Astrology and market segmentation
Can we use astrology for market segmentation purposes? Let’s explore the specific concept. One of the main difficulties for marketers is identifying the psychographic characteristics of their target groups. In other words, it is difficult to understand the personalities, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles of your potential clients. Marketers may have a lot of information about the behavior of their potential customers, for example the web pages they have visited, the products they have bought, etc., but they have no idea who they really are.
The only way to collect such information is to convince your prospects to fill out complicated psychological questionnaires, but this, of course, is quite optimistic …
So this is where astrology can play a vital role in identifying people’s psychographic characteristics. The great advantage of astrology is that with a minimal amount of data, just the date and time of the prospects birth, they can produce their rather analytical personality profiles. That information can be easily combined with demographic and behavioral data from potential customers to achieve more precise segmentation of your market.
The question that naturally arises is “Can we trust astrology for business purposes?” I recently read a book on astrology whose writer, a well-known astrologer, said, “I don’t know why astrology works, but it works!” Astrology is an ancient practice, dating back to the third millennium BC, and not only has it survived until now, it is widely used by millions of people around the world. That means that although astrology cannot be scientifically proven, it has deep roots in our collective unconscious. Also, the fact that astrology cannot be proven does not mean that we can reject it, this is not a scientific approach.
The use of astrology for market segmentation has already been investigated. In his article “Use of astrology in market segmentation” (1995), Management Decision, vol. 33 Edition: 1, pp. 48-57, VW. Mitchell concludes that “astrology may have some utility when applied to certain populations or subgroups within certain markets related to lifestyle and personality.”
The use of astrology, potentially, allows us to combine the measurement of demographics with the psychological insights of psychography. It is suitable for segmentation purposes as it creates segments that are measurable, substantial, accessible, comprehensive, relatively stable over time, likely to respond differently to different marketing programs, and have clear boundaries.
Most people agree that the different signs of the zodiac correspond to fundamentally different types of personalities. So, according to the 12 signs of the zodiac, we can have 12 segments. If we combine the ascendant with the 12 signs of the zodiac we can have 144 potential segments. If we add more astrological parameters we can have even more segments. If we use the personal astrological chart of our prospects, we can have a fairly detailed psychographic profile of each of them, which can be useful for one-to-one marketing. The potential for using astrology for market segmentation purposes looks quite promising, especially for highly emotionally involved buying processes.
