Connecting Customers with the Future Through Settings
WHY: Consumer demand is increasingly shaped by context and situations, making traditional demographic-based marketing less effective.
WHAT: Explores setting-driven marketing, where consumer needs and decisions are determined by specific life settings and jobs-to-be-done.
HOW: Brands should identify key consumer settings, build solutions around user needs, and create distinctive experiences that deliver greater value and relevance.
Let me begin with a small story of my own. When I travel for work, I often carry four pairs of headphones in my backpack. One pair of in-ear noise-cancelling earbuds is for listening to music; one pair of ear-clip earbuds is for running and workouts; one pair of over-ear headphones is for writing, because their enveloping fit and sense of immersion are especially effective for improving concentration, and I also like wearing them on airplanes and high-speed trains. Finally, I keep another pair connected to my laptop, because I have a large number of online meetings in my daily work.
This behavior is neither a personal exception nor some peculiar habit. It is increasingly becoming a widespread market phenomenon. In June 2025, the 2025 Headphone Category User Value Insight White Paper released by Ximalaya, China's largest audio-sharing platform, showed that 67.71% of consumers owned two or more pairs of headphones[1]. In October of the same year, Futuresource Consulting, a well-known UK-based market research and consulting firm, conducted an in-depth survey of more than 10,000 consumers from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan,
