I am working on several evaluations for various arts organizations around the country, and what I am finding out is that some of us know our basic demographics of our audiences, but most of us do not know about the psychographics.
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the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria, especially in market research.
Thank you to Dictionary.com for the definition. The pychographics can also be known as the personality data: likes, dislikes, needs, values, and so on.
So why are psychographics more important? For this simple reason: you can be any age, any other demographic, and the psychographic could be across the board.
For example, and one of my favorite examples, there are Beatles fans from 0-90+, from all income levels, from all ethnicities, etc. Liking the Beatles is a FAB-ulous psychographic!
Now why would this be helpful? Once you know the psychographics, you can figure out a way to reach all your audiences at the same time, and to reach more potential audiences with the psychographic information. This will save time and money when you know the common ground. You won’t be able to find as much common ground with demographics as you will with psychographics.
So, do yourself a huge favor. Start asking the psychographic questions. What do they like? What are their preferences? You can add a psychographic question to your ticket purchase. You can add fields in your databases. You can add these types of questions to your surveys.
Once you know your audiences better, you will be educated on how to reach them for programming, collaborations and outreach programs. Being in the know is best for audience development!
Cheers to happy and loyal audiences,
Shoshana
Shoshana Fanizza
Chief Audience Builder, Audience Development Specialists
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The nice thing about knowing the psychographic characteristics of your current audience, is that it lets you then apply that same knowledge to find similar people in the larger market. Since audience and market aren’t the same thing, psychographics become a tool in your prospecting tool kit. “Oh – our audience members all like CosPlay. Hmm, let’s promote our programs at the next CosPlay event!”
Yes, Susan, exactly! Using psychographic data is perfect for broadening audiences. The more you know about your audience members, the easier it is to know where to find similar people who will also enjoy your arts offerings.
Thank you for your comment, Susan!