Moreover, consumers have come to expect a high level of personalization from businesses across industries, especially through digital communications. Today’s customers, particularly younger generations, expect convenient, fast and digital-first interactions, and digitally native fintech companies are pushing banks to accelerate digital transformation efforts. Hyper-personalization will inevitably move from a trend to table stakes in banking, sooner rather than later. Banks have a treasure trove of data on their customers, including demographic, socioeconomic and behavioral data (e.g., accounts opened, responses to offers and marketing tactics, etc.), and predictive analytics have proven useful for anticipating customer needs. However, this data does not provide insight into why people behave as they do or their intrinsic motivations. This is the missing component to the greatest level of efficiency. Harnessing these insights can be powerful for hyper-personalized marketing and customer engagement, but such data are not typically captured in a bank’s customer record. This is where psychographics come in. Psychographics: Insights Into Action Psychographics pertain to people’s attitudes, values, personalities and lifestyles, and are core to their motivations, priorities and communication preferences. These drive the reason behind customer decisions and behaviors. Leading companies across industries, such as Procter & Gamble, Porsche and Geico, have used psychographics to develop marketing that resonates on a deep, personal level, achieving remarkable results and enhanced ROIs with very efficient marketing spends. The key is moving the data into actionable knowledge that can be tactically deployed by a community bank. As an example, Psympl® has developed a powerful psychographic model for the banking and financial services industries – Motivation Intelligence – which provides the insights for message development and delivery that are hyper-personalized for each individual customer. Psympl® identified five distinct segments of people based on their unique approaches to finances and investing, derived from statistically valid national consumer research: Segment 1 (17%) I’m financially comfortable and I invest, but I’m hands-off with my investments. I want experts to guide my investments using a safe and predictable approach. Segment 2 (22%) I’m financially secure and actively following the stock market and discussing finances. I favor a more aggressive approach, seeking the highest returns, and am interested in alternative investments like cryptocurrency. Segment 3 (20%) I’m financially secure and confident in my financial standing and retirement. I’m comfortable making my own financial decisions and prefer a balanced approach to risk, seeking both potential gains and security. Segment 4 (25%) I’m living paycheck to paycheck and worried about my retirement. I avoid investing and often carry credit card debt because of my financial situation. I would appreciate assistance with my finances. Segment 5 (16%) I’m reasonably financially secure. I don’t invest or trust the stock market, but I have checking and savings accounts, and I’m still on track for retirement. My finances aren’t complex, so I prefer to just manage them myself. September/October 2025 51
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