Psychographics is a form of marketing research that blends demographics and psychology to give a more penetrating understanding of consumer behavior. It analyzes the values, beliefs, and underlying motivations of various population groups so that you can tailor your products and services to each group.
Douthit's 5 Tribes
Hal Douthit applies psychographics to real estate sales. He has identified five dominant market segments among homebuyers and sellers.
Achievers. These are the pacesetters in business, industry, and the professions. They’re ambitious, hard working, and generally family-oriented. They’re well educated and well read and have serious marketing experience.
Homebuying behavior: Achievers make up about 25 percent of today's homebuyers, but when it comes to dollar value, their impact is much greater. They’re among the dominant purchasers of upper-end properties, and they want homes that reflect their success. Exercise rooms, studies, gourmet kitchens, sumptuous baths, children's areas, and au-pair rooms are priority features. Achievers require a sophisticated, low-key marketing approach.
Authentics. This is the most highly educated tribe, comprising white-collar professionals, creative entrepreneurs, and "offbeat" business people. Authentics are individualistic, public-spirited, community-oriented, environmentally conscious, and aware of world affairs.
Homebuying behavior: Above all, Authentics reject flamboyance. They prefer preowned homes. They want a place that's a retreat, where they can unwind and pursue personal interests. It should have an open, airy floorplan and big windows so they feel connected with nature. Authentics make up about 20 percent of the current marketplace, and their home purchases are in a high-dollar range. They value their relationship with the salesperson and are more likely to be repeat buyers.
Heartlanders. These are the guardians of traditional values—family, country, and community. Many are small business owners or managers in other-owned businesses. They work in accounting, real estate, law, medicine, and education. They’re more conventional than Achievers and Authentics, somewhat older, and less highly educated. They make up about 35 percent of the homebuying market.
Homebuying behavior: Heartlanders prefer traditional American home styles that blend in with the community, such as Cape Cods in New England, bungalows in the Midwest, and Colonial homes in the South. They’re at home in subdivisions. They like open floor plans, but they dislike window-walls and the exterior angularity of some postmodern designs. Because of their deep connection to hearth and home, moving can be traumatic for Heartlanders. They need a salesperson who is supportive.
Trenders. Most members of this tribe, people in their early 20s to mid-30s, have had some college, and many are still unmarried. Trenders are found on the lower rungs of the professions and in the trainee ranks of businesses. They want what the Achievers have, but they aren't there yet. They are upward strivers, very style-conscious.
Homebuying behavior:They choose condos or townhomes as their starter homes, but they also appreciate old bungalows in convenient urban locations. They look for status features in their first homes. Addresses are important to them. Show them the least expensive homes in or near upscale neighborhoods.
Upkeepers. This group is slightly older than Trenders but in the same income bracket. They work in the manual trades. Most have a high-school education; a few have some college.
Homebuying behavior:Like Trenders, Upkeepers often start out with condos and townhomes. But the real deal for Upkeepers is a fix-up home on a small acreage at the edge of town. Home styles and fancy features are unimportant to them.
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