Among the many forms of ad targeting there is demographic and psychographic.
Demographic targeting looks like this:
Based on your gender/age/location you might be interested in this …
It is operates on the assumption that you are like everyone else with a similar demographic background and it’s messaging aims for the masses.
An alternative is to target based on psychographics, which looks like this:
Based on your behaviour/purchases you might be interested in this …
It tailors the message based on your preferences and tastes regardless of age or gender.
Amazon use it to great success.
Both are viable but I think that psychographics are the way forward.
In today’s world with infinite media options, tastes and preferences are far from uniform and some tastes defy demographics. Take for example the Bronies, the unexpected adult male fan following of a TV show (‘My Little Pony’) aimed at young girls.
When you know their taste, you have a much better chance of figuring out what they want to buy next because it’s directly related to their consuming/purchasing behaviour. There is a pretty good chance that someone who has bought the last three black keys albums will be interested in buying the latest black key album, irrespective of their age.
Whether as excluding 20-25 year olds because you assume they have no money means that you miss out on all those extremely wealthy young adults who are at their potentially most reckless financial phase.
Another example is Gucci or Prada who don’t specify an age but rather position themselves as the image of wealth. They don’t care about the demographics of their customer instead they are there to serve those interested in appearing affluent. Therefore they are worn by all ages.
Thomas Duggan 