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There is a scene in the movie A Beautiful Mind where the great mathematician John Nash and his friends are in a bar when in walks a striking blonde lady with her four brunette friends.

They are all captivated by the blonde lady and are discussing how to woo her while Nash concludes the opposite will yield a better result.

If they all go for the blonde, they will block each other out and no one will get her. Following that, if they try to woo her friends, they will be rejected as no one wants to feel like second choice.

So the solution he suggests is that they instead focus only on her friends which increases their possibilities of pairing up and completely ignore her.

Though wrongfully portrayed as Nash’s eureka moment in game theory, one can draw similarities with what is happening with today’s consumers.

Companies have been obsessing about grasping the attention of Millennials. They are admittedly high spenders (albeit with less disposable income than the previous generation) and the largest consumer group.

But they have one wallet (that the thing that people carry money in; yep it is still a thing in some countries) and the content of it is finite.

Most of the competition is clustering around that wallet, which means there are many more choices for the consumer which in turn can result in losing their loyalty easily.

They are inundated with thousands of messages on a daily basis which makes it hard for them to choose. (Also see earlier post about this).

If we want to grasp our consumers’ attention we need to engage with them on a deeper level. Understand what life stage they are at, what they are their biggest fears what are they really seeking to achieve. (More about this here)

Do they want to be recognised as a great parent? Do they feel they need to be praised? Do they need to feel different from (better than) their peers?

I had been working on the launch of a premium men’s range and had been reading consumer reports. One of the best insights though, came from my male friends who had just come out of long marriages and went straight on dating sites.

They said they wanted to feel like they still got it, that they were relevant. I briefed the agency that our consumer needs to feel like they can still score.

The company’s CEO called this launch “the best launch we ever had, I have never been more proud”.

Don’t think about your consumer as a demographic. Focus on what needs they have, where are they in their lives, how do you want to make them feel.

Daring to focus on a smaller group might not bring the great volumes instantaneously, but it can bring consistent organic growth.

They will give you more of what’s in that wallet.

consumer consumer journey consumer needs consumerloyalty game theory loyal consumer marketing millennials target group