Why I don't really believe in demographics

Okay, that’s probably slightly dramatic. Obviously demographics exist. I am a 41-year-old woman living in London. Those are facts about me. I just don’t think they tell you very much about why I do anything.

And I think we have become far too reliant on demographics as a way of explaining people.

Women 35–54. Gen Z. Affluent millennials. Mums with children under 10. We put people into neat little boxes because it makes them easier to size, find, buy media against and put into a PowerPoint. All useful things. But then somewhere along the way, the description of the audience starts being mistaken for an understanding of the audience.

Take ten women who are 41, live in London, have a child and earn roughly the same amount of money and I can almost guarantee they will have wildly different relationships with money, ageing, beauty, health, work, status, food, sex, alcohol, technology, parenting and pretty much everything else you might want to sell them.

And equally, you could take a 27-year-old man in Manchester, a 43-year-old woman in London and a 60-year-old woman in Bristol and discover there is something much more interesting connecting them.

That’s the bit I’m interested in.

I think about it as the red thread. What is the belief, tension, need, desire, frustration, behaviour or way of seeing the world that weaves through the people who are most likely to care about this thing?

Maybe they’re all people who feel like life has become relentlessly optimised and desperately want things that feel more human. Maybe they hate being made to feel stupid by a category. Maybe they are quietly terrified about getting older. Maybe they care about sustainability but absolutely refuse to compromise on convenience. Maybe they want to feel like they have their shit together when, in reality, everything is being held together by a shared Notes app and a prayer.

That tells me something.

Their age might help me work out where to reach them. Their income might help me understand affordability. Their life stage might create particular needs. I’m not throwing demographics in the bin.

I just don’t want to start there.

I want to understand the human thing first. What connects these people? What is happening underneath the observable behaviour? Why does this product, problem or category matter to them? What are they moving towards or away from? What do they believe that makes their behaviour make sense?

Then we can layer demographics around it.

Because I don’t think the most useful customer definition is necessarily who looks the same on paper. It’s who has the same red thread running through them.