The Six Key Psychographic Elements for Longevity Marketing
Let’s take a look at the elements I use when formulating a marketing strategy, which effectively means figuring out “what to say and how to say it.”
Older consumers present an unprecedented opportunity for businesses of all kinds.
That’s because people over 50 currently tend to be lumped together in one large, undifferentiated bucket. Of course, that’s when marketers think about them at all, which isn’t often.
The vast demographic shift underway ironically reveals the inherent fallacy of overly simplistic statistical segmentation. This is why we’ve spent so much time exploring beliefs because they’re the foundation of psychographic – or psychological-based – marketing segmentation.
If you’re a digital marketer, you may think of segmentation as finding and noting classifications within an existing audience. Here, I’m using the term in the broader sense, which means choosing a specific segment of the entire market to build an audience and business around.
This psychological approach transcends mere interests or life stages as the basis for effectively communicating with older adults. Those elements are necessary, of course, but only play a relatively small part in the overall mix of psychographic ingredients for an engaging marketing recipe.
Before we dig into how to develop your own winning psychographic profiles of your ideal audience, you need to understand each of the components, how they differ from each other and interrelate, and what factors influence actual behavior when it comes to getting prospects to take action.
Let’s take a look at the elements I use when formulating a marketing strategy, which effectively means figuring out “what to say and how to say it.” Some of these are standard psychographic components that savvy marketers typically use, and others are aspects of my own unique approach. The key point is they’re all psychological, not demographic.
Worldview
We’ve talked a lot about worldviews already, but let’s put a hard definition to it. There are many ways to describe the word’s meaning, but here’s how I think of it:
A worldview is a mental model of reality — a comprehensive framework of ideas and attitudes about the world, ourselves, and life. In other words, it’s a system (or bundle) of beliefs that provide personally customized theories about the world and how it works.
When it comes to worldviews, it’s belief all the way down. But there are various kinds of beliefs, which brings us to a definition of values.
Values
Values are a special kind of belief. A general belief is about a fact that can be demonstrated as true or false. That doesn’t mean, obviously, that people can’t believe things that aren’t true. People who think the earth is flat are wrong but choose to ignore the evidence.
Values are different because they can’t be proved wrong or right. This is where the term value judgment comes from, as a value is an individual judgment of worth, not a fact.
This can be best understood in the context of core values, which represent a person's principles or standards of behavior and one's judgment of what is important in life. If someone says freedom, security, or creativity is the most important thing to them, you’re not in a position to tell them they’re wrong, and it’s best not to disregard this information.
Interests
The basic definition of an interest is a topic that creates “the state of wanting to know or learn about something or someone.” This is the common starting point for various forms of media and content marketing – it’s the topical subject matter that wraps around a problem or desire that advertisers or entrepreneurs can charge money to solve or satisfy.
Take the common marketing formula “AIDA” (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) as a representation of the buyer’s journey. Attention and Interest lead the path because there’s no chance for a sale without them. And yet, the best journalists and copywriters know that the winning expression of an idea that attracts attention and holds interest stems from an understanding of worldview and values applied via attitudes.
Attitudes
According to Merriam-Webster, an attitude is “a mental position with regard to a fact or state, or a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state.” What the heck does that mean? The most simplistic explanation would say it’s whether we like or dislike a particular thing, activity, or concept.
That said, attitudes are not simplistic in that they contain multitudes of variables that determine the success or failure of your content or marketing messages. More importantly, attitudes motivate behavior, getting someone to take a preferred action.
So, how do attitudes arise in people? The best way to think about attitudes is that they are made up of one part value, one part general “true or false” belief.
That means attitudes are susceptible to change, assuming you don’t violate the anchoring value. Or, you can mirror back existing attitudes for reliable engagement. And finally, new attitudes can be created toward novel subjects as long as you’re operating within an existing worldview and value set.
Belonging
Now, let’s shift from individual psychology to the way we think and behave in groups, which is crucial when dealing with audiences or segments of prospects. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, humans possess a strong need for belonging and acceptance among social groups, many of which are chosen based on strong common affinities.
When we operate in group settings, we tend to share the same mindset with other members within the context of the group’s focus. That means shared aspects of worldviews, values, interests, and attitudes.
This is what prompted social psychologist Dr. Robert Cialdini to not only add “unity” to his famous six principles of influence but to proclaim it the most powerful form of influence there is. It’s similar to the concept of social conformity that we’ve discussed but much more powerful:
A key characteristic of these categories is that their members tend to feel at one with, merged with, the others. They are the categories in which the conduct of one member influences the self-esteem of other members. Simply put, we is the shared me.
In other words, to become a leader in a group, you must first be viewed as a member of the group. And that means reflecting a similar worldview and value set. This then allows you to shape and define group attitudes with thought leadership and marketing advocacy.
Status
As soon as we belong, we begin jockeying for a position relative to others. This is the potent intersection of belonging and esteem in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Humans are wired to seek status in a wide variety of forms from an evolutionary perspective, which is why Eugene Wei, former head of product at Amazon and Hulu, referred to people as “status-seeking monkeys” in a popular essay exploring the drive for social capital.
“Social capital” is a good alternative term because “status” makes many people queasy. That’s because traditional forms of status display have fallen out of favor with large parts of the population. Case in point: the “quiet luxury” trend among the ultra-wealthy as a new, covert form of status signaling.
Status is not inherently shameful; it’s inherently human. Even saying you don’t care about your social position is a form of status-seeking. It’s also a prime motivator for doing good things for others and society at large, and that’s in no way a bad thing. Just be careful with the virtue signaling and humble brags.
Marketing inherently caters to status. Inadequacy marketing plays on a lack of stature to prompt purchases, while empowerment marketing seeks to elevate social standing from a more positive frame. The type of status games people play go back to worldviews and values, so inappropriately playing the status card will alienate prospects instead of empowering them.
Attitudes Are Where the Action’s At
In my experience, ignoring any of the six elements above will leave a gaping hole in your marketing efforts. And they can all be addressed by intimately understanding your ideal prospect through the lens of their participation among like-minded people they belong with.
And yet, of the six, things hinge on identifying the right attitudes. Attitudes flow from worldview, values, and interests and get reinforced and amplified by belonging and status. They’re the point where behavior can be influenced, taking you beyond “thought leadership” and into influencing relevant action.
In short, you’ll create better marketing messages, content, and copy by:
Understanding how to properly employ emotional elements without having them backfire;
Creating positive attitudes from your audience towards you, which enhances your credibility and authority with them; and
Being viewed as a “thought leader” (or simply a leader, because that’s the point).
But guess what? You’ll also be able to prompt older people to buy things. What a concept!
You now have the foundational psychological concepts to deeply understand your ideal audience. You just need a process that allows you to methodically create a “what to say and how to say it” strategy that perfectly pairs your expertise and values with your prospect’s problem and worldview. That’s where we’ll head next.