Post-Demographic consumers
Written by Simon Clatworthy
I have always been a bit sceptical to the idea of demographic segments, although I guess broadly there are age cohorts that have similar needs. However, I think if you rather look at groups with similar needs, without specifically focusing upon age, then you are more likely to develop the right services and experiences.
I therefore read one of the useful trend-briefings yesterday with great pleasure. It not only says things clearly and succinctly, it also gives a few examples of how you can design for a non-age demographic. One of the key paragraphs I think is one that explains how status symbols are not connected to money anymore, but rather to experiential value.
The above text from the briefing (link) says it nicely, and there are some good statistics to support this. For example:
While 48% of those who had used ‘neo-sharing’ collaborative consumption platforms (such as Airbnb, Zipcar and Kickstarter) were aged 18-34, 33% were aged 35-54 and 19% were aged over 55.
CROWD COMPANIES, MARCH 2014
I still think its true that the younger demographics are willing to experiment and are quicker to pick up on radically new things, but I also think that there are a lot of new services that are not radically new, and appeal across all demographics.
So, next time you are discussing with a client about target segments, get them to read the trend-briefing, and show that the age demographic should not necessarily govern the way they view the world.