Introduction to copywriting with a focus on demographics and psychographics

1. COMM 9159
COPYWRITING

2. ME
Kevin O’Doherty
kdodoherty@gmail.com
http://www.slideshare.net/thenewsgenerator

3. YOU
• Be here and be on time
• Assignments
• Questions, questions, questions

4. What is Copywriting?
Creating and distributing the right content
to the right audience

5. All Communication is:
Purposeful
Economical
Audience-oriented

6. WHAT IS IT?
“ I just want to get people to buy stuff.”
So stop asking and start giving

8. There is no pleasure without pain
No pain, no gain
I’m going to great pains
Growing pains
She is feeling no pain

9. What type of pain do we suffer from?

10. Pain relief Canada
• Relieve Your Pain and Aches With Fast Acting
ALEVE®
• Up to 12 hours Pain relief with just 1 pill
• Get liquid-fast relief for your elbow Pain

11. Eliminating the risk of loss is
even more attractive
than the prospect of gain

12. Your audience
What do they care about?
What is their biggest problem?
How can you help them solve it?

13. “We aren’t in the coffee business, serving people.
We are in the people business, serving coffee”.

14. It’s not about you
It’s about YOU

15. Target Market
I am NOT
a target
market!

16. Benefits
Trust
Objections

17. Target Market
Geographic
physical location
Demographic
age, gender, education, income, ethnicity,
sexual orientation
Psychographic
psychological traits, characteristics, or lifestyle

18. Psychographics = Precise Selling
 Personality traits
 Values
 Attitudes
 Interests
 Lifestyles
Holidays, occasions, seasonality

19. Personality
• Psychographic segmentation: talk to your customers or
prospects about what they care about.
• What problems are they looking to solve? What kind of
experience do they want with your products or services?
What do they do in their free time? What’s important to
them?
Personality Traits
• When a consumer can relate to the characteristics of a
brand, product, or service they are more likely to engage
with it. Learning about the personality traits of your target
segments can help you refine your brand personality

20. Lifestyle
Lifestyle patterns reflect many factors,
including our stage of life. Our wants and
needs change based on those patterns.
Segmentation by lifestyle considers where the
customer or client is in their lifecycle and what
is important to them at that exact time. When
segmenting a target market based on lifestyle
psychographic characteristics, marketers
promote their products and services as
solutions to those wants and needs.

21. Opinions, Attitudes, Hobbies
This categorization looks at factors such as
opinions on religious, gender, politics, views
on the environment, sporting and recreational
activities, and arts and cultural issues. The
opinions your market segments hold and
activities they engage in have a huge impact
on the products and services they buy, and
even how they respond to your messaging.

22. Social Status
This approach can be used fruitfully when
there is a direct connection between interest
in and consumption of your products and
services directly with a social status. In fact,
many marketers try to make this connection,
so their products are a natural outward
expression of a social status.

23. Demographics vs. Psychographics
Demographic Information:
• Female
• Aged 45-65
• Married, 2 children
• Dealing with issues of weight gain, diabetes, lack of energy or
hormonal imbalance
• Household income $100K+
Psychographic Information:
• Concerned with health and appearance
• Wants a healthy lifestyle, but doesn’t have much time
• Enjoys going online in the evenings, big fan of Pinterest
• Tends to favor quality over economy
• Finds fulfillment in her career and family
• Values time with a small group of friends

24. Psychographic exercise
1. “Knit one – pearl two”: 25 y.o F , Toronto, hobby is knitting
2. Subway shopping lady: 68, widow, Toronto, takes transit, shops at
Sobeys
3. South Asian man: 45 y.o., married, immigrant, professional
degree, doesn’t work in profession, renter
4. Lawyer guy: white, mid 50s, Toronto, 2 kids, wife works
5. Psychologist woman: black, late 30s, Toronto, 2 kids under 12,
married, at-home practice
6. University student: 19 y.o, born in Lebanon, from Halifax, studies
in Toronto
7. Property manager: 28 y.o., married, lives in Toronto, originally
from Edmonton, studies part-time
8. 413 Area code: Calgary mother of two, 44 y.o, nurse, divorced
9. Mr. GM: Factory shift worker, Oshawa, 45 y.o, 2 kids

25. Psychographic exercise
9. Divorced dad: 54 y.o, twice-divorced, university-aged son, Toronto
10. All the single ladies: Vancouver, 35 y.o., single, yoga instructor
11. Asian mom: Markham, 45 y.o, 2 teenage boys, married
12. New mom: 35 y.o., industrial designer, married, works in Iqaluit
13. Fashion photographer: 40, single GWM, professional photographer, Toronto
14. Can I call you doc?: Heart surgeon, Toronto, married, 3 grown children, one still
living at home
15. Vet tech: 36 y.o. woman, cohabitating, renter, no kids, urban
16. Tennis lady: Widowed, mid 70s, active, 3 grown kids, 3 grandchildren, cottage,
travels

26. Psychographic exercise
17. Part-timer: 21 y.o. college student, works part time, lives
at home, suburban
18. Designing woman: mid 50s, urban, partnered, travels
extensively for work
19. Korean florist: mid 50s, married, urban, runs a family
business, two university-aged kids
20. Military college: 22 y.o engineering student, Kingston, lives
in residence
21. Can’t decide: 24 y.o. part-time college, part-time work,
dropped out of univeristy program, renter, cohabitating
22. EMT: 32 y.o., no steady girlfriend, Toronto, lives at home
23. Family farm: 27 y.o. lives near Leamington ON, working
with father on tobacco farm