Forming opinions of people on limited information can lead to predictions which are way off. My son used to play rugby, and his team, up until the current Covid-19 crisis, was doing well in its level four division and hoping to build for a crack at promotion. The players in the first IV, which included my youngest son, were a pleasant bunch of lads in the main. I should know. I’ve had the front two rows of our scrum, known as the tight five, stay at my place for a weekend.
On first viewing, they seemed to fulfil the stereotypical image of nonprofessional rugby players (our fridge took a terrible pounding) and would be easy to target for an email marketing campaign. You’d 
think there couldn’t be an easier email marketing list to segment.
But you’d think wrong.
Our previous club president, a retired loose-head prop, spent most of his spare time, and not an inconsiderable amount of his income, on a charity for disabled children. Two of the club’s tight five volunteered for charities, and one was a teacher.
The traditional way, and one that email marketing often conforms to, such men are presented – strong, taciturn, a bit of a lad, dominating women, sex-obsessed – applied to none of them. Yet my experience is that it is they were typical rugby players.
This is not the place to discuss the real, and evidenced, psychological damage the stereotypical young male image causes such youngsters, although one hopes you’d do your best to negate it. What this is about is whether your prejudices are limiting completions when you segment lists for an email marketing campaign. Change attitudes, or lose sales.
The range of views, attitudes, body shapes and, more to the point, purchasing history of my team’s first IV shows that they all vary, apparently the same level as the public at large. You should only make assumptions about your subscribers on your data returns. Age, gender, and hobbies are a very broad brush, and if you want to target your marketing emails, a much more dependable way is to concentrate on behaviour.
