By Rachel Macey, Managing Director: TGI, Insight & Sport, Fifty5Blue
We are increasingly seeing that the everyday choices made by consumers are now more revealing than the demographics they fit into.
That might sound obvious, but it’s part of a profound shift in how consumers act, think and spend – and how brands and marketers identify, track and target their audiences.
Our personal choices, such as which phone we own, which bank we use, or the online payment platforms we favour, have become powerful indicators of our wider behaviours and attitudes. These signals are subtle, but their predictive power is growing fast – and when layered with other consumer insights, including demographics, their impact on consumer understanding and targeting can be hugely amplified.
This shift is illustrated clearly in our 2026 TGI Global Quick View survey, which provides a wide lens on views, behaviours and characteristics from over 80,000 online individuals across 36 markets.
New TGI Global Quick View data shows consumer behaviour in almost all markets fracturing in ways that don’t map neatly onto traditional groups. The old shortcuts – age, gender, income, life stage – are still in play. However, in isolation these demographics tell us less and less about how people behave, what they value, or what they might do next.
Our choices as consumers have to some extent always reflected our identity, aspiration and intent. What’s new is the speed and depth of that meaning today – as audiences split off and behaviours diversify quicker than ever, those signals are becoming sharper, more varied and far more revealing than the demographic labels we’ve relied on for decades. What’s more, when you layer these together with other behavioural or attitudinal signals, the picture of your target audience becomes even clearer.
The rise of behavioural signals hidden in daily choices
Take tech ownership for example. TGI Global Quick View data shows that Huawei owners globally are far more tech-progressive, with almost two-thirds excited for self-driving cars, compared with less than half of Samsung users. Amazon device owners are significantly more gadget hungry than Roku users. Vivo users are more likely to be planning major life purchases such as buying a home, while Microsoft device owners dramatically over-index on plans for international travel.
Across these examples, the brand of device we opt for becomes a behavioural signifier which helps to build a picture of that consumer’s life and outlook as a whole – including what they might do next.
The automotive sector presents an example: Audi owners lead strongly on openness to electric vehicles – 81% would consider one – while only 43% of Subaru owners say the same. Layering on demographics reveals even more – those considering an electric car are more likely than the average connected consumer to be younger adults, aged 25-34. Audi owners are likewise 29% more likely than the average to be in this age range. Conversely, Subaru owners are 21% less likely than the average to be in this same age group.
This insight goes deeper into significant life events that can impact reactions to campaign messaging and influence engagement. For example, those engaged with electric cars are more likely to have moved in with their partner in the past year, and so have Audi owners, whereas Subaru owners are far less likely than the average to have done so.
We also see signifiers in spending attitudes for toiletries and makeup. Among those who have bought Sephora beauty products in the last six months, 68% agree they spend a lot on toiletries and cosmetics. However, for Nivea buyers the figure drops to 55%.
But differences between markets and regions make it imperative to recognise the potential impact of these geographic variations on targeting. For example, TGI shows that in the Nordic countries, less than 50% of Sephora buyers claim to spend “a lot” on toiletries and cosmetics, whereas in Latin America the figure is almost 70%. Similarly, when it comes to their media preferences there are also biases – Sephora buyers are far more likely to shop on TikTok than the average online adult.
These aren’t trivial differences and this isn’t about who these people are, but what they choose, and the worldview that sits behind that choice. They signal distinct motivations and values that demographics simply can’t account for, and which marketers can and should be using to their advantage.
The value of good data in a volatile world
Understanding this behavioural divergence matters because the world audiences are living in is not standing still, and traditional segmentation simply can’t absorb that level of change. If brands want a true picture of their consumers, then considering buying choices and spending patterns must be considered essential. It’s vital to move beyond assumption and work with real insight that reflects what people actually do, not what their demographic profile suggests they should do.
In an era defined by global volatility, clarity comes from grounding decisions in robust evidence. That means combining what brands already know through first-party data plus additional datasets, insight and analysis provided through third parties. Layering the two together gives a more complete view of who customers are, how their attitudes are shifting, and what is underpinning global behavioural trends.
The brands that thrive will be those paying close attention to the behavioural signals coded into everyday choices, whether it’s the technologies people adopt, the services they trust, and the products they’re willing to stretch for. Demographics still have their place, but they shouldn’t lead your analysis and targeting. The bottom line is that your decisions anchored in data informed by real behaviour will always outperform decisions built on dated processes and assumption.
