com/topics/2478/mobile-social-networks/#:~:text=As%20of%20July%202019%2C%20there,and%20affordability%20of%20mobile%20internet).
Psychographics or lifestyle
Psychographic segmentation divides a market by social class, lifestyle, or the shared activities, interests, and opinions of prospective customers. It helps identify groups in a social-networking service or other, smaller, social networks that attract users who meet your desired profile.
Behavioral segmentation, which is closely related, divides potential buyers based on their uses, responses, or attitudes toward a product or service. To obtain this information about your customers, consider including a quick poll as part of your e-newsletter, website, or blog. Although the results from those who reply may not be exactly representative of your total customer base — or that of prospective customers — a survey gives you some starter data.
Psychographic segmentation, such as that found at http://strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/usframework2015-08.png, helps you identify not only where to promote your company but also how to craft your message. For example, understanding your specific target group, its mindset, and its lifestyle might help you appeal to customers such as the Innovators described at that URL; they might be interested in your high-end line of fashion, home decor, or vacation destinations. Or you might target Experiencers at that URL for a wild new restaurant, a zipline adventure, or an energy drink.
www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/presurvey.shtml.
Affinity groups
Segmenting by affinity group (a group of people who share similar interests or participate in similar activities) fills in the blank at the end of the “People who like this interest or activity also like …” statement. Because psychographic segmentation uses activity as a subsection, that approach is somewhat similar.
For example, in Figure 3-2, Quantcast estimates other interests of visitors to Goodreads (www.goodreads.com) based on their browsing behavior under the General Interests option. (This data is available only for quantified sites — that is, sites for which the site owners have verified the data.) A check mark to the right of the name of the site indicates that it is quantified; otherwise, you see the label “not quantified.”
