Understanding the contradictions between what people say and what they do is key to communicating effectively with consumers, says Rachel Macey, managing director of TGI and Insight at Kantar Media

Do you ever intend to do something – for example, cut down on screen time, eat better, drink less – but ultimately end up not doing it, or doing something else? So does your customer!

This gap between the intentions and actions of consumers can be a huge challenge for marketers. Tracking audiences and their habits is crucial for successful campaigns, but how do we do this when human behaviour can so often be contradictory? How do we identify, track, and target our customers with products and services that meet their needs in this context?

The key for marketers is to get closer to the customer, understanding their behaviours, preferences and circumstances as a whole and diving deeper into data to get under their skin.

Using powerful insight tools, businesses are now able to manage, merge, and analyse first- and third-party data sources to enable a much more nuanced portrait of their target market. This insight is crucial for better decision-making and, ultimately, commercial success.

Contradictions in action

At Kantar Media TGI, we’ve been closely examining our own rich, longitudinal data to understand the action-intention gap and where these dichotomies are most apparent. The result? They exist everywhere, regardless of demographic markers like age or gender.

Let’s start with younger adults aged 15-34. When it comes to shopping, this age group is more driven to save than the average adult – but also to spend. 54% of young people claim to budget for every penny when doing their shopping, compared to 47% of all adults. However, 37% of them claim to have expensive tastes and 37% buy new products before most of their friends, compared to considerably lower figures of 26% and 21% respectively for adults as a whole.

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On environmental concerns, 50% of Millennials are prepared to make lifestyle compromises to benefit the environment, compared to 45% of all adults. But at the same time, 37% of them say it’s only worth doing environmentally friendly things if they save you money, compared to just 26% of adults generally.

Our health and wellbeing are also a victim of the action-intention gap. For example, adults aged 18-34 are 56% less likely than the average adult (aged 18+) to say that they drink alcoholic drinks once a day or more.  But when they are drinking, they are 82% more likely than the average adult to claim that the point of drinking is to get drunk.

These somewhat contradictory behaviours exist among older consumers too. Following the thread of health and wellbeing, among women aged 35-54, 75% believe true beauty comes from within – but 20% of these consider it important to always look perfect.

Leveraging data to build truly effective campaigns

This data is revealing about the gap between our often more virtuous intentions compared to what we actually do – especially when it comes to more sensitive issues like our lifestyle choices or household finances.

Marketers need to be aware of these contradictions when they put together campaigns, and when evaluating how best to define and engage their target market. Overcoming this may seem challenging, but the key is to get to the heart of what drives actions and ensure campaigns go beyond inherent biases, assumptions, and stereotypes.

A huge part of the solution lies in gathering robust data and smart analysis to uncover the truth about what we actually do and why we do it. It’s essential to closely track audiences’ habits, attitudes, and circumstances using both first- and third-party data to build a detailed portrait of the consumer.

The focus then shifts to implementation – finetuning the messaging, format, channels, and creative ideas that will target prospective customers most effectively. This information can also become central to the design and development of a product, service, or incentive, which allows for a more efficient, customer-led offering that has already factored in their priorities and preferences.

If marketers want to build campaigns that set them apart from others in the market, it’s vital that they understand this difference between action and intention. By leveraging insight that helps them leave biases behind and leap the action-intention gap, advertisers can cut through the noise and produce more effective work.