Traditional demographics just aren’t cutting it these days. Age, ethnicity, gender, income – twenty years ago, knowing these identifiers meant knowing your audience. But not anymore. With today’s technology exponentially increasing access to information, organizations, and human connections every single day, people are breaking out of their cookie cutter molds.
As a result, audience groups are no longer accurately defined by traditional demographics.
That isn’t to say that traditional demographics are useless. Strong correlations between supporter groups and demographics continue to exist and give organizations a better idea of their typical audience member. Bentley owners tend to be in higher income brackets, TikTok users tend to be from younger generations, and Sephora shoppers tend to be women. While these are certainly correlations, are they the strongest correlations? Is income or age or gender truly the best identifier of who will want to be a loyal stakeholder in your organization?
The short answer: no.
Let’s consider the gaming industry. This 178-billion-dollar industry is usually associated with two particular demographics: age and gender. Men under the age of thirty are the stereotypical poster audience for many companies in the gaming industry. While young men continue to be substantial consumers in this market, this audience group based on traditional demographics simply does not hold today. Of all video gamers in the US in 2020, over 40% were women. And while the largest age group is still 18 to 34-year olds, there are currently more gamers over the age of 44 than under the age of 18. The landscape of the industry is shifting. More and more people outside of the stereotypical gamer demographics are getting into gaming. Gaming companies who don’t shift their mindsets and redefine their target audiences will risk excluding not just a small, niche community, but nearly 50% of all consumers.
The same is true for nonprofits and foundations. If we mistakenly rely on traditional demographics to identify potential donors, volunteers, or partners, then we will miss out on many passionate supporters just because they fall outside an antiquated definition of what they “normally” look like.
But if we shouldn’t define our audiences by demographics, what should we define them by?
The answer lies in causation. What causes your audience to take interest in your organization? What drives them to volunteer? To collaborate? To donate?
Among nonprofits and mission-focused organizations, demographics like age, income, ethnicity, and gender merely state similarities that exist among loyal stakeholders. But correlation does not equal causation. Donors to hospice care may tend to be older because older demographics are more likely to have encountered hospice care than younger demographics. But their age isn’t what sparked them to donate. It was their contact with the service.
Stop thinking about demographics and start thinking about commonalities instead. If we reorganize our current audiences into groups based on what motivates them to give, their interests, their personal experiences with a cause, their hobbies, or their challenges, we will find stronger connections and get closer to understanding the spark behind their decisions.
Netflix is an excellent example of this. When you go to Netflix’s homepage, it recommends new TV shows and movies for you to watch. That recommendation system isn’t based on age or gender—it’s based on what you’ve watched and enjoyed in the past. In other words, your interests. Whether you’re a 13-year-old girl or a 65-year-old man, if you watched The Office, the system would recommend another comedic sitcom like Parks and Rec.
Defining audiences based on commonalities like interests is called tribal marketing, which we will delve into more in the next part of this series.
The bottom line is, to better understand who our audiences are, we need to stop relying on the rigidity of traditional demographics and begin venturing into the why. Once we understand why stakeholders choose us, we’ll be able to strategize how to reach the larger community that lies beyond.
To learn more about Tribal Marketing and its potential to transform your nonprofit marketing efforts, click here to check out the next part of the series.
