Marketing has always been about understanding people. What’s changing is how deeply brands are now expected to understand them.

For years, audiences were grouped into neat demographic boxes: Millennials, parents, affluent travellers, and foodies. But today’s consumers don’t behave according to fixed personas. Their needs, motivations and emotions change daily, influenced by context, culture, technology and the endless stream of content surrounding them.

At this year’s CIM Marketing Conference, one idea stood above all others: the future isn’t mass marketing, it’s “Me Marketing” a concept introduce by Abdul Zahid.

It’s a shift from talking to audiences to understanding individuals. And while AI is accelerating that change, the brands that succeed won’t necessarily be those with the smartest technology. They’ll be those that use it to create more meaningful human connections.

Traditional audience personas are becoming less useful. Instead of segmenting consumers purely by age, gender or income, marketers are beginning to think in terms of psychographics; the attitudes, motivations and emotional drivers that shape decision making.

As Abdul Zahid explained during his presentation, marketing is moving towards dynamic, real-time profiles based on emotional state, rather than static customer segments.

The same consumer might be planning a luxury holiday one week, researching wellness the next and looking for value-driven purchases the week after. People don’t stay in one persona, and brands shouldn’t assume they do either.

Consumers increasingly expect brands to understand them and research from Twilio found that 71% of consumers expect personalised experiences, yet only 45% actually feel understood. Those who don’t feel like they are understood are 25% less likely to make a purchase.

That’s a sizeable expectation gap. Closing it isn’t simply about inserting someone’s first name into an email, it’s about understanding intent.

The brands asking questions like “What problem are they trying to solve?” and “What emotional need are they hoping to fulfil?” are building stronger relationships than those relying solely on audience demographics.

One of the conference’s most interesting observations was that AI is making marketing simultaneously more technical and more emotional. Consumers increasingly expect hyper-personalised recommendations.

At the same time, AI allows brands to better understand behavioural signals, identify emerging interests and predict future actions but technology alone isn’t enough. As Deloitte research suggests, consumers are 82% more likely to buy from brands that create emotional resonance. Emotion remains the differentiator and AI simply gives marketers better tools to recognise it.

Another insightful idea discussed was that influence is no longer confined to creators. Every customer has an audience making every recommendation matter.

Whether it’s a WhatsApp message, LinkedIn post, Instagram Story or Google review, consumers now shape brand reputation in real time. For communications professionals, this reinforces something PR has always known, earned trust scales further than paid attention.

Perhaps the most memorable quote from Zahid’s talk was also the simplest.

“Stop marketing to consumers. Start connecting with humans.”

It’s easy to dismiss this as a slogan. It isn’t. It reflects a broader shift happening across AI, PR, content and digital marketing. The brands winning attention aren’t necessarily producing more content but they’re producing more relevant content that resonates with their audience.

The rise of Me Marketing isn’t really about AI. It’s about empathy.

Technology simply allows brands to understand people more deeply than ever before. The opportunity now is ensuring that insight translates into communications that feel timely, personal and genuinely useful because in an increasingly automated world, emotional resonance has become the most human advantage a brand can have.

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