One of the key aspects to a successful business is knowing your audience and giving them the best customer experience.

Without a customer base, a company has no product or service. Therefore, putting your products/services in front of the right eyes goes a long way to ensuring your enterprise’s longevity.

The common line of thinking in nailing down your optimal audience previously was to segment a particular demographic and focus your efforts on appealing to those within this bracket.

But traditional demographic segmentation just won’t do anymore.

Delivering superior customer experiences demands a more comprehensive insight into your customers in order to bring a greater level of personalisation to the interaction.

The main shortcoming with using conventional demographics is that they don’t allow you to delve deeper into the the different sub-segments within a wide-ranging group.

A study conducted by the University of Southern California, the Hallmark Channel and E-Poll Market Research found that the media behaviours of Americans were most greatly affected by their stage in life rather than the demographic they belonged to.

The study found that in the commonly-used 18-49 demographic there were people who belonged to seven different life stages:

• College students

• Recent grads

• Single no kids

• New nesters

• Established families

• Married no kids

• Empty nesters

Belonging to a different life stage, although being part of the same demographic, meant different attitudes and motivations to aspects like spending habits and relationships. New nesters for example were more likely to have faced financial hardship in the past year than a couple with no kids.

By understanding with greater detail the motivators driving customer actions, companies are able to more effectively target their offerings to those consumers.

Data can be the most powerful tool for businesses, but only if used effectively. Consolidating all the information (structured and unstructured) about each customer into one file that can easily be shared across systems and personnel in an organisation is key to uncovering life stages.

Consolidation is the main capability of Master Data Management, which is helping businesses create a 360-degree view of customers and better serve their needs with greater personalisation.

Check out our infographic to find out how a leading Australian bank has enhanced their customer experiences by moving away from traditional demographics and exploring customer life stages with Master Data Management.