A Psycho-graphic Ultra Modern Girl Like Me!
Another way to see your communities with the concept of psychographics (also New Zealand adventures including whale watching and glow worms, also OrcaCon 2024 in Washington)
in case you missed my obsession with Chappel Roan, the title of this substack is a reference to her song Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl :D
Top 3 Hot Topics Today:
Psychographics vs Demographics
New Zealand Recap
OrcaCon 2024 Guest
Psychographics vs Demographics
You probably have heard of demographics before. These are usually attributes you can apply to a specific community including age, income, gender, education, occupation, etc. In marketing and social media analytics, the person usually self-reported these demographics. You can segment out your community to have more targeted and specific messaging when talking about a product or learn about who is more engaged and dig into who your actual target audience is or is not.
I just recently learned about the idea of psychographics from my friend and co-worker Jayme and I’ve been able to do a little bit of my own research and try to wrap my head around what it is. Whereas demographics may be a bit more outward facing (ie. a 33-year-old gay male, living in Florida, working as a Community Manager), psychographics focuses on internal attributes, habits, and attitudes— these things are a bit harder to come by, but will usually help you paint a more detailed picture on how a customer or audience acts and their “why” on if they choose to purchase something or engage with what you’re putting out. Psychographics can include:
Personality Characteristics
Lifestyle Choices and Interests
Habits and Behaviors
Opinions, Beliefs, and Values
As you can see, psychographic information is a bit more nuanced and subjective and overall harder to get. From a marketing perspective, trying to understand the target audience’s habits, ideals, morals, and values and analyzing that information will give you a deeper understanding of their buying behavior, what types of ads resonate with them, and the ability to create even more relevant messaging toward the customer.
You can think of demographic segmentation as painting broad strokes of your community, but to get the finer details, you’ll have to spend time within those communities to further segment out the broad strokes with the nitty, gritty concepts of psychographics. Just because people are the same age or are found in the same geographic location doesn’t mean that their habits and preferences are similar or that their beliefs align. Marketers usually have a really good grasp on demographics, but front-facing people such as customer service, growth specialists, social media marketers and community managers who are on the ground floor with the consumer/customer usually have a better idea of psychographics. Both are important to consider in any strategy and having a team that can rally behind both to experiment with different marketing activations and experiments will probably be a team that is firing on all cylinders.
New Zealand Recap
If y’all didn’t know, I took my first trip to New Zealand with my partner Joe and it was a magical trip. It was a ~13-hour flight from LAX to Aukland, NZ and I would do that flight time and time again to experience this beautiful country. We spent roughly 10 days there, with one day before and after as buffer travel days. We got to see a lot of the north island and a little of the south island. We got to do some really wild adventures (of which I documented on my TikTok if you wanna see a full recap!) that took us all around New Zealand, experiencing all the nature and elements that it provides, giving me a taste that I’ll savor until the next time I can get over there. Highlights include:
Spelunking and tubing down below in the Waitomo glow worm caves
Night stroll up 25 meters high in the Rotorua Redwood Treewalk
Gondola up to the skyline and luge down Mt. Ngongotaha
Māori cultural experience at a village in the forest Tawa-ngāhere-pā
The Hobbiton Movie Set Tour + Hobbit Feast in Matamata
Jet ski tour around the Bay of Island + midnight stargazing in Paihia
Hop-on-hop-off, museums and botanical gardens in Christchurch
Train ride to Kaikoura for a whale and dolphin watch tour
Mini-hike up to the top of Mt. Eden, aextinct volcano, in Auckland
OrcaCon 2024 Guest
OrcaCon is a cozy, convention located in Bellvue, WA held January 5-7, 2024 that focuses on highlighting and uplifting diverse folks in the space. I was graciously invited to be a special guest this year! If you’re in the PNW area and are available that weekend, please come out and play some games with me. I’ll also be on a handful of panels including “How to Thrive as a Marginalizd Creative”, “Future Visions of Table Top Gaming”, “Unconventional Paths to Gaming”, and a weird, spooky ooky kooky totally normal LARP called “Banana’s Birthday Bash”. I’ll be there with a whole bunch of other creators, designers, writers and fantastic people in table top and board gaming and I’m so excited to get my year started off at this convention!
And that wraps up the last substack of 2023. I hope y’all have had a great holiday season and that you’re getting the rest, relaxation, and all the yummy foods and games in that your heart desires. As always, thank you for taking the time out to read, interact, and support me on this lil newsletter/blogging journey I’m on! I hope it’s been as delightful for you as it has been for me (and if it hasn’t or you have suggestions, please throw them my way!).
Here’s to all the amazingness that is waiting for us 2024! See y’all soon.
Stay strong. Stay thicc. *Big hug*