When customers move like starlings – and what it means for segmentation Farmer

For decades, marketers have relied on segmentation to understand customers. But consumers do not stay in neat boxes. Behavior is evolving, spreading influences and groups forms and dissolves on ways that traditional models cannot predict.

One of the clearest ways to understand this fluidity comes from nature itself – in the enchanting patterns of star murmurations.

The mompuration -Epiphany

I have studied customer segmentation – both from both marketing sciences and statistical points of view – for a few decades. But my big breakthrough, my big Aha moment, came about 15 years ago when I looked at Starlings.

I didn’t even see them live. I just watched them on video. Stogs and various other species show a fascinating power behavior that is known as murmuration. If you are not familiar with it, I recommend looking up. (Although it is warned, the videos are addictive.)

Describing a murmur is difficult. Tens of thousands of birds swarm and create gigantic structures from nowhere. Just as quickly they disappear and transform them into new ones. What is amazing is the strength and clarity of every structure and the fluidity with which they form, morph and disappear.

When I watch these videos, I immediately realized that this was a lens for other complex behavior – such as consumer behavior. Just like the starlings, consumer behavior is strongly influenced by the individuals around us.

Although individuals have characteristics such as values ​​and experience, they express themselves through their relationship with the larger herd. And just like mutter, this movement is fluent and can shift in sometimes surprising ways.

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Why traditional segmentation falls short

Traditional segmentation tries to divide consumers into a small number of comparable groups. These can be based on demography, attitudes or behavior from the past – but they are usually coarse and rely on assumptions of parable that can be misleading. It is unlikely that every 18 to 25-year-old male male insight into your customer or the products that you have to put on the market on the market.

With the arrival of digital marketing, we have arrived a new world that promised one-on-one marketing and hyperpersonalization. It has been very effective, but underneath is a problem that most of us struggle in the industry.

Although we can put on the market to private individuals, most non -digital products and services have built -in slowness that do not keep track of. A car can be adjusted with colors and accessories, but the underlying model is the same. We can focus on an individual, but the car they buy is still designed for the wider segment.

Productinertia is a subject in itself and a lot of work has been done on creating more flexible, agile product architectures. However, the underlying tension remains between the simple, monolithic segments that product designers are favored and the promise of one-on-one marketing.

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The shift to liquid segmentation

What is the alternative? Is there a better way to view segmentation that is not rooted in fixed groups, but still allows products and services to keep pace?

Over the years, many approaches of this riddle have emerged, with names such as:

• Dynamic segmentation.
• Liquid segmentation.
• Real -time segmentation.
• Agile segmentation.

They are all focused on the same problem: following shifts in the attitudes and the behavior of the consumer quickly while they ensure that products can adapt.

How AI changes the game

After my moedelepiphany I presented this concept at a conference and I received a mixed response. Some were excited, others skeptical. Skepticism was largely due to doubt that we were able to extract, assess and analyze these emerging patterns in a stable way.

In the heart it was a problem with machine learning – and a difficult one. We had to identify and assess emerging groups for business opportunities and feasibility. Sometimes we have analyzed dozens or even hundreds of scenarios in one day and immediately based on business cases.

Fast forward to today, and we have AI tools that can do that for us.

Innovative companies recognize this possibility and reconsider both segmentation and product architectures.

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Chaos and structure in consumer behavior

Murmurations also show the relationship between chaos and structure. One-on-one marketing embraces chaos and treats everyone as individuals. Segmentation searches for structure – but in a static way, with most companies sticking to one schedule for years.

Murmurations reveal that chaos creates structure but is fluent and unpredictable. Although the mathematics of Flocing behavior is well studied and mature, it is descriptive, not predictive. It can explain what has just happened – but not what the birds or consumers will do afterwards.

What this means for marketers

To apply this to your company:

• Consider the life cycle of your product or service and how quickly it can be adjusted. This will differ for a car manufacturer versus a Saas provider.
• Ask how your company defines product design and marketing segments and whether the two are tuned.
• Look at the emerging behavior of your customers. Are they fixed or evolved constantly and form new structures?

Individuals are part of societies, where groups, fads, beliefs, needs and behavior are constantly on the rise, take shape and blur. Must follow your products and your marketing.

Marketers who recognize this fluidity – and rest with AI to follow it – will be better positioned to design products, offer experiences and to make opportunities as soon as they come forward.