When I’m working from home, I should be your new target audience

In the quest to achieve work-life balance, the home has become an oasis for remote working. But, whether you concentrate better at home or find yourself procrastinating, brands are missing out on helping you to get ahead.

Working from home has gradually become a key element of my working culture. As a CEO and mum of three, I think my entire survival strategy depends on it. It started with a working from home day, and has evolved to include several hours at dawn most days before the real chaos begins. Sleep sacrifice is deeply untrendy these days, so as you can imagine in these squeezed moments, every waking second counts. If it’s not ultra productive, it’s a big problem, and one I think more brands should be keen to help me address. Why am I telling you this?

Well, by happy coincidence at Foresight Factory we have uncovered people working from home as an important new audience. This is not just a growing segment of the population, but also one where there is serious commercial opportunity. Largely, we don’t embrace Homeworkers as an audience. And I think this is because we don’t spend enough time really unpicking how people need to be reached differently in different contexts, such as when they shift from commuter into the working from home mindset.

Partially at least, thanks to big data, brands are capitalising on their audiences with new and more enriched segmentations at their fingertips. However, one challenge always remains - how do people act in every arena of their lives, and are we always sounding relevant in different contexts? Our tool AYDA (Ask Your Data Analyst), helps us to pinpoint where brands can grow. It unearths new audiences or those with adjacent growing behaviours. The Homeworker is one that almost every brand will want to pay attention to - and I say this from both from the perspective of an employer/employee but also as a consumer that is looking for new productivity/sanity-driving/wellbeing/family planning solutions. 

Why everyone needs to care about The Homeworker

The number of people who also work from home is growing. They are affluent and they are turning to brands for the tools to help them succeed. Foresight Factory data in the UK shows the percentage of people working from home at least once a week jumping from 10% in 1999 to 26% in 2018 - and we forecast this will grow to 30% by 2025. Our research also shows that Homeworkers tend to be an well-off bunch, taking home ￡50,000+ per annum. This group has more to spend and more to lose if they are not productive at home: almost twice as many homeworkers (compared to those who don’t) say they need more control over their productivity. They are faced with constant threats to their attention and focus including devices, tasks and sometimes children. Clever brands recognise this and are helping consumers fix their attention deficit. Apple’s latest IOS update included controls over screen time and time spent in apps - they understand it isn’t just teenagers who are addicted to Instagram.

Managing downtime to boost productivity

One way Homeworkers are becoming more efficient is through precisely managed downtime. Always-on is no longer an option and the consequence can be complete burnout. Homeworkers are more likely to find controlled time for leisure in work hours, because a midday swim, post lunch snooze or mindful lunch break can boost overall productivity.

Brands are missing an opportunity here, brands like ThisWorks. Their sleep power nap spray could be perfect for The Homeworker who likes to prep for the afternoon with a power nap, but when we look at ThisWork’s instructions:

“Mist over This Works travel hood, travel pillow or headrest and inhale to relax.”

These instructions focus only on travel. The brand perhaps hasn’t considered The Homeworker and how naps can help them too. The Homeworker may have a precise napping schedule that occurs each Thursday at 3pm, but at home with their own pillow. The Homeworker could have been a ThisWorks loyal repeat customer - but they have been forgotten from the messaging.

How are brands helping you work from home?

We’ve used AYDA to quantify this important subgroup that we think is under served with solutions to their growing needs. It’s clear that a large number of consumers, myself included, could do with a helping hand to ensure that their time spent working at home is well spent. Because for me, that is ultimately time not spent at home with my family.

I want to know, what context would you like to explore with AYDA? Let me know in the comments below.