[Sigia-l] audience analysis and demographics

[PeterV]

Hi all,
in this article, Claire Rowland says traditional demographics are usually 
not a very useful way to split up your target audience, and I tend to 
agree. However, in what circumstances have you found that traditional 
demographics, and research by people like Forrester, has come in handy when 
researching your audience? I remember one website I was doing research on 
where a market research firm had done lots of demographic research, and it 
really didn't help me very much knowing that 32 year old housewives from 
Bristol would be likely to enjoy this website. It did help a little bit, 
but really not very much, and I had to convince the client that this 
research wasn't sufficient.

So is this information EVER useful for us IA's? Any positive experiences?
Thanks,
PeterV