Psychographic Factors: A Deep Dive

In yesterday’s blog we talked a little bit about psychographics. Today we’re going to take a deeper dive into the factors that make up psychographic profiles. They can be broken down into four major groups: beliefs, attitudes, values and needs. Beliefs are defined as something that someone holds to be true and come from our experiences. They are hard to change because the longer we hold them, the more stable and entrenched they are. We often hold beliefs at the core of “who we are.” Attitudes are defined as stable, positive or negative response to certain people, ideas, objects and/or policies. Lastly, values are goals that one strives for and they are what we consider important and desirable. They can be for reasons of nostalgia, materialism, prestige, pleasure, etc. Lastly, we all have needs. That is the motivation to fulfill any deficiency that we may have according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which we’re certain you all have heard of. These include: basic survival needs, safety/security, connection/love & belonging, esteem needs and finally, self-actualization. All of these major groups inherently affect the factors that we are now going to talk about.

1. Lifestyle: Every day activities and how people spend their time. This can give insight into what someone is lacking in their life or has too much of. This can show you how a person views themselves and how their life is influenced by their careers and relationships.

2. Interests: How do people choose to spend their spare time? This says a lot about a person. Typically, within a brand, the audience will share some common interests.

3. Personality: There are five major groups and it shows how people interact with the world around them.

   1. Introvert or Extrovert

   2. Emotional or Logical

   3. Programmatic or Idealist

   4. Spontaneous or Planner

   5. Creative or Systematic

4. Social status: This can give insight into how purchasing decisions will be affected by income.

5. Behaviors: Defined as the way in which one acts or conducts oneself. Behaviors can be shown through a person’s buying patterns, product usage, and frequency of purchases.

   1. Habits: Daily habits are not easily broken. It is defined as a routine behavior regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

Now that we understand the psychographic factors a little deeper, the next step is to use these to segment your audience into different groups based on similarities. When using these factors to segment your audience it will help improve your marketing campaigns. Pairing this with demographics will streamline your efforts and you will see better results.  

Psychographics for Advertising/Marketing Strategy

Psychographics sounds like a pretty intense word does it not? It’s not nearly as crazy as it sounds and it is a key component of marketing and advertising strategies. Psychographics uses psychology in conjunction with demographics to create a set of traits to group consumers by what influences their purchasing behaviors. It’s psychological and cognitive traits of consumers that reveals their beliefs, values and goals. There are factors that influence their psychographics such as, personality characteristics, lifestyle, social class, habits, behaviors and interests. So, how do you find the psychographic data from your audience? Well, there are a few ways. Interview existing clients by sending out a survey or asking directly. It’s asking questions like, “what did you do over the weekend?” or “what good movies have you seen lately?” Ask them about family. Do they have children? Do they workout? This will all give you insight into their lifestyle. You can also get the data from your website analytics. What CTA’s were clicked on most. What have they purchased from you in the past? Were those items on sale? Lastly, you can use focus groups or collect data from market research companies to gain insights. Now that you have your psychographic data it’s time to tailor your audience’s experiences to their needs. It’s important to motivate them based on their needs. Show examples of what worked for previous customers. Something that is important to them. Second, make sure to market to them where they spend their time. Are they on Facebook or do they spend most of their time on YouTube? Third, your marketing must include things that are priority to them. Are they family driven? Career driven? Healthy lifestyle driven? This can help you tailor your images and messages for them specifically. Personalization is not an option for customers today, it’s a must. The more you understand your audience the more your brand can connect with them on a deeper level.

Behavioral Marketing

“Organizations that leverage consumer behavior data to generate insight outperform their competitors but 85% in sales growth,” according to Microsoft. Demographics are important for marketing efforts but it won’t be enough to fulfill your business model goals. This is where behavioral marketing can come into play, as well as psychographics. We’ll talk about the latter in tomorrow’s blog. Today, we are focused on behavioral marketing alone. So, what is behavioral marketing? Let’s define it as the method of using behaviors, interests, intentions, locations, etc. to target audiences. Although it may seem similar to psychographics, the difference lies in that this reveals consumer’s beliefs, values and goals to understand purchasing habits. Behavioral marketing is important to helping your brand tailor ads, attract more leads, increase sales and strengthen bonds with your customers. However, that being said, it’s not enough to just understand your audience because they may not all have the same behaviors within their demographics. This is where segmentation comes into play. Some common segmentations are purchasing behavior, engagement levels, consumer loyalty, benefits desired, and different journey stages to name a few. Collection of this data can be done through website analytics, browsing history, search history, social data, purchasing history, mobile apps, emails and/or chatbot histories. People want personalization and this is a great way to achieve that as a business. According to Segment’s 2022 State of Personalization Report, “49% of people say that they will likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience with a retail brand.” It’s clear that behavioral marketing is one of the most influential factors to obtaining this personalization consumers so desire and it will benefit the success of your brand.

eBooks: What, How, & Why

If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably also read an eBook at some point in your professional or personal life, but have you ever considered writing one for your business or brand? eBooks are a great way to offer information to your audience and gain more followers and to build your mailing list. eBooks give people the full spectrum of the information they are looking for on a particular topic all in one place. I mean think about it, why read your eBook when they can just surf the web for the info they’re curious about? There’s a reason for this. They are fun, easy to read, visual, as well as educational that people actually want to look at. Aside from this, there are other benefits to creating eBooks, such as inexpensive & quick to produce, easy distribution, can be more in depth than blogs, they’re easily accessible to your audience and they increase in brand credibility. Now that we’ve discussed what it is and how it can benefit your brand, let’s talk about how to create one. As with any book you must first start with a good topic and detailed outline. Think about common questions that people may have about your brand. What can you share that other brands haven’t? Second, design the eBook. Length should be somewhere between 5-10K words depending on the topic. It’s important to make sure that it is visually striking so add graphs, case studies, images, links, and graphics. It’s also important to use PDF or HTML for the eBook since it will be searchable on the internet if so. Be consistent with brand voice through text and design here as well. When designing it’s also crucial to place calls-to-action within the document. This is for lead generation, conversion and promotion. Once your eBook is complete, it’s time to start promoting. Best practices can include taking snapshots and sharing on social channels, share on LinkedIn and community groups where your audience hangs out. Happy writing!

Creativity: Different Types of Research Design

In our creativity research, we’ve learned that deliberate and cognitive are types of creativity. Creativity is not limited to the artsy types who are spontaneous and emotional. This style of creativity will require research. Think of Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein. They were creative leaders who were highly deliberate and cognitively creative with their scientific innovative efforts. This is where research design comes into play with creativity. Research design refers to the overall strategy that will be used to integrate the different parts of a study in a coherent and logical way. It’s a blueprint of how you will collect data, measure it and analyze. It allows you to test a hypothesis. It’s important that your research be conducted in a way that is neutral, reliable, validified and generalized. If you’ve ever taken a science class in college, you’ve probably written a research paper or read plenty of them. There are a lot of types of research designs but they can be broken into two main categories: quantitative and qualitative. Qualitative design is focused on the what’s and how’s whereas quantitative is focused on variables that include numbers and stats. I like to think of these as macro and micro styles of research. Quantitative is more of the testing and measuring, where numbers, graphs and tables focus in on small details. Qualitative is the broader research in the form of general ideas for theories that will be represented in words instead of numbers. Breaking research design down further, there are 4 major types: descriptive, correlational, experimental, diagnostic and explanatory. Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these.

1.     Descriptive: this style of research design refers to a process of observing and describing something that exists in a natural environment without any interference. It helps provide answers of who, what, when and how with a particular problem. It’s best for gathering unbiased data the can reveal certain behaviors or phenomena.

2.     Correlational: this examines the relationship between two or more variables without intervention. Think of this as a cause and effect situation. One thing happens that causes the second to occur. It identifies the link between two things. The correlation can be positive or negative. Positive meaning, they both change in the same direction and negative meaning they change in opposite directions.

3.     Experimental: this is where the researcher will manipulate one variable to see how it interacts with another. Typically, these studies are done with one control group and one experimental. It will tell you cause and effect relations between variables for the experimental group and the placebo effect of the control group.

4.     Diagnostic: this style of research looks to investigate an underlying cause of something in order to find the best solution.

5.     Explanatory (exploratory): this is a fun one. It’s goes into depth on topics where there hasn’t been much research previously done. More mystery here and it helps to gain insight into something unknown. This looks for the “why” of some event through establishing a cause-effect relationship.

There are many benefits to conducting research, so having a proper design and understanding of which is best to use for what type of research is important. It can make or break your research study. With proper design, you can really get a deeper understanding of the subject in question. It can assist in solving complex problems within an industry and increase understanding of topics that may not be well studied. The type of research problem will determine the type of design that you use! In business, it will help you gain success to make informed decisions with data.  

AI in Advertising

A.I. is all the fuss right now in the advertising community. It’s got a lot of people up in arms who are against it  and those who are pro artificial intelligence for advertising, are shouting to the rooftops why it’s a good thing. As with most things, there are positive and negative aspects to this topic. So, in order to understand this more we took a deep dive into Artificial Intelligence in advertising. It seems there are a lot of benefits to using AI in advertising but with even more drawbacks. In this article we won’t take a stance on it just yet. We feel there is much more research to be done in order to completely understand how AI will affect the industry. However, we want to leave you with a pros and cons list so that you can start to make your own viewpoint.

PROS of AI:

1.     It can allocate advertising budgets

2.     It can execute programmatic ad strategies

3.     It can compute vast amounts of data to determine trends for writing, understand your audiences on a deeper level and create personalized messaging.

4.      Predict emotional response from campaigns in testing before they go live

CONS of AI

1.     You will need a lot of data

2.     People can end up relying on it too much

3.     It can replace some jobs and increase unemployment

4.     It has a large carbon footprint

5.     It can misappropriate use of IP

6.     It can land you into to hot water when it comes to the IP point

There are so many more pros and cons to using artificial intelligence in advertising and marketing. In short, we think it’s a bit too new to do a deep dive. This is just a starting point. It’s hard to say whether the pros will outweigh the cons and vice versa so we hope you do sufficient research to form your own opinions on the matter. We’ll be watching the space closely.

A/B Testing

What is A/B testing? Well, if you’re in the marketing and advertising world chances are you already know. For those of you that may not it’s also known as split testing or bucket testing. Basically, it’s comparing two versions of something against one another other to determine which one performs better. They’re often used in marketing and advertising but it isn’t limited to these fields. They’re important experiments to determine higher ROI, lower the risk of failure and help strengthen your marketing and advertising efforts to name a few. So, we now know what it is and why they are done but how are they composed? First, you need to know what it is that you want to test. Do you want to test where to place a CTA or test which email newsletter format performs better? Now that you know what you want to test, it’s time to generate a hypothesis of why you think something will be better than the current version. Create the variations of the new hypothesis. You will have to ask yourself once you’re ready… How long will you run the test and which testing tool will you use to run them? Google Analytics has A/B testing on web pages. HubSpot has some for email, CTA and landing pages. MailChimp, Constant Contact and Facebook also have these. These are key components to the experiment and lastly, it’s time to run your test and measure the results. It’s simple. Okay it’s kind of simple but there a million ways that a company can go wrong here. Let’s talk about some tips to help you create the most effective A/B testing possible.

1.     Don’t do too much. Try to pick one variable to test. It will be overwhelming and ineffective if you’re trying to test too many things at once. You also won’t know which variable it was that made it perform better. This is the “independent variable.”

2.     Define your metric for successful tests. What is the goal? This will determine which metrics to focus on. Make sure it isn’t too broad and narrow it down to something specific. This is the “dependent variable.”

3.     Don’t rely on other brand case studies. Not all brands are created equal. What works for one may not work at all, for another. Follow some standard assumptions if you don’t know what you’re looking for. 1. People scan and don’t fully read 2. Big and bold gets attention 3. Colors matter (for emotional response and brand cohesiveness)

4.     It must be random and equally split. Test groups must be equal in size and completely randomized in order to get the most accurate results.

A/B testing can be a company’s closest companion if done right. It’s important to also measure the results of the tests and store them away somewhere. You might need that data information later. It’s a way to help your brand know your audience even further. If you’re not sure where to get started there of plenty articles out there with information and step-by-step guides to get you on your way.

FTC Proposed Ban on Noncompete Clauses: Friend or Foe?

Let’s be real, we’ve all signed one at one point or another in our professional careers whether we wanted to or not. That’s the kicker, right? If you want that bright and shiny new job that you’ve been working for, you really have no choice. Most noncompetes are not overly egregious but they will still enforce some level of restriction on employees who decide to leave a company. The FTC has proposed a ban on noncompetes in advertising that could take a few years to complete. Nonetheless, some are for it and others are up in arms about it. We thought it would be beneficial to list out some pros and cons of a noncompete so you can decide for yourself whether or not you think they should go. First, let’s fully define what a noncompete is and why they are put in place. We’re sure you already know but just in case. A noncompete is an agreement that is signed by a new employee that gives the employer control over specific actions of the employee, even after employment ends. They typically include elements such as duration of time after leaving, geographical areas they are restricted from working in, scope of work they cannot provide, competitors they cannot go for and damages that will be incurred if broken. They are used in order to protect intellectual property of a company, trade secrets, information and/or processes within the company so that they can keep their competitive advantage. We can understand this. However, limiting individuals after employment actually hurts the industry and hinders their professional growth. Let’s look at the pros and cons of noncompetes.

PROS:

1.     Protects company’s proprietary information.

2.     Reduce turnover

3.     Better match employees with employers that can be trusted in the long-term

CONS:

1.     Employer’s hurt young professionals’ growth to gain more experience

2.     Get in the way of equitable value exchange

3.     Increase risk of legal liability and lawsuits

4.     Can increase the unemployment rates

5.     Don’t benefit anyone but the company and can lead to employee dissatisfaction

We believe that noncompetes can hinder the growth of the advertising industry but can also have some benefits if enforced in an amicable way. It’s a catch 22 really. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Some companies have offered signing bonuses to those who sign the noncompete but do not require it for employment. Some states don’t honor noncompetes with the “right to work” law. Is it possible to have noncompetes that don’t impede on someone’s right to make a living? We don’t have all the answers but it is being said that if they do ban them, there will need to be specific parameters set in order to protect companies and its employees both.

Advertising for Good

We recently read the Adage article on how advertising companies can help with promoting activism. Aka. Advertising for good. It made us think of some of the campaigns we’ve been a part of, one of which was very recent for help during Natural Disasters. Over the span of our time here at Locomotive, we’ve managed to be part of campaigns that really bring out the best in all of us. Our recent work with Home Depot for disaster relief is one we’re very proud of but it’s not just limited to this one campaign. We’ve done campaigns the spotlight human kindness. And one for Comcast called, “Lift Zones,” where they gave free internet in underprivileged schools so kids would have access. Even small acts of neighborliness were touted in a Ritz commercial we helped source user-generated content for.  We’re not trying to toot our own horn here or anything it was just eye opening to read this article and realize that we’ve been part of some really great campaigns that advertise for GOOD. Here at Locomotive we’re proud to say that we are able to contribute to causes that are for the greater good of the world. Now, more than ever, it’s important to the consumers that brands are socioeconomically aware and give back somehow. They won’t support brands that don’t and that’s the bottom line now. Most of all, brands should be doing this not to only appease their audience but to do something better for the world. Leave it better than when we came into it!

Looming Recession and Consumer Spending Trends 2023: Reducing Excess Ad Spend

There is a big public argument right now whether or not we will go into a recession. We don’t have the answers but we can say that inflation is at an extreme high and that is affecting the way that consumers are spending. HubSpot conducted a survey to see how people are responding to the spending habits and 30% are spending less than they previously were. 34% said that if a recession is officially declared then they will decrease their home budget. This survey also included things that consumers spent their money on during financially uncertain times. It’s not surprising that it included: essential groceries, rent/mortgage, house bills, medication/healthcare, and essential personal care products. These are all necessities, and no money was spent on luxury items. It will be important during these times for brands to market their affordability and value. For marketing purposes, reducing excess spending and refocusing on essential marketing is key. Here are some tips to help!

1.     Know your audience. Campaigns that fail due to lack of knowledge on your audience is, is just throwing your money away. Who is using your product the most and where do they hang out? What are their interests? Narrowing down your customer will keep you from essentially wasting your brand’s budget. Quality over quantity here.

2.     Focus on your brand. How does your brand make people feel? Do they connect with you on an emotional level? Your branding should be authentic, transparent and most of all, consistent. Use found content in your campaigns to connect with them in this way. People should be able to know it’s your brand without even seeing the name.

3.     Accurate measurements. Try to use data that is highest quality if you can. First-party you can collect yourself from your website, email subscribers and social media accounts.

4.     Right place, right time. This goes back to knowing your audience as well. What times to advertise are important. Knowing where is even more crucial. What is the age group? This may determine which social channel they spend more time on. Are you targeting those who typically work a 9-5 job? Then run your streaming service ads in the evening when they are most likely to be watching T.V.

5.     Keywords. Knowing what people are actually searching will help them find your brand more efficiently. Explore competitors’ sites to see what they are targeting if you aren’t sure.

In uncertain times the best way to handle your brand is through focusing your efforts on things that you can control. Decreasing excess marketing spend is one of those things. There will always be things out of our control in business. This is where we can choose to thrive through shifting our efforts to improving new areas of focus. Good businesses are able to adapt and shift to new circumstances within their field.

Importance of Creative Thinking in Business

Brands that embrace creativity are more innovative and resilient. Creative thinking is important in all fields, not just those of art. As we’ve learned from our past articles, we know that creativity is key for all types of business to strive and grow. It allows employees to think outside the box and come up with new solutions. This can create something new from different perspectives. Aside from this there are some key benefits to creative thinking in the workplace. Here are our top picks.

1.     Fosters innovation. Outside the box thinking will bring your brand forward with new ideas. You can end up with unexpected opportunities and solutions.

2.     Improves collaboration. Bouncing ideas off of one another lends to open-mindedness. They will have to work together with flexibility in mind and hone in on their listening skills. This improved collaboration will inherently happen through creative thinking at the workplace.

3.     Increase productivity. Using your creative mind and critical thinking mind allows you to work smarter, not harder.

4.     Allows for adaptability. When you have a creative environment at work, it allows your brand and those within it to be more flexible in terms of shifting when unexpected changes happen or need to be made. 

5.     Growth necessity. We talked about the learn-it-all mindset for growth and have a creative mind at work is no different. Listening to new ideas and learning from others will help your brand grow.

Creativity isn’t limited to the art world. It’s required in all businesses for problem solving. One method of creative problem solving is called the SCAMPER method.

Substitute: What can I substitute to improve product/service?

Combine: How can I combine this product/service with something else to improve?

Adapt: How can I adapt this product/service?

Modify: Can I modify to make better?

Put to Another Use: How else could this be used?

Eliminate: What can I remove or how can I remove costs?

Reverse or Rearrange: Can I rearrange to improve?

There are immense amounts of topics and subjects within business that are perfect for the creative mind. New ideas in any department will make a difference. Thinking differently will open your mind to explore new realms of opportunity. Time to get creative!

Tips on Creating an Effective Creative Brief

A creative brief is a document that defines the scope and goals of a project. In our world of user-generated content, this means defining the specific content you want for your project or campaign. Each project will be different, of course, but the creative brief outline and structure should always remain the same. Here are some tips from our team on ways to make your creative brief and effective and efficient.

1.     Define your creative. What is the overall concept of the campaign? What type of content are you looking for? Videos or stills, audio or text. Also, what the content will be comprised of is very important to define.

2.     Always allow room for creative expansion. You may see content that can spark another creative idea within the confines of the original concept. Therefore, it’s important to be flexible to pivot slightly when and if desired.

3.     Keep it brief. As it is called a brief, this means the creative parameters should be clear and concise.

4.     Be realistic with your timelines. Although we have the fastest team on the planet, if you work Locomotive into the plan early, it will be much more cost-effective and your deadlines will be met within budget, and on time.

5.     Ask lots of questions. If you have an idea for a creative campaign, but aren’t sure where to go with it, don’t be afraid to reach out with questions. Here at Locomotive we can evaluate your brief at no cost, and relay components that are realistic or not. We will also let you know if we see any red flags before you sign on to do any work. We never sell through anything that we don’t believe is deliverable. Just ask our partners on over 400 projects!  

These are our tips for building a creative brief that will reap the best results. Writing a good brief is a valuable skill in our industry and will get better the more you do it. If you haven’t worked with us on any found content campaigns, don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions about the process. We do our best at Locomotive to streamline it for our agency partners and provide solutions to support them with their creative process.

Trending 2023: Actionable Entertainment

Trending 2023

Trending 2023

Tubefilter recently wrote an article on trending topics in 2023. Actionable entertainment was listed as one of their top three topics. It makes sense. People don’t like being sold to anymore. Their interests lie in being entertained through authenticity in order to connect with a brand and its ideals. Advertisements should be created with this in mind. You want to, “deliver it like an ad, but (be) loved like entertainment,” according to TikTok. Let’s break down this term actionable entertainment starting with the word actionable. Actionable (ac-tion-able) adjective: capable of being acted on. Your advertisement should be inviting to be acted upon. Entertainment (en-ter-tain-ment) noun: something diverting or engaging, such as a performance, lightly comic or adventurous. These are the Merriam Webster definitions just an FYI. So, if you put these two terms together your advertisement should be fun and engaging to watch that also invites the audience to act upon it through viewing. I mean, really isn’t that the goal of all ads, to have someone purchase the product through good advertising? It seems easier said than done. Like we said, traditional ads are starting to fall short with younger audiences. They want to be entertained and not sold to. They don’t trust brands that over produce their shoots. They crave real people with organic content because they trust them. They relate to them. Found content for advertisements is going to shine in 2023 for this reason. We’ve always known how effective it is and now the world is beginning to follow suit. We’re happy to see UGC coming to the forefront of the ad space for 2023 and beyond!    

Communication Breakdown: Type of Communication Plans

Who remembers the Burger King “two equal buns” for Pride month last year? The marketing effort in Austria was meant to represent “equal love and equal rights.” However, they missed the mark terribly as the members of the LGBTQ community felt offended as it gestured a sexual innuendo. The German agency behind the idea had to act fast in response to the backlash and apologized. They promised to do a better job in the future of consulting the LGBTQ community when promoting their equal rights campaigns. This situation is a prime example of an emergency communication plan and while as we all hope this situation never arises for our company, it never hurts to be prepared.

No matter which communication plan objective you’re looking at they all have one goal in mind and that is to deliver information to the appropriate audience. Your plan should have a clear objective. A goal with a message designed to achieve your desired outcome through a customized message to your audience. Communication plans are not only needed in times of crisis, they’re also important when launching new products/services or pitching new ideas within the company. Every communication plan should include the channels used to convey the message, when it will be communicated, how it will be delivered, the purpose of the communication and most importantly, the message of your communication. Here are some important points to start developing a plan for your communication.

1.     What is the purpose of the communication? Identify the purpose. Are you putting out a PR fire or are you educating the public about a new product/service?

2.     Who is your audience? Chances are, you will need different messages for different groups. You probably already know this answer if you’re a successful brand.

3.     What is your message? You need to consider content of the message. What you create will attract different groups. You also need to consider the mood. Decide what emotions you want to appeal to. Language is important here. Does it need to be in one or more. This will depend on your audience.

4.     What channels? Social media, television, streaming ads, online ads, billboards, blogs, etc. You need to put the message where your audience will see it so knowing where they hang out is crucial.

5.     Create an outline and write the plan. Once you have answered all these questions, it’s time to make your communication plan a reality. This will include the message, frequency, channels, audience, roles and responsibilities of each employee that’s in charge of sending.

Now that we’ve talked about how to create a communication plan let’s talk about what we’re here for: the types of communication plans.

1.     Emergency. We talked about this one in the intro. This is in response to unforeseen events.

2.     Informative. As it sounds, this type is to provide people with information. It could be a new product or service.

3.     Persuasive. This is to try to change people’s minds about something. Perhaps this one could be used within the office for pitching a new idea. You need strong arguments and connection on an emotional level in order to avoid negative backlash. 

4.     Collaborative. This can be where two brands are working together toward a common goal.

No matter which type of communication plan you need to create, it must be done strategically. The four styles listed above are a general view of plans and can be broken down even further, such as branding communication plans, PR communication plans, marketing communication plans and issue management plans. It’s important that your brand choose the correct type of plan for you are trying to achieve. We know, we know… this seems like a complex process but we assure you that it’s essential for your brand’s success.