2.2: Psychographics - Attitude, Interests, and Opinions

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Psychographics is the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. Because this area of research focuses on attitudes, interests, and opinions, (or AIO psychographic factors). Psychographic studies of individuals or communities can be valuable ‘marketing strategy’ in conjunction with demographics, opinion research, and social research in general. They can be contrasted with demographic variables (such as age and gender), behavioral variables (such as usage rate or loyalty), and organizational demographics variables (sometimes called firmographic variables), such as industry, number of employees, and functional area.

Consumer Characteristics

Psychographic consumer characteristics center on peoples' lifestyles. They include things such as their personalities, where they live, habits, leisure activities, ideologies, values, beliefs, and attitudes. Attitudes are especially important to any retailer, and they include things such as propensity to save, work ethic, acceptance of alternative lifestyles and cultures, willingness to accept risk, brand loyalty, and adaptation to cutting-edge technology.

Table: 1.2 Foodservice Psychographic Life Cycle

Cycle Stage	Age	Consumer Characteristics
Childhood
Early	5 or under	Need toys and child portions. May require a baby-sitter in a hotel environment.
Late	6 - 12	Important influence on choice of place to eat out. Recreation programs’ for pre-teens help sway decisions of this group.
Teenagers
Younger	13 - 15	Becoming independent consumers but most typically without ‘significant’ income. Major influence on dining out. Recreation facilities used independently.
Older	16 - 19	Independent consumers’ often employed part-time with a high need for social activity.
Young Adults
Young Singles	20 - 24	In the labor force/or post-secondary education full time. Adequate income for small-scale use of foodservices, such as dating. Travel with family or on very low budget.
Young Married	25 - 34	Predominately two-income families, but family formation expenditures and investments often reduced available funds for travel. Like lively, informal dining places. High travel interest.
Middle Age
Younger	35 - 49	Income rises considerably, but children at home or in college require significant continuing support. Highest propensity to eat out, and travel.
Advanced	50 - 64	Income at peak, though sometimes reduced at early retirement. Very high propensity to travel. Eat out less often than young middle-age groups.
Senior Citizens
Young	65 - 74	Fixed but adequate income. Retirement means an affluent leisure class. Generally healthy and vigorous. Intent to enjoy life. Regular, but less frequent restaurant customers. Some special diet considerations.
Old	75 - 84	More health problems: often widow or widower living alone. Prone to depression. May require nursing home care. Special diet considerations more prevalent. Most rapidly growing population segment in North America.
Very Old	85 plus	7 of 10 are women. Frail and elderly, but alert and very prosperous. Require special diets and assistance.

Psychographics provide better insights into marketing behavior than demographics, but they can be difficult to gather. Most people do not like telling strangers about their personal lives. In the twenty-first century, we seldom have to make personal inquiries. Market research firms are aware of which of customers go on cruises, have children under four, live in homes and apartments, are single, and so forth. Market researchers base their customer analysis on things such as credit card history and psychographic profile illustrated in Table 1.2. Using such information allows them to categorize restaurant customers based on lifestyles. A customer could be described as interested in a healthy lifestyle, consumers of fine wines, international travelers, and like to try new things on the menu. This form of information would certainly be more useful than viewing your average customer as married, age 47, and female.

Customer base shifts

It is important to have a good idea of your current customer's profile. Who are your customers? Where do they come from? Why do they like to visit your operation? How much do they like to spend - and how often do they visit the restaurant? If this information is not gathered and compared over time, an operator will not be able to tell if or how their customer base is changing over time. Eventually, all customer bases shift to a lesser or greater extent. A restaurant operator must be able to anticipate and prepare for such changes. Both demographic and psychographic profiles can provide useful insights and indicate future trends. Restaurant operators can learn working the dining room. Getting to know their guests can yield equally valuable information. You can never know too much about your guests.