Demographic Geographic Psychographic Market Segmentation Factors

Demographic Geographic Psychographic Market Segmentation. The 3 Basic types of market segmentation are Demographic Segmentation, Geographic Segmentation & Psychographics Segmentation. Also, Customer Profile Demographics Psychographics Geographics. Target Market Segmentation Theories- Maslow’s hierarchy and VALS Segmentation Model in Consumer Behaviour.

Demographic Geographic Psychographic

Demographic Geographic Psychographic segmentation refers to the market segmentation technique based on the different factors related to the audiences. These are the most effective strategies to divide people into an identical subgroup. The purpose of demographic, geographic, and psychographic segmentation aims to separate people into subgroups to regulate a political campaign, commercial marketing, and advertising.

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation separates people into similar subgroups based on geographic, demographic, and psychographic factors. It is an essential process for social, political, and commercial campaigns and advertising. It is an excellent way of sending messages to a targeted group of people rather than everyone.  A long time ago, audience segmentation was primarily applied for social and political campaigns. Nowadays, it has become trendy in market segmentation. Therefore, audience segmentation is known as market segmentation.

Market Segmentation Examples

For example, a political leader is conducting a campaign asking to vote for his political party. So, the leader targets the voters only to conduct the campaign. In many countries all over the world, the minimum age for being a voter is eighteen years. For example, in the USA, citizens can vote in any public election who are a minimum of 18 years old or older than 18 years. So, the political leader persuades citizens of the constituency and age minimum of 18 years. Here, a citizen of the constituency refers to the habitant of a particular area that is also an example of a geographic factor of market segmentation. In similar, age is an example of demographic characteristics of market segmentation.

Demographic Geographic Psychographic
Demographic Geographic Psychographic Market Segmentation Variable
Demographic Geographic Psychographic Market Segmentation Factors
Types of Market Segmentation
The 3 Types of Market segmentation are
  1. Demographic Segmentation
  2. Geographic Segmentation
  3. Psychographic Segmentation
Demographic Segmentation

Demographic segmentation refers to the process of separating people into similar subgroups based on demographic factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, education, religion, economic status, and group membership.

For example, a political organization is dividing people based on age. They are looking for voters whose age is more than 18 years. It is an example of demographic segmentation.

Demographic Factors

The demographic factors are a set of audiences’ characteristics, such as age, gender, ethnicity, education, religion, etc.

The demographic segmentation factors are Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Education, Religion, Economic status, Experience, Group Member, Nationality, Marital Status, Employment Status, Family Status, and Living Status.

Examples of Demographics in Marketing

Demographic Market Segmentation Factors

Geographic Segmentation

Geographic segmentation means separating people into similar subgroups based on geographical factors such as residence, climate, and population. It highlights the location and environment of the audience.

Geographic Factors

The Geographic Factors are Place of residence, Season and Climate, and Population.

Place of Residence

Place of residence refers to rural and urban areas where the audience lives permanently or temporarily. People from urban and rural areas are different in their lifestyles, such as dress up, outlook, and attitudes. Therefore, market segmentation is essential before starting an advertising or social campaign.

 Season and Climate

Season refers to a specific time of year categorized by a particular climate condition. For example, the United States has four seasons, including Autumn, Spring, Summer, and Winter.

For example, Ice cream companies earn more money in the summer season than in winter. In contrast, the blanket selling company focuses on the winter season for marketing. The company needs to focus on geographic segmentation for the advertising campaigns.

Population

Population means the inhabitants of a particular area; for example, the capital city, metropolitan city, small town. However, they imply almost similar characteristics but have some differences too.

Psychographic Segmentation

Psychographic segmentation separates people into similar subgroups based on psychographic factors such as values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. These factors indicate the internal mental characteristic of people.

Psychographic Factors

The four psychographic factors of market segmentation are values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors—these four factors help understand how the audiences feel and behave.

For example, a political leader’s values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are definitely distinguished from a physician’s.

Example of Psychographic segmentation

For example, You may feel that giving blood is important (Attitude) because an adequate blood supply is necessary to save a life (Belief) and because you respect human life (Value). Your (Behavior), as you participate in the blood drive and donate blood, is a logical and observable extension of your

 Values

Firstly, values mean a judgment of what is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable. For example, most people share equality, freedom, honesty, fairness, justice, good health, and family. Another example, we respect human life naturally (Value).

Beliefs

Secondly, a belief is something you accept as true, and it is stated as a declarative sentence. For instance, students believe that the use of the internet improves the quality of students’ research. Furthermore, You may feel that giving blood is important because an adequate blood supply is necessary to save a life (Belief).

Attitudes

Thirdly, an attitude is a statement expressing an individual’s approval or disapproval, like or dislike. Usually, attitudes evolve from our values and beliefs. Many values and beliefs interact to complicate our decision-making.  For example, You may feel that giving blood is very important (Attitude).

Behaviors

Finally, Behavior is an individual’s observable action. It is the way of how we act or behave toward others. It is the combination of other psychological factors such as values, beliefs, and attitudes.

For example, You may feel that giving blood is important (Attitude) because an adequate blood supply is necessary to save a life (Belief) and because you respect human life (Value). Your behavior is a logical and observable extension of your outlook as you participate in the blood drive and donate blood.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Psychographic Segmentation
Advantages of Psychographic Segmentation
Disadvantages of Psychographic Segmentation
market segmentation Theories
  • Maslow’s hierarchy of Psychological Needs theory
  • VALS Segmentation Model in Consumer Behaviour

Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs Theory

Maslow (1943) initially stated that individuals must satisfy lower level deficit needs before meeting higher level growth needs. However, he later clarified that satisfaction of a needs is not an “all-or-none” phenomenon, admitting that his earlier statements may have given, for example, “the false impression that a need must be satisfied 100 per cent before the next need emerges”. According to Maslow’s theory, human needs can be divided into five categories. These are physical, safety, belongings, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs.

1. Physical needs: Physical needs are basic human requirements for livelihood, for example, water, food, rest, warmth, and so on.

2. Safety needs Requirements for security and protection purposes, such as personal security, health security, employment, property, etc.

3. Belongings and love needs: Relationship with people around us for giving and receiving affection, for example, intimacy, friendship, family, and friends.

4. Esteem needs: Refers to self-confidence, self-esteem, self-respect of humans; for example, everyone has a certain talent, so we need to pat on the back from time to time for exploring their intellectuality.

5. Self-actualization needs: Refers to self-fulfillment desiring to become the most that one can be; for example, we need our goals to feel that we have fulfilled our destiny or reached our potential.

Conclusion

Target market segmentation had become a viral strategy for social, political, and business purposes. Now, people live in a global village as global citizens for the easy accessibility of social media. Therefore, politicians and business persons pay more attention to market segmentation for political campaigns and marketing publicity on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

Communication Noise- 5 Types of Noises in Communication

Types of Noise in Communication are Physical, Physiological, Psychological, Semantic, and Cultural.

Communication Noise

Communication noise means any barrier to the effective communication process. Noises bar the effective communication process between senders and receivers. The different types of noise in communication are physical, physiological, psychological, semantic, and cultural. These noises distract the sender and receiver of the communication process from listening to the message effectively. Noise bars the effectiveness of the communication process; therefore, it is also known as a barrier to communication. Noise is one of the communication elements, followed by Context, Sender, Encoder,  Message, Channel, Decoder, Receiver, and Feedback.

Communication noises are presented in all communication contexts, such as face-to-face, group, organizational, and mediated communication. The researchers have mentioned the noise in the three communication models, for example, linear, interactive, and transactional communication models.

Shannon and Weaver’s communication model introduced noise initially in the linear communication model in 1949. Later, many researchers include the noise in their model. A comprehensive communication model certainly includes noise to explain the communication process.

The communication process will be more effective, productive, and interactive if there are no noises present. Many scholars are researching to find out the solution to overcome noise in communication. Researchers have identified that in the U.S.A., business organizations are losing billions of dollars due to noise in communication.

Example of noises in communication

Ela is very sick, and she is taking a rest at home. She calls her husband to bring some medicines, and they interact on a mobile phone. At the same time, her daughter Elon is watching television at a high volume. Therefore, Ela could not understand what her husband said to her precisely. So, she asks her husband again to be confirmed.

Television sounds are physical noise, and her sickness is an example of physiological noise.

5 Types of Noise in Communication

The five types of noise in communication are physical, physiological, psychological, semantic, and cultural noises. However, some additional noises in the communication process include syntactic, emotional, medium, encoding, decoding noises, etc. 

Types of Noise in Communication

Types of Noise in Communication

Five Types of noises in communication are:
  1. Physical Noise
  2. Physiological Noise
  3. Psychological Noise
  4. Syntactical Noise
  5. Cultural Noise

1. Physical Noise in Communication

Physical noise is the external and unnecessary sound that is an obstacle to effective communication. It is also a communication disturbance created by the environment. Therefore, physical noise is also known as environmental noise in communication

Example of Physical Noise

For example, rain, thunderstorms, horns, outside building sounds, and sounds from fans, lights, and windows are the best examples of physical or environmental noise. Besides loud music, barking dogs, and noisy conflict nearby, vehicle sounds are examples of physical noise. 

2. Physiological Noise in Communication

Physiological noise is a barrier created by the communicator’s physical condition. Usually, physical illness and weakness usually produce physical noise, which is an obstacle to effective communication. 

Example of Physiological Noise

For example, Ela is having headaches; therefore, she can not concentrate in class. Here, a headache is a physical illness that hinders the listening process of communication.  Also, deafness and blindness are physical weaknesses or physiological noises that hinder listening. Talking too fast or slow and the high or low temperature in the room also generate physiological noise. 

3. Psychological Noise in Communication

Psychological noise is a communication barrier created by the communicator’s psychological factors, for example, values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. This type of noise interrupts our minds from concentrating on listening. People don’t like to listen or talk about those topics that make them down or not enjoyable. 

Example of Psychological Noise

For example, Ela is a Muslim girl who does not like to listen to any criticism of Islam. Therefore, she became distracted when her lecturer was talking about anti-Islam issues. Any sensitive issues like religious, ethnic, and political are examples of psychological noise. Apart from that, financial crisis, missing a beloved person, and an exhausting schedule may originate psychological noise. 

4. Semantic Noise in Communication

Semantic noise is a communication barrier created by confusion over the meaning of words. It comes from complex, technical, autochthonous, or grammatical errors in communication. Semantic noise occurs because of different message definitions between the sender and receiver. It also refers to the wrong grammatical sentence that makes the receiver unable to understand the meaning. Scholars term it as a syntactical barrier or noise.

Syntactical noise is a grammatically wrong sentence in which the receiver cannot accomplish the proper meaning. Using complex language during computer programming is an example of syntactical noise. It is also in contrast to syntactic sugar.

Example of Semantic Noise

Ela is an international student who studies at the University of Putra Malaysia. She is listening to lectures from her Malaysian lecturer. In the meantime, her lecturer says, ” I believe SEMUA understand this topic.” SEMUA is a Malaysian word that means everyone. Ela does not understand the meaning of SEMUA as she is not a Malaysian student. It is an example of semantic noise.

Similarly, a lecturer says the natural causes of climate change and global warming are different facts. However, a few students are confused about the lecturer’s statement. The confusion has come from semantic noise. These students believe that climate change and global warming are the same phenomena. Finally, the lecturer describes global warming as raising the environment’s temperature. On the other hand, climate change points to both increasing and decreasing the global temperature. It is also an example of semantic noise.

Additionally, jargon words, mispronunciations, unique words, and grammatically wrong sentences are Semantic Noise examples.

5. Cultural Noise in Communication

Cultural noise is a communication barrier created by incorrectly explaining another person’s behaviors. This noise is produced due to the wrong meaning of messages; therefore, it is a little similar to semantic noise. Especially cultural noise is created from the nonverbal communication of people from different cultural backgrounds. The basic kinds of nonverbal communication cues are posture, gesture, eye contact, space, touch, and dress-up. The meaning of nonverbal cues is not the same in every culture and society. The conflicting message in communication is one of the cultural noises. 

Apart from that, ethnocentrism, prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination are also examples of cultural noises. These factors bar effective communication in a group or team. The four noises in group communication are ethnocentrism, prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination.

Example of Cultural Noise

Jon is a Russian citizen who is studying at the University of Putra Malaysia. He offers his Malaysian woman friend to handshake, but she denies it. It makes Jon feel very embarrassed. Later, he understood that women do not like to handshake men in Malaysia, which is a cultural norm.

Additional Noises in Communication Process

Apart from these five basic types of noises, the additional noises in the communication process are electrical noise, organizational noise, and noise in group conversation. 

 Organizational Noise

Organizational noise refers to encoding-decoding noises and transmitting noises. The encoding-decoding noises in corporate communication lack sensitivity to the receiver, basic communication skills, insufficient knowledge of the subject, information overload, emotional interference, etc. Additionally, the transmitting noises in organizational communication are the faulty connection of transmitting lines and channel barriers. 

Noise in Group Communication

Barriers to Group Communication are disturbances that hinder interactive communication among group members. The barrier in group communication usually hinders understanding other members of the group or team. The four types of barriers in group communication are Ethnocentrism, Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination. The group discussion has many stages, tensions, conflicts, etc. According to Tuckman’s Theory, the five stages of group discussion are Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. Members must overcome all these stages to achieve the independent and interdependent goal.

Difference Between Noise and Barrier

Noise and Barriers in conversation denote the same meaning, although people use them in different interaction contexts. For example, people use the word noise when encountering face-to-face or group communication obstacles. On the other hand, people use the word barrier when facing corporate communication or mediated communication obstacles. Noise refers to the hindrance during the interaction between sender and receiver. However, many people, including scholars, described them as noise barriers. People also term them a distraction, distortion, disturbance, etc.

In conclusion, communicators need to reduce noise as much as possible to make communication more effective, productive, and efficient. These communication noises are prevalent in every context of the communication process, such as barriers in face-to-face communication, mediated communication, corporate communication, and group communication. Noises are an unwanted element of the communication process.

Disadvantages of Communication Noise

Firstly, noises make people exhausted, tense, angry, and sick. Babies and ill people cannot sleep on environmental noise.

People can become deaf if they stay with a loud noise for a long time. Noise above 70 dB damages the eardrum.

Noise hampers organizations financially by reducing employees’ productivity. The workers cannot concentrate appropriately due to noise. The organizational noise occurs due to a faulty communication channel.

In 2022, researchers at HARVARD Medical School identified that people encounter autonomic stress reactions when they wake up from a loud sound. It might cause cardiac arrest.

Semantic noise spreads misleading information among people. Sometimes, it creates communal violence if the message comes from political or social leaders.

Citation for this Article (APA 7th Edition)
Kobiruzzaman, M. M. (2023). Communication Noise- 5 Types of Noises Barriers in Communication. Newsmoor- Best Online Learning Platform. https://newsmoor.com/communication-noise-5-types-of-noise-in-communication-barriers/