You're doing marketing wrong if you're still using demographics to ID your customer.
Four buyer psychology inspired things to do instead of starting with demographic data to target your ideal next customers.
You're doing marketing wrong if you're still starting with demographics.
I've worked with hundreds of food brands, and 90% start with the same flawed approach: "Our customer is women 25-45 with household income over $75k."
That tells you nothing about why they buy. 🤦🏻
What's a marketer supposed to do with that information besides target a large, generic group of potential buyers? They’re nearly marketing to everyone!
Let’s break down what those demographics tell you…
"Our customer is women 25-45 with household income over $75k."
“women”
Way too diverse to influence marketing and buying decisions
Any decisions you make based on gender are wildly assumptive
“25-45”
What are you learning about your customer from this information?
How similar are two 25-year-olds… let alone a 25-year-old and a 45-year-old?
“household income over $75k”
This info is interesting, but not actionable
What’s the difference between $75k and $85k? Why draw the line there?
The real conversation is disposable income, and even then, it only matters if the person has a reason to buy the product.
I’m not discounting the fact that being able to afford the product/service is important… but more often than I’d like to admit, we find low-income households buying premium products based on their motivations and values.
If you’re trying to build your next campaign… this ICP (ideal client profile) is going to leave you scratching your head… and making a lot of assumptions.
What Really Works
Here's what actually works: segment by the problem you solve in their life.
Take oat milk. Most brands think they're segmenting when they say "health-conscious millennials." But when you dig deeper, you find at least 5 distinct segments buying the exact same product:
🥛 The lactose-intolerant who just wants to enjoy cereal again
🥛 The environmentalists reducing their carbon footprint
🥛 The coffee snobs who think it froths better
🥛 The trend followers who saw it on TikTok
🥛 The parents dealing with a kid's dairy allergy
Same shelf. Same product. Completely different jobs to be done.
This is why traditional (demographics-heavy) segmentation fails.
Demographics assume similarity where none exists. A 32-year-old mom in Denver and a 32-year-old mom in Detroit might have nothing in common when it comes to why they choose your product.
But when you segment by motivation, patterns emerge:
The convenience seekers → They'll pay 40% more to save 10 minutes
The nostalgia buyers → They want what grandma made, just easier
The health optimizers → They're solving a specific problem (energy, gut health, weight)
The values voters → They're buying your mission as much as your product
Once you know which segment someone belongs to, everything changes. Your messaging becomes laser-focused. Your product development has direction. Your retail strategy makes sense.
Finding Your Real Segments
Here are 4 simple ways to find your real segments:
Ask the replacement question: "What would you choose if our product didn't exist?" The answers reveal what job you're really doing.
Map the journey backwards: Start with why they bought, then work back to how they found you. Different motivations = different paths.
Look for the extremes: Your most passionate customers and your most recent defectors. They'll tell you what matters most.
Test your segments: Can you predict behavior? If you can't predict what message will resonate or which retailer they'll shop, your segments are too broad.
And the brands crushing it right now? They've moved past "millennial moms" and found their precision segments. They know exactly which problem they solve for which person.
And that's when marketing gets surgical instead of scattershot.
Because when you know the why behind the buy, you can stop talking to everyone and start converting someone.