Why personalisation trumps segmentation in understanding your audience

Cezanne Joynt, is the client services manager at Achievement Awards Group.

By using data to get personal. By getting out from behind our desks and doing some real-world research. And by connecting with our audiences, face-to-face, one-on-one. Doing these things provides insights that no segmentation can. It’s useful to categorise people.

But segmentation is a simplification, and it’s no substitute for getting personal.

There’s a wonderful scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, in which Brian implores a crowd of followers to think for themselves.

Brian: You’re all individuals!

Crowd (chanting in unison): Yes, we’re all individuals.

Brian: You’re all different!

Crowd: Yes, we’re all different.

Anonymous man in crowd: I’m not.

Of course, Brian is right. We are all individuals. But if you’re a marketer, political strategist or even a mom-and-pop store owner, it’s hard to think about eight hundred individuals, let alone eight billion.

So, we group people according to demographic information such as income, area, interests, and, of course, age or generation.

These groupings, however, we arrange them, are convenient and useful. They show us patterns. They help us to create broad generalisations about different generations or affiliations.

But we should acknowledge that they are simplifications and try to think past them. Because customers aren’t patterns. They’re people.

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There are almost infinite combinations of demographic data points and other, hard-to-measure factors that make individuals who they are.

Two people may have identical ages, genders, incomes and religious beliefs.

But they have their DNA, were raised under different parenting styles, and took different courses after school. We know they are likely very different human beings.

Demographics only tell part of the story

In their paper, The new age of Gen Z: Unmasking the real lives of young adults, authors Tom Morris and Tom Hodges draw attention to the limits of their research.

“Studying demographic data alone creates broad assumptions about consumers’ attitudes, self-perceptions, and motivations,” they say, before going on to “encourage marketers to think beyond demographics… and recognise the diversity of individuals.”

In our work with salespeople and sales channels, we interact with a lot of taverns and bars. In an actual example, you can go to a tavern that doesn’t trust technology and only accepts cash.

And, literally, a block down the road you can visit a strictly cashless establishment. You might assume it’s because Tavern A is run by a Baby Boomer and Tavern B by a millennial, but when you visit the establishments, you see that’s not the case at all.

It’s just different mentalities

It's a useful, real-world insight that. can influence the approach to incentivising and marketing – and give it an edge. And it points to several practical take-outs:

1: Personalisation beats segmentation:

Generalising or grouping people by demographic information is a helpful tool. But, as a tool, it’s advanced a lot in the last few years, specifically with regard to data. We can now drill more deeply and get a more detailed picture.

As marketers, we used to segment audiences into, say, three buckets. With the data we can now access, there are as many buckets as there are customers or salespeople.

Data allows us to learn much more about individuals. And it means we can really personalise the way we engage with them.

One practical application of that, specifically in the context of sales channels, is that incentives can be personalised. The owner at Tavern A might want cash, but the one at Tavern B might prefer material rewards, or an experience, such as travel.

Their choices, in turn, can provide more data. That growing amount of data can add layers of richness and depth to our understanding of our audiences.

2: Add in-person to on-screen:

As much as data has advanced, and as much as it paints a better picture, it’s not the full or only picture. We can learn and do an enormous amount from our desks, but there’s no substitute for getting out there and doing some good old fieldwork.

Take those taverns. On paper, they’re in the same area, with the same demographics. On paper, you wouldn’t expect the difference. And even if you had data that did indicate the differences, it might not help you understand the reasons behind them, or the consequences of them.

How does cashless versus cash-only impact the business, or the kind of clients each tavern attracts, or the products they sell?

On paper, we can make educated guesses at best. In person, we can see for ourselves.

3: Connection matters: There’s another reason to get personal, in person. Even with all the data we can access, even with the opportunity technology gives us to personalise, there is no substitute for human connection.

Nobody wants to be treated as a number or put in a box. Perhaps because of the ubiquity of technology, and especially after the isolation of Covid, most people appreciate the quality and emotional reward of a simple, human, face-to-face conversation.

They respond to curiosity and interest, to eye contact and facial gestures, and they are more likely to share and open up.

And there is probably no better way for each of us to better understand people who are different, younger or older than us. The ”data” and insight that we can get out of those connections is as valuable as anything we’ll get from behind our desks.

The moral of the story

Demographic data and segmentations can be highly informational and informative. They are an important part of the picture, but not the whole picture.

So, by all means, do the research and examine the data. But stay human.

Use data to personalise, not generalise. Speak to salespeople and customers, connect with them face to face, and understand them.

Some truths and insights can only be found by seeing people for who they are: individuals.