Originally posted on Vigor & Medium
I was sitting in a restaurant in San Jose not too long ago having a deep discussion about marketing and brand strategies. (Yes, this is my life and you don’t have to think it’s awesome.) Throughout the chat the concept of a audience of focus (aka “target market”) would resurface. Close behind would be a string of information about said audience: age, sex, household income, etc.
After the third time this happened I interjected. I asked one of the folks to describe me to the other. I received blank stares, so I repeated. “Describe me, Joseph, to him as if he’s never met me. Start off with ‘I met this guy…’” Luckily the gentleman played along, and he started in, “I met this guy, Joseph. He’s rather smart, very intelligent, needs to shave, eloquent.”
Despite enjoying the compliments, I interjected again. I pointed out that not once had he mentioned that I was 30-something, Caucasian, Male, who makes X amount of dollars a year. Not once had he profiled demographic information about me. Yet, when many marketers or brand strategists profile their ideal patrons, they go right to the cold, hard demographics.
Demographics do little to help brands understand who their patrons truly are. “Millennials” isn’t a strategy. It’s a date range. Brands are built and proliferated by humans who have behaviors and aspirations. They want to portray their uniqueness and/or sense of belonging to the world. Therefore, brands provide elements much deeper than product and service. They provide a badge that helps identify a person. A brand gives them something to belong to while allowing them to adopt its attributes to create a perception to everyone around them.
Targeting people based on demographics is a waste of time and it will kill your brand. Identifying what your brand offers people by way of personality, attributes, and aspirations is how good brands get great. Your ideal patron isn’t Joseph who’s in his late-30’s, makes $X a year, etc. It’s Claire, who appreciates art and design so she shops at Crate & Barrel, drives a Land Rover, shops at Banana Republic because she likes simple, classic styles. She’s not into glitz and glamour. She’s well read and well traveled, finding Paris and Rome to be her favorite destinations.
Brands should look to relate and befriend their patrons by way of common interest and aspiration. When viewed from this angle, brands are no longer about selling turkey sandwiches, or vodka drinks. They’re something so much more.
