III .

Psychographic segmentation:
Creating market segments based on psychological characteristics .Buyers are
divided into different groups on the basis of psychological characteristics explained
below.

a) Lifestyle : We all have different lifestyle patterns that reflect many factors, including
our stage of life. Our wants and needs change based on those patterns. Segmentation
by lifestyle considers where the customer or client is in their lifecycle and what is important
to them at that exact time. When segmenting a target market based on lifestyle
psychographic characteristics, marketers promote their products and services as
solutions to those wants and needs.

b) Personality : Brands, products, and services all have personalities, created

intentionally or unintentionally. When purposefully, marketers will often create these
personalities to match the personality traits most attractive to their target market. When
a consumer can relate to the characteristics of a brand, product, or service they are
more likely to engage with it. An example for segmenting by personality is Harley
Davidson. The motorbike brand is notorious for targeting the rough, rebellious, free,
thrill-seeking man - and this personality has influenced their marketing strategy
since the 1930s.

c) Social class: Since there is a strong psychological component in a person’s need to

maintain social class standards, this can be a very powerful method of segmentation.
It has a strong influence on preference in cars, clothing, home furnishing, leisure
activities, and retailers. Many companies design products and services for specific
social classes. When marketers consider social hierarchy when developing their
psychographic targeting efforts, it’s mainly because of the difference in social
class’ purchasing power. For example, cosmetics brands aim their products at the
upper-class consumer with high quality, high prices, and high fashion.
d) Opinions, Attitudes, Interests, Hobbies: This categorization looks at factors such
as opinions on religious, gender, politics, views on the environment, social , cultural
issues ,sporting and recreational activities etc. The opinions your market segments
hold and activities they engage in have a huge impact on the products and services
they buy, and even how they respond to your messaging.

IV .Behavioural segmentation
Buyers are divided into groups on the basis of their usage or response to a product.
The variables used for behavioural segmentation are,

a)Occasions: Buyers can be distinguished according to the occasions when they

purchase a product or use a product for occasions. For example, air travellers might fly
for business or vacation. Therefore, one airline might promote itself as a business flyer
while another might target the tourists.

b) Benefits: Buyers can be classified according to the benefits they seek. People vary
considerably in the benefits they seek from the same product. The major benefit sought
in a product is used as the basis of classify consumers. High quality, low price, good taste,
speed, are examples of benefits. For example, some air travellers prefer economy class
(low price), while others seek executive class (status and comfort).

c) User status: Potential buyers may be classified as regular users, occasional users
and non-users. Marketers can develop new products or new uses of old products by
targeting one or another of these groups.
e) Usage rate: Markets can be segmented into light, medium and heavy product users.
Markets can be segmented into various classes depending on usage rate.
Considering
the cosmetics usage, the different categories of usage rate are as follows:
Light users - These are the categories of the users who are very infrequent users. In
case of cosmetics an average housewife who is not very fashion conscious is a light user
of cosmetics.
Medium users - The fashion-conscious teenagers are the medium users of cosmetics,
that is, they use it frequently.
Heavy users - There are people for whom the cosmetics are the most important
purchase and they are heavy users of it. Celebrities in entertainment world, the models
etc. need cosmetics on a regular basis, as it is the most important part of their profession.
f) Loyalty status: Consumers have varying degrees of loyalty to specific brands, stores
and companies.