Demographic data sets provide information about groups of people according to certain attributes such as age, location and gender. Marketers use this data to segment audiences more effectively across performance channels.

Some marketers believe that using data sets such as Acorn by CACI, Experian and Tableau solves the age-old “spray and pray” problem, whereby demographic segmentation allows them to deploy budget in a more targeted way.

The issue with this method of demographic targeting is that it assumes that your target customers are exactly the same as your competitors’, which means that you continue to fish in the same (diminishing) pool. We call this data category-specific data. It’s useful to plant new seeds but doesn’t identify brand-specific audiences.

The other issue is that it doesn’t take into account the impact of social behaviour and communities, and how they influence potential customers. This is important because the biggest influence on consumer behaviour are the communities that exist in the real world – the streets, towns and cities where people live. Two thirds of brand conversations and recommendations happen offline.

For example, a 60-year-old grandmother wouldn’t be found in the target audience for a baby food brand. But she holds a great deal of influence within her community, and through the power of recommendation is likely to influence others to purchase.