Understanding the Humans Behind the Demographics

When people talk about their company’s target audience, you typically hear things like “individuals between the ages of 13 and 25 who enjoy playing video games and have a mobile phone,” or “active consumers between the ages of 25 and 45 who like to hike and rock climb” or “procurement officers at Fortune 1000 companies.” These descriptions all follow the traditional format taught in marketing classes around the world, and, sadly, they’re all nearly worthless because they provide almost no relevant information for making strategic decisions. Every year, countless executives and marketing directors dutifully write up plans with these kinds of empty descriptions of their target audiences. And every year, these same companies fumble around trying to figure out why they’re not clicking with their customers. Your customers aren’t demographics. They’re not age ranges. They’re not job titles, or geographical regions, or salary brackets. They’re human beings. It seems ridiculous to have to say that, but companies are chronically unable to remember this basic fact. As a result, these companies continue to churn out utterly uninspiring messages to their audiences. “Like video games? You’ll love Blongotron!” “UltraThingy is designed especially for your active lifestyle!” “MetaSystemizer optimizes corporate alignment to streamline synergistic opportunities.” Meanwhile, all their customers are rolling their eyes. They know marketing drivel when they see it—just like you do—and they quickly move on. If you want to connect with your customers, you have to stop pushing knee-jerk marketing clichés on them, and focus on understanding who they really are, how they really think, and what’s really going to make them see value in what you’re offering. That soccer mom with 2.5 kids? Her name is Sarah. Yes, she goes to yoga classes, but do you know why she goes? Yes, she has a minivan, but do you know how she feels about it? Stop making assumptions and start asking questions — and then get real with Sarah. Once you better understand what’s going on in the minds of your audience, there are several steps you can take within your organization to ensure that this information doesn’t just sit in a dusty binder on some executive’s shelf, but rather that it becomes an everyday part of how your company works.