The tribe that killed the demographic

• As e- commerce and the OTT platforms are disrupting lives, they are simultaneously disrupting consumer behavior
• Rohit Raj, Creative Chief and Co-founder, The Glitch, talks about the need for marketers to look at the archaic rules of demographics with the lens of Tribes
• For a marketer, a tribe is a set of people, not necessarily divided by age, religion or geography, but by behaviour, intent and consumption
• Defining tribes for one’s brand only helps them distinguish between the vast potential customers in the universe and gives them an intent to purchase the product

Picture this scene. A living room where a couple in their sixties is discussing the millennial drama, Fleabag with their 21-year-old nephew as they munch through the latest flavor of Magnum ice-cream they managed to Dunzo from the nearest store. If we were to rely on demographics to build algorithms to target this set, I’m sure that AI-powered machine learning (insert more jargons here) system would be really confused, considering none of the above products mentioned have anything to do with the demographic sitting in the room. So in this connected shrinking world of digital disruptions, it is safe to assume, the good old days of SEC A, B, 18-24 metrics are dead. As e- commerce and the OTT platforms are disrupting lives, they are simultaneously disrupting consumer behavior. And it is time for marketers to now look at these archaic rules of demographics with a whole new lens. The lens of Tribes.

We spoke of this term in closed room meetings to define our audience and somewhere down the line realized that it was a term that could replace demographics in the future. So what is a tribe? The dictionary defines a tribe as a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader. If we are to dissect this definition and look at it more from a marketers lens, A tribe for us, is a set of people, not necessarily divided by age, religion or geography, but by behaviour, intent and consumption. This helps us define better, a specific set of people who have the intent to buy our product and thus deliver better results.

Let’s take the example of an energy drink. By the age old theory of demographic, we would have slot them as a male, 18-24 SEC A individual thus alienating a vast majority of potential customers. But when broken into tribes, we realize they belong mostly to 2-3 kinds of tribes. 1. The athletes/fitness oriented who need that burst of adrenaline (Behaviour) 2. The ones living the fast paced life at work, who have the need to keep going (Intent) 3. The party animal who doesn’t want to let the night end. (Consumption)

This split of the consumer now lets us craft sharper communication with potential customers through the day, triggering a higher intent to purchase. The vast amount of big data available to marketers is of no use unless decoded and used the right way.

Unlike the Schrodinger demographic :: A set of people who exist in a marketers head but not in reality (Case in point, the millennial), a tribe allows you to define a behaviour for your brand and be a contributor to people who emulate that behaviour. So are tribes the answer to a “One size fits all” communication? The answer is No. We no longer live in a world where consumer behaviour is defined precisely and a single piece of communication clicks through all hearts. Defining tribes for your brand only helps you distinguish between the vast potential customers in the universe and give them an intent to purchase your product. So next time you draft your demographic slide in your brief, think hard. Maybe it is time to talk to real customers and not a data set that is older than your product.

- by Rohit Raj, Creative Chief and Co-founder, The Glitch