For years, many have relied only on demographic data — age, income, net worth — to segment and target customers. But in today’s digital world, demographics alone don’t tell the full story of customer intent. Consumers with similar demographic profiles can behave in vastly different ways, making it essential to look past age and income to the full person on the other side of the ad. Because consumers aren’t just data points — they have attitudes, behaviors and motivations that shape their decisions.
The limits of demographic data
The reality that many marketers have come to know in the last decade is that demographic data has limited predictive power, and it plateaus when it comes to delivering the personalization that 2025 consumers expect.
Take the example above: Eliza and Angelica seem nearly identical demographically, but when you look more granularly at each of them you see that they are, in fact, polar opposites. You certainly wouldn’t send these two the same messaging, and with the recent and divisive explosion in social media networks, you likely wouldn’t even push to them on the same channels.
McKinsey data tells us that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. And 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. With that statistic in mind, treating these two consumers as the same wouldn’t just be ineffective — it could actively damage your financial brand’s reputation.
It’s time for “Hi-Fi” data
With the baseline knowledge that demographic data alone doesn’t cut it anymore, marketers need to lean more into data that provides a high-fidelity view of their consumer. For marketers, this is behavioral and attitudinal data. These subsets of data fine-tune buyer intent and influence action.
What is behavioral data?
Behavioral data tracks what customers do, including:
What is attitudinal data?
Attitudinal data captures how customers think and feel about financial products and services:
Tuning attitudinal analysis for actionable strategies
By layering behavioral and attitudinal data onto traditional demographics, marketers can identify high-intent audiences by predicting which consumers are most likely to take action. From there, these brands can create hyper-personalized marketing with tailored messaging based on actual attitudes. And that messaging then can be delivered at the most effective points along the customer’s non-linear journey.
This allows us to do what is ultimately our only job as marketers: Deliver the right messaging, at the right time, on the most optimized channels.
To learn more about building a smarter audience strategy, read Quad’s 2025 Audience Strategy Guide.
