Beyond segmentation: Towards audience alignment

Segmentation can sometimes feel reductive. A framework that sounds more like a spreadsheet than a spark. Something that conjures up images of simplified audience categories – Retirees, Young People, Families – that never quite captures real people or feels relatable to diverse ways that people experience your work.

And because embedding a segmentation requires so many teams across an organisation to engage in audiences – creatives, marketers, execs, programmers, educators – it can feel like a daunting process that will end in ‘mis-agreement,’ revealing more about internal assumptions than about audiences themselves.

But what if that discomfort is not a flaw in segmentation – it’s the point?

Segmentation as a mirror, not a map

As the feminist theorist and philosopher Donna Haraway argues, all knowledge is situated – there is no view from nowhere. Good segmentation doesn’t simplify complexity; it helps organisations locate themselves within it.

As Haraway puts it: “Situated knowledges are about communities, not about isolated individuals. The only way to find a larger vision is to be somewhere in particular.”  It creates a framework for situated organisational knowledge, acknowledging that how we see audiences reflects where we stand and what we value.

Segmentation, in this view, is not about abstraction or distance, it’s not about spreadsheets or neatly commissioned reports that sit on shelves – it’s about anchoring action in lived perspectives. It’s about holding up a mirror to how we see audiences and ourselves and opening important discussions like “how relevant are we, to whom, and why?”

And why do we need to confront that? Because we are operating in such uncertain times. Funding is unstable, audience behaviours are volatile, and our competition comes not just from other arts organisations but from Netflix, YouTube, TikTok and beyond, that have turned culture into content.

In our collaboration (as Baker Richards and Sarah Chambers Consulting), we’ve seen how segmentation opens space for necessary conversations about purpose and priorities, enabling testing and risk taking rather than providing neat, tidy outcomes. In fact, it’s less about the segmentation profiles you arrive at and more about the necessary – if sometimes uncomfortable – conversations they provoke: surfacing assumptions, challenging myths, breaking habits.

The case against segmentation (and why it matters)

Segmentation can easily be misunderstood if it’s seen as an attempt to pigeonhole human behaviour and flatten complexity into neat consumer profiles. But it also offers something more ambitious: a shared language for navigating uncertainty and aligning decision making.

Right now, leaders are trying to work out how to sit with complexity and still see clearly. How to make sense of the economic fragility, climate anxiety, digital disruption, political instability yet still be able to have focused conversations, with the right teams, at the right time about the future of audiences. Segmentation offers a structure for holding these tensions, not by simplifying them, but by making them discussable without becoming paralysing.

Edgar Schein, a pioneer in organisational psychology, argued that culture is defined by the assumptions we take for granted. Segmentation, done reflectively, can surface those hidden assumptions – not to cement them, but to question them. How many times have we looked at past visitors or audiences through the lens of a single soundbite or statistic that seems to have stood the test of time, yet no one can remember where it came from? Or identified an audience for a programme with no real logic as to why it might be relevant to them? Using a values-based segmentation as a structure to question these assumptions, we’ve seen teams explore how they currently see the world, and how they might find ways to see it differently.

According to Schein, “The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.” Segmentation, then, is not just a set of audience labels; it’s a strategic way for leaders to surface, test and reshape the culture of their organisation — to ask not only who we serve, but who we are becoming.

‘Light bulb moments’ at Alexandra Palace

At Alexandra Palace, an iconic organisation – offering everything from ice rinks to live music venues, darts to Jools Holland – segmentation helped move beyond siloed operations. The process uncovered shared audience motivations that cut across business units – a newfound common ground that helped staff understand the visitor journey and improve the entire site experience.

Its CEO, Emma Dagnes, spoke of “light bulb moments” – not from a list of target segments, but from the conversations sparked by the work. She was able to involve multiple staff teams in the practical yet challenging business of improving visitor journey across the vast site.

At the time, she gave space to strategic discussions about how different audiences might align with the palace’s values and future focus. What mattered was being able to have the shared language and rich insight at hand to function as a ‘glue’ in those conversations.

Segmentation is the wrong word

Maybe we should rename the process ‘audience alignment’ not audience segmentation?

It’s less about slicing up a market and more about creating alignment between values, purpose and the people you want to reach. And not just strategic alignment, but emotional, intellectual and authentic alignment too. In that sense, the word ‘segmentation’ is a bit of a misnomer. What we’re really doing is building frameworks for reflection, decision-making and focus.

Creating a process that allows for clarity without fixity, precision without rigidity, segmentation helps organisations move from either saying “we speak to everyone” or making assumptions about appealing to certain demographics to making intentional, values-based choices.

Chatsworth, one such organisation, a heritage site and registered charity in Derbyshire, wanted a more nuanced understanding of its audiences to support the development of new creative, learning, wellbeing and outreach programmes, and multi-layered communications to support these.

The values-based bespoke segmentation we developed for them revealed three dominant segments, each with a distinct set of attitudes and values. The simplicity of the three-segment model was deliberate, to empower colleagues across the organisation to embrace a common language when discussing audiences. 

The insight allowed them to think deeply about how they might shape future choices – informing programming, marketing, design, development and operations. The segmentation became a reference point, not a rulebook – a tool that now feeds into ongoing projects through to the evaluation cycle across the organisation, including a successful fundraising campaign supporting the restoration of the Cascade, a 17th century architectural landmark and much-loved landscape feature.

The process is the point

Donna Haraway’s notion of ‘situated knowledges’ reminds us there is no universal vantage point – all understanding is partial, perspectival. Segmentation should embrace this. It’s not a ladder of value, but a prism – shifting depending on your standpoint. Segmentation is not about tidy answers; it’s about deliberate sense-making that acknowledges different perspectives.

At its best, segmentation isn’t a product – it’s a process. In that sense, it mirrors good coaching: the answers don’t come from the consultant, they emerge from within the organisation. Our job is to ask the right questions, create space and support reflection through facilitated workshops and in-depth discussions designed to surface underlying assumptions and build a shared understanding of audience values. That takes time, and the willingness to engage with complexity.

Why it matters – especially now

Audience expectations are changing fast. Attention is splintered. Meanwhile, identity itself is being reshaped by digital platforms. TikTok, Spotify, Instagram – these aren’t just distractions, they are engines of cultural construction, reinforcing niche tastes, behaviours and affinities. Organisations that don’t develop their own lens on audiences risk operating with someone else’s.

In this context, segmentation helps organisations prioritise. It helps organisations ask: Who do we exist for now? Who might we exist for next? And what does that mean for our programming, our pricing, our positioning? It enables you to try, to assess, to work out the best way forward for you.

This is where segmentation becomes practical. At Charleston using funding from the Fidelity UK Foundation, we worked with them on a project to increase their understanding of audiences by taking a more data-evidenced approach. The resulting bespoke four-segment model has kickstarted important discussions.

They’re actively applying it to inventory decision making in the shop, to how they train volunteers and staff, to support their digital accelerator project and their audience development planning – not as a rigid framework, but as a tool to set priorities, inspire conversations and support their already fast-paced, agile way of working.

A quiet radicalism

Segmentation, when done well, is an act of respect. It says: we take our audiences seriously. We’re willing to engage with their complexity, not just as ticket buyers but as audiences with values, needs and agency. We take the time to think through how we make intentional choices – and we’re honest about the consequences of those choices (they may not all be successful!).

Seen this way, segmentation becomes less about definition and more about dialogue. Not about narrowing your view but sharpening your focus on the things that matter. Not the ‘report on a shelf’ work but the stuff that supports the tricky conversations.

That’s the challenge and the opportunity. If we set aside the time and resource to see clearly and think deeply, we’re better placed to lead boldly in line with our values and our purpose, and to act in ways that reflect not just who our audiences are, but who we are becoming.

So perhaps it’s time to reframe the conversation entirely: forget audience segmentation, let’s talk audience alignment.