________________________________________________________________________
Demographics: n. Or, demographic data, are the characteristics of a population as used in government, marketing or opinion research, or the demographic profiles used in such research. Commonly used demographics include sex, race, age, income, disabilities, educational attainment, home ownership, employment status, and even location. (Source)
Demographics are something used in many areas of business, from sales and marketing to public relations and advertising. While demographics are constantly changing, they can give you a good idea of what an area looks like, the changing trends (such as the average age of an area), and other statistics such as overall education of an area. Things like changing trends can be particularly useful in that they show the changes an area is undergoing; if the average age of an area is increasing or decreasing, you can have a better idea of which regions would be best to target when it comes to your new car, for example.
Additionally, there are also ethnographics. This information can also tell you about the groups of people in an area, but it focuses on the behaviors, cultural activities, and beliefs of a group, the overall nature. This can be more relevant to the PR and marketing team since creating respective plans really relies on the understanding of the behaviors of a demographic group rather than simply their education level or income earned. While I agree that having a particular amount of income and having received a specific level of education can greatly affect the way a group acts, there is more to it than simply race or gender.
Some find demographics to be somewhat limiting; they assume everyone in a group is the same, and they possibly help to perpetuate stereotypes. For example, assuming everyone who watches the Superbowl is the same can really limit the audiences you reach. Many of the commercials spoke to the mass audience that was watching the game and ignored the other smaller groups. While that may be the best way to utilize the million dollar commercial spot, in the long-run it can only hurt your reach. With the Internet, those small niches can now be reached in addition to the larger audiences. But, that's for another post.
The important thing to remember is that demographics were used in traditional advertising and marketing campaigns and it seemed to work well, or at least well enough. With the Internet making it easier and easier to categorize and group people by the way they act, instead of simply the area in which they live, it's time to consider really utilizing the tools available. Looking at a demographic group online, there are bound to be many differences, making it difficult to target them. To look at an ethnographic group online who spend their time in the same places, you can better see what methods would work to reach them.
PR and the Social Web wrote a post on this recently that help to corroborate my point:
Public Relations Tools | Demographics & Enthographics
________________________________________
Demographics: n. Or, demographic data, are the characteristics of a population as used in government, marketing or opinion research, or the demographic profiles used in such research. Commonly used demographics include sex, race, age, income, disabilities, educational attainment, home ownership, employment status, and even location. (Source)Demographics are something used in many areas of business, from sales and marketing to public relations and advertising. While demographics are constantly changing, they can give you a good idea of what an area looks like, the changing trends (such as the average age of an area), and other statistics such as overall education of an area. Things like changing trends can be particularly useful in that they show the changes an area is undergoing; if the average age of an area is increasing or decreasing, you can have a better idea of which regions would be best to target when it comes to your new car, for example.
Additionally, there are also ethnographics. This information can also tell you about the groups of people in an area, but it focuses on the behaviors, cultural activities, and beliefs of a group, the overall nature. This can be more relevant to the PR and marketing team since creating respective plans really relies on the understanding of the behaviors of a demographic group rather than simply their education level or income earned. While I agree that having a particular amount of income and having received a specific level of education can greatly affect the way a group acts, there is more to it than simply race or gender.
Some find demographics to be somewhat limiting; they assume everyone in a group is the same, and they possibly help to perpetuate stereotypes. For example, assuming everyone who watches the Superbowl is the same can really limit the audiences you reach. Many of the commercials spoke to the mass audience that was watching the game and ignored the other smaller groups. While that may be the best way to utilize the million dollar commercial spot, in the long-run it can only hurt your reach. With the Internet, those small niches can now be reached in addition to the larger audiences. But, that's for another post.
The important thing to remember is that demographics were used in traditional advertising and marketing campaigns and it seemed to work well, or at least well enough. With the Internet making it easier and easier to categorize and group people by the way they act, instead of simply the area in which they live, it's time to consider really utilizing the tools available. Looking at a demographic group online, there are bound to be many differences, making it difficult to target them. To look at an ethnographic group online who spend their time in the same places, you can better see what methods would work to reach them.
PR and the Social Web wrote a post on this recently that help to corroborate my point:
In social networks we can build an accurate ethnographically detailed picture of our target audience based on what they do and what interests and excites them. Whatever part of the social spectrum they might come from the fact is that they have shown an interest in a relevant area. That’s an insight more powerful than any generalisation [sic] based on class, sex, race or place.What are some benefits of demographics that still makes it critical to pay attention to them? What is your take on ethnographics?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Comments (0)
Post a Comment