Of Speed Darlington and me | 5/∞
People in marketing departments exhibit a strong and understandable urge. The urge is to assume that everyone within a specific audience bloc shares the same level of knowledge, needs, and passion for a product.?
It's an illusion that needs shattering.?
When I worked in the agency, we referred to anyone aged 22 and 38 as a millennial and targeted them accordingly. Indeed, I was a millennial, very much like Speedy Darlington was a millennial.?
Yet there couldn't be two people more dissimilar than Speedy Darlington and me. If I attempt to do things Mr Darlington got up to, my insides would probably take the express route out the back to avoid being associated with me.?
You can already see the problem. Audience monoliths are ineffective at capturing nuance.
The sun is setting on millennial appeal, and we are getting swept into the Gen Z and Gen Alpha appeals. But we must code that those demographic cohorts aren't about hard lines that box people into a category but a way of looking at the world.?
Indeed target audiences?are not?target audiences at all,?but people.?
Ps.?
A simple exercise in crafting user stories helps you arrive at a more nuanced idea of who your audience is. Ask and answer (a) who are they? (b) what do they want? (c) what's the benefit of your product to them? (d) what are their acceptance criteria? (reasons-to-believe, if you are being classy).
Alternative title: home in pt. 2
Operations| Partnerships| Driving Growth
2 年Onalaja, this a beautiful piece. if you'd take an in-depth dive, it doesn't deal solely with Marketing alone. It is relatable to strategy as well. Different memos for dealing with different situations, though within the same sample. Well written my guy!
Digital Experience Officer
2 年Gbénga! This particular one will help me so much in an audience audit I’m about to embark on. Just because we all fall within a certain age range doesn’t mean we have the same appeal for the content meant for our age group. We should target people who are more suited to what the brand has to offer rather than target a whole generation which doesn’t necessarily share the same outlook in life/desires. I really loved this read!
Product Marketing Manager | Driving Growth in B2B, B2C, and SaaS | Skilled in Market Analysis, Go-to-Market Strategies, and Sales Enablement
2 年This is very true and important. I had this conversation recently - just because people belong to the same generation doesn't mean the same things appeal to them. While segmentation is important, I think it's best to answer what jobs they need done and position accordingly.