40 Years On : From Demography to Personas
How audience understanding has changed.
It’s almost 40 years since I embarked on my journey in the research and insights industry, and in that time, one of the most significant shifts I’ve witnessed is how we define and understand audiences. In the early days, our approach was all about demographics: age, gender, income, and social class. We treated these categories as the cornerstone of segmentation but as the world has become more complex, so too has our understanding of the people we study.
Today, the focus has shifted from basic demographics to nuanced personas that capture the full depth of individuals' motivations, behaviours and needs.
The Early Days: A Demographic Focus
When I began my career, research segmentation was largely built on demographic data. We categorised people into age brackets, household incomes and occupation levels, which at the time seemed like the most effective way to group consumers. It was a simpler world then and these categories provided a straightforward framework to target products and services. In many ways, demographics gave us a way to simplify a complex reality but as I would come to learn, this simplification was also limiting.
Back then, the tools we used reflected this thinking. Whether I was using SPSS to crunch numbers or conducting face-to-face interviews, the questions we asked and the analysis we performed were always viewed through the lens of "Who is this person in terms of their age, gender or income bracket?" While this approach was useful, I began to see its shortcomings—particularly when it came to understanding the deeper motivations driving consumer behaviour.
A Shift in Focus: From "Who" to "Why"
As the 1990s progressed, consumer culture was evolving rapidly, and so was the field of market research. More than ever, brands needed to understand not just who their customers were, but why they behaved the way they did. It became clear that age or income alone couldn’t explain why two people in the same demographic group could make wildly different purchasing decisions. This was the moment when psychographics began to enter the picture.
Psychographics allowed us to explore attitudes, interests, and lifestyles, which provided richer, more actionable insights into consumer behaviour. I remember the shift feeling like a revelation—suddenly we weren’t just interested in who a consumer was, but why they did what they did. This pivot started a trend that would ultimately lead us away from demographics towards personas.
The Birth of Personas
Personas, as we understand them today, started gaining prominence in the 2000s. It was around this time that digital data collection methods—first online surveys and later social media and behavioural analytics—started offering us a more granular view of people’s actions, preferences and motivations. The idea of treating audiences as distinct personas rather than broad demographic groups came naturally from this.
A persona is essentially a profile built on a combination of demographic, psychographic and behavioural data, but it goes further. Personas are developed with narratives that help us empathise with a specific "type" of person, whether it’s "Savvy Sarah," the value-conscious mum balancing family and work, or "Techy Tim," a young professional who’s constantly looking for the next big gadget. These personas help us step into the shoes of our target audience, considering their motivations, challenges and even emotions. This is where I found research began to feel less about data points and more about people.
Why Personas Matter Today
As I look back on the shift from demographics to personas, the power of this evolution becomes clear. Personas give brands a more all round understanding of their audience. They help us capture the complexity of modern consumers, where people aren’t just defined by their age, but by their values, passions, and even their insecurities.
This change also reflects broader societal trends. In today’s world, people expect brands to understand them on a personal level. They want personalised experiences, relevant messaging and products that fit seamlessly into their lives. As a result, our work as insight professionals has had to evolve to keep pace with these expectations. The days of one-size-fits-all messaging are long gone, replaced by a world where every touchpoint needs to feel bespoke.
For me, this shift to personas has been one of the most interesting changes in my 40 years in the industry. It’s allowed us to move beyond superficial understanding and connect with people in ways that are both meaningful and actionable. Whether we’re helping brands develop new products, refine their messaging or identify new market opportunities, personas enable us to add real value by painting a fuller, richer picture of the consumer.
Looking Forward: The Future of Audience Understanding
While personas have become an indispensable part of our toolkit, I’m excited about where audience understanding might go next. With advancements in AI, machine learning and big data analytics, there’s potential to make personas even more dynamic and precise. Soon, we may see personas that adapt in real-time, based on changing behaviours, providing brands with even more powerful ways to engage their audiences.
Reflecting on this journey, I realise that understanding audiences has always been at the heart of what we do, but the tools and techniques have grown more sophisticated with time. From demographics to psychographics and now personas, our work has become not just about knowing who people are, but about truly understanding them.
And in the end, that’s what continues to make this industry so exciting—even 40 years on.
