Today's Retail Action Article, July 20th, 2011

Retailers Can Use Psychographics To Connect With Customers On A New Level

Learn More About Customers And Their Personal Interests And Exceed Their Expectations

There's been a lot of dialogue about the evolving demographics of our retail marketplace. We often talk about the influence of the baby boomers as well as how our young consumers with more disposable cash than ever will become the most formidable buying sectors in the evolving retail landscape.

Astute retailers are scrambling to better understand what motivates the various demographic groups to spend their money in their stores. This indeed is a good strategy. After all, values and issues that are important to a teenager will differ drastically from a woman who is planning on retiring at the end of the year.  Each retailer needs to create a buying experience that exceeds the expectations of their target market.

Today and in the distant future, customer expectations will continue to increase, as consumers will expect more from their hard earned money in a market with tight credit and diminished earning power. Even if we can segment our consumers into various demographic groups, we'll really need to connect with them on a more individualized platform. Through technology and other simple means, we can start our long term relationships with customers by asking them to volunteer information about themselves. While respecting their privacy we can ask them to offer information about their personal interests, their buying patterns, future buying intentions and more.

Today, most of information is best garnered through well structured questionnaires and forms on the internet. Customers can visit the website on their own accord or we can induce while in our stores to visit our website and be eligible for a prize if they complete the questionnaire. All participants at the end of completing a questionnaire, should get an electronic gift certificate that can be redeemed on their next store visit. They are also eligible to win a grand prize based on a draw on a given date as incentive to participate.

Information about the customer can include specifics about their expectations, beliefs, personal interests, hobbies, buying patterns and future objectives. This information can then be used to create a series of more specific customer profiles in order to customize your organization’s marketing approach. Beyond demographics customer profiling can create smaller and more focused target customer groups that you can connect with on a deeper level. A clothing retailer for example may have a wide array of customers spanning a wide range of ages and within these demographic groups discover of riding of priorities and values. For example customers within the same age group in this case may have differing expectations in regards to leading edge fashion and price or value. Those within the demographic group that demonstrate  the strong fashion conscious profile could be approached early on in the fashion season so that they may purchase the most fashionable merchandise that is a reflection of their specific priorities and values. Conversely those within the same demographic that fine value and price more important can be approached towards the last half of the fashion season when selection may not be as favorable but sale pricing will be in effect, thus meeting their specific psychographics needs.

Today our evolving customer base can be further refined through psychographic profiling with a greater level of customization that will empower us to connect on a more intimate level with our customers and create long-term more meaningful relationships. Understanding specific beliefs expectations and habits of our customers through psychographics enables us to avoid cookie cutter approaches to our customers and create strong long-term personal bonds.

Take Action Today:

1) Develop your own questionnaire and start cultivating information about your customers are more personal level.

2) Create smaller groups of profiles within demographic segments.

3) Use these profiles to create more customize marketing campaigns that connect with the values, beliefs and habits of each specific profile group

retail, retailer, EMPLOYEES, leadership, operations, global trends, global issues, sales, purchases, supply chain, shipping, vendors
customers, consumers, teams, teamwork, human resources, motivation, loyalty, sales, engagement,