What’s Going on with These Ads?

Let’s say you were marketing to potential car buyers. Marketing messages commonly address many customer segments at once, resulting in neutralized and diluted messages with minimal impact. Why do so many marketers make this mistake when significantly higher conversions and revenues result from segmented messaging, imagery, and calls to action? For all practical purposes, we cannot all anticipate and address each unique need on a one-to-one level, but you’re much more genuine when you match messages with primary motivations. By defining main motivations, you’re able to craft genuine offers, measure conversions, and boost loyalty.

The Five Primary Motivations

Curious about the stickers of Fabian, Buck and Penney? According to Targa Media’s Boxxer Model, there are 5 distinct personas that comprise the 5 major personalities and purchasing motivations. They are Innovative, Logical, Nurturing, Practical and Social. This valuable marketing structure simplifies the approach and lays the groundwork for understanding consumers’ challenges while providing meaningful solutions.

In our car ad example, let’s step through some obvious and subtle differences between each:

• Ad A leads out with social motivators such as status and visibility. Other headlines for this audience might talk about GPS with address book, a personalized license plate, or a carpooling app. Certainly safety and economy are important to all audiences, but they are not the emotional triggers that cut through the clutter for this segment. More about what motivates Fabian.
• Ad B leads out with nurturing motivators such as reliability and peace of mind. Note as well how this ad includes a visual human element. More about what motivates Buck.
• Ad C leads out with practical motivators such as fuel economy. A practical person looks more at the benefits of a long-term investment and less at design trends and accessorizing features. This ad uses the car’s interior for main imagery, emphasizing the driver’s features over what onlookers see. Note as well that this audience has a longer buying cycle, meaning you’ll need to tell a more detailed story around features and benefits than with other audience types. More about what motivates Penney.

It’s important to remember that motivation segmentation is different from demographic segmentation. It’s common for demographics to shift over time, but people are primarily true to their personalities and motivations throughout their lives. For example, your nurturing-minded audience might be in the market for a 2nd car for their growing family, or a student in need of a basic commuter car, or have better financial means going into retirement, but they will remain nurturing-minded. For this reason there’s a real opportunity to capture and utilize emotional psychographics.

Wisely Segmenting Your Audience Boosts Conversions by Up to 90%

Take a close look at your visual focus, headline, and call to action in your email campaigns, digital banners, landing pages, and direct mail pieces. Matching your message with your customer’s motivation boosts conversions in your current campaigns and builds long-term brand loyalty and advocacy.