Which Demographics Really Matter?

As I talk about defining the Target customer, the usual starting point is demographics.  That's really just a fancy word for "what do people look like" although it goes farther into behavior.  That said, the insightful marketer understands that some demographics matter, and some definitely do not.  And in this day and age, we graze uncomfortably close to what is often called "profiling"--the idea that we can make broad assumptions about categories of people.  So what to do?

We know that some demographics matter.  We have extensive consumer data showing that there are very clear differences, in general, on the basis of age, income and gender.  And we know that most members of these categories behave similarly.  And depending on the product or service we can find a few more that stick out.  Sometimes ethnicity matters: think specialty food markets.  Sometimes ideology matters: think opinion magazines.  Sometimes body shape and size matters: ("Bob's Big Men Store")  and so on.

The more narrowly we position ourselves, the more important demographics become.  A grocer will be a lot less sensitive to demographics than someone who sells handbags.  The small business person needs to sit down and list the attributes of the sorts of people who are expected to be customers (something that should be in their business plan).  Add also the attributes of customers actually acquired and those of close competitors.  Finally, ask yourself what doesn't really matter.  Is there really, say, a gender difference?  or an income difference?  Make sure to keep a realistic focus and ask hard questions based on both reason and observation.  An observed difference may be "unreal" (i.e. some "demographics" may be missing).

Marketing can then be applied.  Niche customers can be attracted with the right approach.  But it all starts with getting a handle on the demographics.  The right ones.