Article

Mike Owen
Mike Owen 9 February 2016

Age Nothing But A Number?

Marketers have historically used age as a key metric in targeting customers, yet research shows that attitude is increasingly becoming a better indicator of consumer interest.

recent study by Network Research, which looked at 1,500 UK consumers, confirms that both rational and emotional attitudes offer a way to effectively target communications, and might even exceed the importance of more popular criteria such as age, gender and income.

The study reveals a number of specific consumer preferences centred around attitude. For instance, ’having children’ is a significant influencing factor in consumers recommending certain brands: 64.7% of consumers with children are likely to recommend the retailer M&S, while only 35.6% without children recommend the brand. The attitudes of consumers with or without children are so consistent that 19 out of 20 brands in the study share the same correlation.

Another interesting finding debunks the theory that certain brands resonate more strongly with less affluent individuals. Research on budget retailer Primark, for instance, shows that those in social grades AB and C1 are likely to recommend the brand at nearly equal rates of 21.8% and 23.1%, respectively. A brand perceived as an option for lower income consumers might therefore be missing out on the opportunity to convert higher-income individuals if attitude, behaviour and contextual factors are overlooked when developing a targeted marketing strategy.

Client Development Director at Network Research, David Pritchard, commented on the findings: "just looking at young people [as a target market] doesn’t give a brand granularity, and they might be missing out on an enormous part of a prospective audience."

However, that’s not to say that traditional demographic segmentation serves no purpose, or should be ’scrapped’ – merely that it’s important to dig deeper in order to understand audiences on a more meaningful level, by analysing behavioural markers and attitudes. Pritchard continues: "[the report] understands that audiences lie outside of your traditional target and there are other attitudes and behaviours that will lead people to engage with your brand and your category."

Brands overlooking attitudes may therefore simply be missing a key piece of the puzzle to most effectively reach their audiences. To find out how censhare is helping brands to manage their audience data to create highly targeted, effective communications, explore our Advanced Analytics and Targeting solutions.

Original Article

Please login or register to add a comment.

Contribute Now!

Loving our articles? Do you have an insightful post that you want to shout about? Well, you've come to the right place! We are always looking for fresh Doughnuts to be a part of our community.

Popular Articles

See all
7 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Important For Your Business

7 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Important For Your Business

In the past two decades social media has become a crucial tool for marketers, enabling businesses to connect with potential customers. If your business has yet to embrace social media and you want to know why it is...

Sharron Nelson
Sharron Nelson 29 February 2024
Read more
B2B Marketers Need a New Approach to Lead Gen to Meet the Growing Quality Challenge

B2B Marketers Need a New Approach to Lead Gen to Meet the Growing Quality Challenge

The biggest challenge facing B2B marketers in 2024 is generating high quality leads. And the problem is getting worse.

Michael Nutley
Michael Nutley 18 March 2024
Read more
How to Create a Landing Page: The Ultimate Guide

How to Create a Landing Page: The Ultimate Guide

Learn how to make an effective landing page with our latest article. Perfect for beginners and pros alike, this article gives you practical tips to create a landing page that works for you. From picking the right...

Ravi Shukla
Ravi Shukla 19 February 2024
Read more
How to Review a Website — A Guide for Beginners

How to Review a Website — A Guide for Beginners

A company website is crucial for any business's digital marketing strategy. To keep up with the changing trends and customer buying behaviors, it's important to review and make necessary changes regularly...

Digital Doughnut Contributor
Digital Doughnut Contributor 25 March 2024
Read more
4 Tips for Building Effective Direct Response Marketing Campaigns

4 Tips for Building Effective Direct Response Marketing Campaigns

Craft irresistible offers and elevate your marketing strategy with direct response marketing campaigns.

Iulia P
Iulia P 22 March 2024
Read more