Conforming to Your Demographic Image

[BeBop]

As jazz lovers, most of us don't conform to standard demographic profiles, at least with respect to music. Everytime I pick up a magazine - particularly one tailored to what is presumed to be my tastes - I find myself uninspired and, frequently, baffled.

I've no interest in (and may, in fact, be repulsed by) golf, television, movies, Chrysler 300s, sports, movie star and supermodel women - any of them, 2005 Mustangs, Corvettes, poker, fishing and hunting, NASCAR, Hawaii, Mexican beaches, beer/alcohol, six-pack abs, hair loss, dude ranches, technology-for-technology's-sake (i.e., toys), barbeque, Harleys, Australia, New Zealand, steak, wine...

This isn't to denigrate any of these interests, but simply to recognize that demography only gets us so far.

Now, back to listening to musicians who died before I was born.

[GA Russell]

I'm not aware of anything that attempts to appeal to my demographic.

A few years ago, AARP put out a magazine that did, and assumed that we were all both self-absorbed and liberal Democrats.

That fiasco ended when they had Bernadette Dohrn and her husband on the cover, saying that they wished they had blown up more buildings. That issue came out the week of 9/11.

[Jazzmoose]

I'm not aware of anything that attempts to appeal to my demographic.

A few years ago, AARP put out a magazine that did, and assumed that we were all both self-absorbed and liberal Democrats. 

That fiasco ended when they had Bernadette Dohrn and her husband on the cover, saying that they wished they had blown up more buildings.  That issue came out the week of 9/11.

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It's all in the timing...

[Dr. Rat]

Demographic research is . . . not particularly good at telling your anything about individuals (say yourself).

For instance, I subscribe to The Atlantic, and I would never consider buying 90% of the things advertized in it. NEVER.

So why is this. Because I am strange by Atlantic standards? Maybe, but mostly it's because a lot of the stuff advertized is niche stuff, so Chrysler might get some data saying that an Atalntic reader is 10x more likely to buy a 300 in the next year than your average Joe. Well, that probably means maybe a dozen or two Atlantic readers will buy a 300. The vast majority of readers say "look at that goddam huge grille" and continue on to the next page of their article.

For niche products you practically never are able to present your product to an audience where the majority of the folks are actually interested: you just have play the numbers as best you can.

If you look at the Prizm numbers for your neighborhood, you'll see some pretty absurd stuff. I will exaggerate to illustrate. In my neighborhood, people are 100x more likely to own horses than average. Are there loads of horses by me, does everybody have a horse. Not by a long shot, but a few people have horses, and that's a hell of a lot more than average. The percentage nationwide is .005% of households. In my neighborhood it's 5%. But if you make bridles, my neighborhood is a horse-owning hotbed, so I get horse-related mass-mailers.

--eric