Analysis based on simple demographics (such as age, gender, income, political party, etc.) confuses matters and provides very little insight into core values and beliefs that inform people's actions, behaviors, and opinions. (For example, knowing statistically that someone is a "white, urban female under 40 years of age" tells us very little about what motivates and inspires this individual or what governs her choices.)
Unfortunately, due to cost and expediency, this is what is most commonly used in public opinion and media research and helps to keep things at a superficial level. When applied to specific strategies and public communications, this approach actually reinforces stereotypes and divisions between people. Since so much of advertising research, political campaigns, and media placement rests on such a superficial approach, it is no wonder that our society seems to have self-reinforcing patterns that hold everyone back to the lowest common denominator.
Though demographic statistics can describe simple trends and patterns among people, more powerful and sophisticated analyses can describe peoples' traits and types.
A "trait" is a personal characteristic that is relatively persistent and stable across people, places, and time. 
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What is a Typology?
A typology is the analysis of human social groups. It exemplifies an image, impression, or model of a certain set of shared tendencies. Each social group in a typology has unique qualities that are stable, inherent, and essentially defining characteristics as opposed to superficial, impermanent ones. The use of the term "types" then becomes shorthand for variations within a typology.
A "trait" is a personal characteristic that is relatively persistent and stable across people, places, and time. Traits determine (to a fairly predictable extent) an individual's potential behavior.
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