I am a 30 year old married female who works full time, has two children (both boys, if you must know that too), a dog, a master’’s degree and I own my own house and car. I live in the suburbs and enjoy exercising, reading and photography.
Segmentation by way of demographics, psychographics and the like still exist as the lazy way to attempt to lump me into categories based on traditional market research and I have to say it offends me and you must have realized by now its not working for you. Though I live in the suburbs and have two children, I do not have a desire to drive a minivan or SUV. If you must know, I drive a beefy mustang and yes, my children fit in the back seat and there aren”t stale fries under my seats. When they were small I was not in the market to child proof my home in plastic and vinyl. I have strong values about education, but don”t fall into the “listening to classical music with improve their math skills” hype, so stop sending me invitations to children’’s book clubs and educational DVD memberships.
Though I”m 30, married, live in the suburbs and enjoy photography, I do not sit at home and scrap book, watch Lifetime television or spend my weekends making my home sparkle for my family’’s health and well being. I expect my husband to not “help”, but simply do his part around the house. He lives there too! I prefer to watch car shows like Top Gear and Spongebob Squarepants and I still like to go out to a dance club with friends once in a while, the latter of which my mother still disapproves of (because married women with children DO NOT behave that way).
While I know I am probably more of an exception, a one off case to be set aside in favor of the segmented group as a whole, you must realize that in this day and age of iphones, ipods, ichat, ilike and others, its not about reaching the right group. Its increasingly about “i” - reaching the right individual - or as Joseph Jaffe calls it in his book “Join the Conversation”, generation “i”. Now if you”ll excuse me, I”m late to get my car washed and meet my girlfriends for a night out.
