How many of you talk about your consumer audience in terms of ABC1 or C2DE social demographics?
You’re definitely not alone, but have you ever asked if a consumer profiling system developed over 50 years ago is still relevant for today’s consumers?
There has been such a meteoric shift in societal behaviours, cultural empowerment and gender politics, that never before have so many consumers actively been trying not to be put in boxes – flexy is the new sexy!
With diversity at the top of the agenda, we need to be much more fluid in how we profile consumers and we need to know much more than just their socio-economic group and how much their household earns.
Consumers are real people and if your brand wants to engage them, you need to uncover who are you really talking to.
This is exactly where we started with a Sports Nutrition Brand we’re currently working with.
They had collected a lot of data about their audience, which was insightful, but delivered through statistics and graphs it was still just a numbers game. A far cry from the blood, sweat and tears of the real people using their products.
So, the first thing we did – turn the data into real consumers with names and faces, likes, dislikes, identifiable behaviours and fitness goals. Then we introduced them, like a first date…
“Sports Nutrition Brand, meet Ben.”
“Ben is passionate about sport. It’s more than a hobby, he dedicates his evenings and weekends trying to improve his performance. He is well read on new performance products that are coming to market and will take the time to understand them and then give them a go. Ben buys a lot of sports nutrition products as they are just as important to him as his training. He’s a little sceptical of the science but is willing to accept what brands say. He also loves recommendations and will be influenced by his peers and other competitors at events.”
As soon as your consumer data becomes a real person it’s so much easier to focus-in on their need states, get into their mindset and predict how they will react or respond. Then you can start to build and evolve your brands’ tone of voice, look and feel to connect with your real audience – NOT just ‘ABC1 males and females’ which make up around 60% of UK adults!
Ultimately increasing your brands relevance and appeal, and winning that all important consumer engagement.
If you’re interested in meeting your ‘real’ consumers, then give us a shout.
Join us…
We’re helping more brands launch, grow and thrive through sharing the why and the how, sprinkled with a little creativity to inspire you. If you want to elevate your brand and really engage your audience, then this is the place to be!