Demographics Don’t Work: An Update

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Ozzy Fan for over 40 Years…

Heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne died this week, and I mourned because I’ve been imbibing his music since high school.

Then I realized I needed to erase him…

No, not from my memory, but from one of my marketing lectures on customer segmentation. That lecture included a social media meme that states “Demographics Don’t Work” with photos of Prince Charles and Ozzy Osbourne, noting that both were born in 1948, grew up in England, have two children, are wealthy, married a second time, and successful in business. (I’d show the meme, but don’t know if the images are copyrighted, and I learned the expensive way to be careful when sharing photos in blog posts.)

But now that Ozzy has taken that Crazy Train to the other side, showing him would be odd and inappropriate. Plus, the Prince is now a King.

So I created an updated graphic featuring two Americans, Congressman Mike Johnson and rapper Eminem, noting that both are white American males, born in the South in 1972, children of teenage moms, Christians, and influential public figures. Plus, both their photos are public domain, so I can’t get sued by some stock photo house.

The contrast between these two gentlemen isn’t as stark, but I think it works. I wanted to start with a pop celebrity that most people would recognize, Eminem. I looked up the year he was born on Wikipedia and scrolled through the notable births until I found another white American male, Johnson. He’s a current politician, and couldn’t be more different than Eminem in values and style. I researched further to find the parallels.

All this serves to illustrate a key point in marketing: most demographic segmentation doesn’t make sense because individuals within that segment vary widely.

Sure, certain products might appeal primarily to one demo (e.g., most stilettos are purchased by women, most retirement communities are inhabited by senior citizens, etc.). But demographic-based segmentation is stereotyping, which risks all kinds of errors and offenses.

Better bet? Target people based on their interests, not their identities. After all, the appeal of Ozzy Osbourne transcended geography, genders, and generations, and in life he refused to fit any stereotype.