synchrographics
data about a consumer related to the timing of significant life events such as marriage, birth of a child, college graduation, or purchase of a home. This information is useful to direct marketers because the need for a related product or service can be predicted to occur in conjunction with these events. For example, a new parent will frequently be sent promotions for various baby care products, furniture, and parenting publications. New home buyers are good prospects for lawn and garden tools, major appliances, and repair/renovation services.
See also
psychographics
,
demographics
criteria for segmenting consumers by lifestyle, attitudes, beliefs, values, personality, buying motives, and/or extent of product usage. Psychographic analyses are used like geographic (place of residence or work) and demographic (age, income, occupation) criteria to describe and identify customers and prospective customers and to aid in developing promotion strategies designed to appeal to specific psychographic segments of the market for a product. For example, the market for shampoo may consist of various psychographic segments described by their primary purchase motives (beauty, health, grooming), usage styles (daily, weekly, salononly), or lifestyle (frequent travelers, parents with young children, empty-nesters).
The psychographic characteristics of the market affect not only advertising copy but also packaging (travel size, child-proof, decorator pump) and channels of distribution (supermarkets, pharmacies, specialty stores).
Psychographic data can be gathered firsthand through personal interviews, focus group interviews, or questionnaires, or purchased from research companies in the form of list overlays for direct marketers or market profiles for general marketers.
population statistics with regard to socioeconomic factors such as age, income, sex, occupation, education, family size, and the like. Advertisers often define their target market in terms of demographics; thus, demographics are a very important aspect of media planning in matching the media with the market. Each demographic category is broken down (by the various research companies) according to its characteristics.
