How do you find the red thread running through your customers?

I’ve started using the phrase red thread a lot because I think it describes something I’ve always looked for in research but never really named.

It’s the thing connecting people who might look completely different on paper.

Traditional segmentation tends to start by separating people. Age, income, gender, life stage, location, behaviour. We slice and slice until we have groups that look usefully different from one another.

I’m often interested in doing the opposite.

What connects them?

Not everyone who could theoretically buy your product. That gives you something so broad it becomes meaningless. I mean the people who really get it. The people for whom the proposition seems to land slightly harder. What do they share underneath the obvious characteristics?

It might be a frustration. A belief. A tension. Something they are trying to become. Something they’re trying desperately not to become.

You can see this in categories where the demographic definition becomes almost ridiculous. People who run aren’t united because they are 25–34. People who care deeply about cooking aren’t all at the same life stage. People who feel completely overwhelmed by modern life could be 28 or 68.

The useful connection is often psychological or emotional.

And once you find it, loads of other things become easier. The proposition gets sharper because you understand what you're actually speaking to. Research questions improve. Creative becomes less generic. You can start looking for people in places you might previously have ignored.

It also stops the inevitable slide into creating an imaginary customer who likes coffee, travel and spending time with friends, which describes approximately 90% of the adult population.

I don’t think your audience has to look the same.

I think they need something meaningful in common.

The interesting work is finding out what that is.