Rethinking Consumer Segmentation: Decoding the New Role of Tribes, Networks, and Communities

Humans are social by nature, they tend to live varied lifestyles, and thrive within communal habitats – whether it is an estate, a hamlet, village, town, or city. As they go about their daily activities, they unconsciously infuse their habits, morals, and beliefs onto others, who seemingly adopt these customs, edit them, and adapt them to fit their own beliefs, opinions, and existences.?

The pandemic broke all rules of physical human engagement, and people were forced to readapt to these new circumstances. Digital channels and communications flourished as a result of people still wanting to stay in touch and connected in a “low-touch economy.” As we cruised into the twenty-twenties, decade-old habits and traditional lifestyle patterns were being thrown out the window. Age-old connection myths, audience segmentation, and lifestyle models were broken, and consumer need states like belonging, conviviality, and creativity, were evolving and had taken on new meaning.

Connecting to people based on their status, age, location, and income bracket was an old trick that was seemingly not working for Gen Zs, Alphas, and most millennials. These groups of people readily identify as “humans from their respective tribes and connection hubs,” and not as “users”, “consumers”, “buyers”, “customers”, “shoppers”, or “clients” in a marketing program like robots scaled up in a factory machine line.

Traditional Categorization of People in Marketing

Source: Identiture Africa , 'Africa Futures Report (2020-2030)'

Today, connecting with consumers in the new age of influence goes beyond the standardized principles of campaigns, communications, content, and consumerism. People, nay…humans want to feel and be felt. They want to love, dream, hope, and aspire for magic; to think and imagine stuff, new worlds, new challenges, and possible futures.

Being human allows them to do that, and not merely as consumers of products and services. A rather simple way of connecting with people is to understand their underlying motivations, behaviors, and inspirations – both internal and external.

People want to have relationships with people.

Brands want to have relationships with people.

People want to have relationships with things, they love, admire, and desire.?

Brands need to understand the things people want, love, admire, and desire.

To illustrate and better understand the consumer segmentation in marketing, Versus Africa conducted a survey on Nigerians aged between 16-65 on their shopping preferences and, we realized over twenty percent of Gen Zs and millennials preferred physical shopping, even though a majority of them (66.8%) still shopped online.?

When the respondents were probed further on what constituted the majority of their online purchases, 28.4% confirmed that clothes and apparel were the highest items on their shopping list, 24.4% selected electronics, and food delivery was a distant third at 9.5%.

Interestingly, the leading online platform that was most preferred by this audience was Jumia (43.4%), followed by Instagram (14.9%), and Amazon (8.3%).

Figure 1: Versus Africa 2022 eCommerce Survey

Figure 2: Versus Africa 2022 eCommerce Survey

Although young people have wholly embraced the web platforms, social media, and mobile connectivity, prevalent concerns like unstable internet connectivity and insecure data protection are still very much common, and a source of concern regarding online transactions – whether banking, shopping, or paying utility bills.

People are influenced by their environment, habitat, peer network, colleagues, mentors, celebrities, news, family, friends, and social media. To connect strongly with them, it is important to dimension various aspects of their active and inactive lifestyles – how they feel, look, and act; and what they think, say, or do.?

The diagram below shows a dynamic model that covers the spectrum of consumer behavior and the best ways of connecting to them:

Source: Identiture Africa , 'Human Circles Of Influence"

• Spaces: Homogenous virtual areas for relaxation, work, and exhibiting creativity. They tend to be fluid and experimental in nature and are often used for social relationships, personal comfort, and dreamotion.
• Places – Phydigital environments where people can shop, entertain, and engage themselves. These places could be for travel, marketing activation, or home entertainment.
• Races – People that identify as citizens of a particular place or space; whether physical or digital. Traditional definitions don’t apply here. Race goes beyond affiliation by origin, language, or motherland. Rather, this Circle seeks to associate people of similar interests as members of a select group, network, or tribe.?
• Voices – Listening, watching, reading, writing, or vibing to sounds, videos, or multimedia files.

In examining Places and Spaces, Versus Africa undertook a Future of Work study that revealed 45% were more productive working from home given that the remote mode of working in Nigeria, like almost everywhere else, was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. And if workers were given an ultimatum to select their preferred mode of working, 44% of them would consider hybrid, 22% would select a hybrid option, and 19% would select the onsite option.

Figure 3: Versus Africa 2022 Work Survey

Figure 4: Versus Africa 2022 Work Survey

The contextual meaning of the WFH preference is that the home has evolved into an epicenter of social and cultural life, that is not only adaptable, but can also be customized for multitasking, leisure time, and entertainment.

People’s behaviors and relationship dynamics are characterized differently across these Connection circles, and are no longer linear or passive activities; everyone in the value chain has a stake in it and a role to play. As we know, humans are social by nature, they tend to live varied lifestyles, and thrive within these Circles of Influence.?

Source: Bschoolng "9 Cs in Strategic Planning"

It is pertinent therefore to observe, track and dimension people using their circles of influence where appropriate, as one begins to appreciate them for who they are, how they think, and what they do, and better able to design bespoke communication plans that effectively connect with them.

To build your customer persona profiles and gain insights into African consumers through surveys and social listening, Book A Demo with Versus Africa.

Franklin Ozekhome is a trendspotter and pop culture strategist. He's the CEO of Identiture Africa , a Nigerian-based innovation consultancy, specialising in product and service design, growth strategy, and future directions for youth-focused brands.