Quadrant Mapping of Status

As a marketer, you need to identify your audience’s status. The people you seek to serve have two kinds of status. One is the external status which shows how the society (one which is chosen by the people themselves) sees your audience. Another is internal which shows how your audience sees themselves whenever they look in front of the mirror.

Do they help others? Do they belittle everyone else which trying to reach the ladder of success? Are they covered in self-doubt? Do they care what society thinks of them?

These questions are necessary to answer to understand the psyche of your people.

Seth uses quadrant mapping to identify our audience’s thoughts.

Here, X-axis shows self status from high to low. Y-axis shows perceived status from high to low.

There are very people who lie in quadrant A. They are seen as powerful and even they see themselves as able to handle it. Ophrah Winfrey lies in this quadrant. She doesn’t wait for others to choose her. She makes her own way.

Most people lie in quadrant D. They have a huge amount of self-doubt even when people see them as a person with high status. Frank Sinatra lies here. The imposter syndrome perfectly explains this area.

People belonging to quadrant B are usually artistic and creative. They try and in fact bring their inner talent out even though society doesn’t think them worthy of it. However, it can also lead to bitterness among the people.

The people of quadrant C see themselves as unworthy and unlucky and so does society. It might appear to be a sad place and, in fact, is a consistent one too. This is Cinderella before the ball who never thinks of a chance for more. This can be a coal miner who is trying hard to fight for his dangerous and low-paying job.

In order to sign people up for the journey, it’s important to understand how status roles runs deep in society and in the minds of people which drives their action.