Targeting the Psychology of Your Audience

Are you in a position where you are hoping to narrow down the thinking of the average consumer for your product or service? Our society is going through great turmoil with people deciding to abandon companies based on their values. Other’s are gaining a lot of traction because of their values. Obviously your numbers show you where the trends are based on what your company has proclaimed its political ideology is. Or are you a company that is completely staying out of it? Is that a good choice? Is it ideal for your service? Or did you come out and say an ideology and then loose or gain a lot of customers? Wanna know why? Mostly because when companies proclaim values - they are targeting the psychology of their clients. They are wanting alignment with their ideas and values. The danger in it - is that it is guessing. It is not knowing. How do you know? You guessed it, qualitative research. Something for this type of data collecting would be best in a focus group. What’s great about focus groups is that you can get a mix of different ideas but be able to collaborate at the same time. Focus groups give the opportunity to express first impressions and then have the clients come up with the solutions. It is a really rounded way to get the data needed for some companies. What if you want to align with them but don’t know where to start? Ask! The questions are really the most important part. They need to be worded open ended though so you can adjust to the data. If you lead with with what you are hoping for that will immediately turn people off. For example it is important to word your questions like:

1. Would you be more willing to buy from a company that you knew aligned with your values? Would you be more or less likely?
2. If you found out a company did not align with your values would you be less willing or unwilling to spend money at that place?
3. Please list values you would like to see proclaimed by a company that would make you want to support a business:
4. Please list the values you will not support if a company came out and said they would support these:
5. How would you feel if some values aligned with you and some didn’t? Would you be reluctant/more/less willing to spend money? Why?
6. Are you more willing to buy from a place that does not list any values? Why?
7. Are you curious about how products and services are sourced or how employees are treated or do you just want to focus on your purchase?
8. What would make the buying experience more enjoyable for you personally when you come in?

These are some helpful places to start to figure out where the buying power is. This will allow for open ended data gathering which can be used for your own marketing or other research purposes! If you have questions or want to get started call today!