The age demographic rose from an average age of 48 in 2007 to an average age of 51 in 2012. Porsche’s targeted marketing efforts focus on reducing the average age of the Porsche owner and increasing the number of female owners. Porsche provides an example of an automotive icon focusing on demographics using age and gender. The “Engineered for magic, every day” campaign, in part, targets women with an image of a mother in a Porsche 911 in front of a school with the text reading school bus. Additionally, Porsche uses tennis star Maria Sharapova as a spokesperson to engage a younger female audience. The results in the last two years indicate a growth from 8% to 15% in female purchasing the Cayenne CUV and Panamera four-door sport sedan primarily.
Psychographic
Psychographic segmentation uses psychology to increase understanding of consumers’ wants and needs. Porsche uses a psychographic segmentation approach dividing the segment based on behavioral elements, such as psychology, lifestyle, personality traits, and values to gain deeper insight of the consumer. The same demographic can possess different behavioral elements.
Customizing Messages to Specific Psychographic Profiles
Psychographic profiling provides Porsche with the ability to customize the messaging to target the specific psychographic profiles developed by Porsche. The top gun profile consists of an ambitious and driven individual who cares about power and control expecting to be noticed. The elitist profile, includes an individual from old money (blue blood), has the attitude a car is just a vehicle and not an expression of a person’s personality. The proud patrons owner profile sees a Porsche as a trophy considering it a reward for hard work with ownership as the main goal not being noticed. The bon vivants profile consists of thrill seekers and jet setters with the Porsche as a means of excitement. The fantasist profile sees the Porsche as a form of escape and does not care about impressing others. Porsche has added another profile consisting of individuals enjoying a sporty vehicle for daily use by women and younger drivers with the latest marketing campaign, “Engineered for magic, every day”.
Geographic
Porsche uses a traditional geographic segmentation approach grouping markets based on countries, continents, regions, states similar to other worldwide automotive brands. Porsche is a global brand with dealerships located on every continent in major cities. In the United States dealerships are located in major cities with the manufacturer dividing the market into four regions (north, south, southwest, northwest). Porsche varies the product mix offered by dealerships within each region. As an example, the dealers in the warmer south and southwest regions offer a higher percentage of convertibles in the product mix versus the north and northwest regions in the United States with marketing following suit.
Creating New Segments