Expert Advice
Consumer behavior expert David Allison explains the science of values-based marketing
August 21, 2025 | Jenn Roberts Ma, Sr. Content Manager
When it comes to connecting with today’s customers, consumer behavior research pioneer David Allison believes the answer isn’t found in traditional demographic buckets, but in something far more powerful and enduring: their values. Allison is so passionate about this idea that in 2015, he decided to leave a 25-year career in marketing to establish the Valuegraphics Research Company and build the first global inventory of human values. Today, that database includes analysis of more than 1 million consumer surveys from around the world, and can be used to pinpoint the shared values of any target audience across 180 countries.
Drawing on his research, Allison recently participated in a panel discussion about optimizing your full-funnel marketing at the Amazon Ads Leaders Summit, held in conjunction with the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. He then sat down with us to further discuss how values-based insights can transform the way advertisers engage with their audiences at every touchpoint in the customer journey.
Q: Before starting The Valuegraphics Research Company, you owned your own creative agency. What inspired you to change careers and launch this initiative?
David Allison: My experiences in the agency world got me started down this path. The firm that I led focused on projects for high-end real estate developments, which always concluded with a ribbon-cutting event where I met the people who our campaigns had attracted. Over time, I became increasingly surprised by who showed up at these events. I’d look around and think, “Why are you here? You don’t fit the target audience demographic we used.”
The truth is, everyone in the room was there for the same reason—I just didn’t see it at first. I was looking through the wrong lens. They didn’t show up because of their demographics. They were all there because we’d accidentally—luckily—positioned the product to match what mattered most to them. In other words, it matched their values. I didn’t come to this conclusion alone: it was my study of the work of countless behavioral scientists that helped me see the light. Once I realized this, I got excited and wanted to help other marketers tap into their full audience—not by accident, but on purpose.
Q: Why are values such an effective tool for identifying and engaging audiences, from a scientific perspective?
Allison: Unlike demographics (which reflect external factors, such as age, gender, and income), or psychographics (which are a record of past behavior, such as purchasing activity), values remain stable over a lifetime and are central to decision-making. All human decisions are filtered through our values. Neurologically speaking, there’s an actual pathway in a part of the brain called the insula that lights up when you choose something aligned with your values—rewarding you with a dopamine hit.
Q: Does that mean that values-based marketing can replace demographics and psychographics?
Allison: No, what I’d advise marketers to do is reconsider and retool how they use those datasets, with values (or valuegraphics, as we call them) acting as a complementary factor. I call it a three-legged stool of audience insight: demographics allow you to fence in the audience, psychographics allow you to see past behaviors, and valuegraphics show you what matters most to people, and influence future actions. Marketers need to bring all three together to identify and engage their core audience most effectively.
This idea is reinforced by a 2025 study conducted by Amazon Ads, which found that an approach combining demographics with consumers’ values, communities, and behaviors can help brands reach a greater number of relevant customers.1
David Allison, consumer behavior research pioneerBy understanding and connecting with consumers through their values, marketers can help minimize bias in advertising.
Q: How can marketers draw conclusions about something as complex and subjective as human values?
Allison: Values can be difficult to analyze and attribute accurately with traditional tools and methods. At the Valuegraphics Research Company, we use our global database of values to help brands identify the key values that unify and drive their desired customer base. In addition, technology is helping break down many barriers to customer insight and connection. Streaming signals, in particular, are useful proxies for consumer values—with Amazon Ads research finding that people are 2.1 times more unified by their entertainment choices than by sharing a generation.2 This suggests that audiences who watch the same TV shows, movies, or sporting events have a greater alignment of values than a random sampling of consumers within the same age cohort.
Q: You told audiences at the Amazon Ads Leaders Summit that once you know the shared values of your audience —you can integrate those values into your advertising consistently, at every stage of the funnel. Why is that important? In other words, can a values-based marketing approach really help drive return on ad spend?
Allison: Absolutely. At the Valuegraphics Research Company, we’ve found that embedding values into your ad creative at every stage of the funnel can serve as both an insurance policy and an accelerator for your marketing efforts. If you demonstrate you truly understand what matters most to your customers by aligning with their shared values, you will see a boost in engagement, trust, loyalty, and even willingness to spend more, all of which we refer to as ROV (Return on Values) metrics. It’s a powerful way to protect consumer-brand relationships for the long term. And then, when customers do receive performance advertising from your brand, they will be more receptive and likely to act. An example of a brand that has done this well is Citizen, a Japanese watch company. By building a full-funnel campaign around the value of sustainability, Citizen was able to drive sales in addition to awareness and consideration.
Q: What benefits does values-based marketing provide for the consumer?
Allison: One of the reasons why I feel so strongly about a values-based approach is because an overreliance on demographics can unintentionally reinforce stereotypical assumptions, such as ageist and sexist beliefs. By understanding and connecting with consumers through their values, marketers can help minimize bias in advertising. It’s a win-win for both brands and customers.
Pro tip: Amazon DSP is an example of a tool that can help brands reach desired audiences and deliver more relevant ad experiences across digital touchpoints, informed by Amazon’s trillions of browsing, shopping, and streaming signals. Advertisers using Amazon DSP have found that, on average, campaigns that use both age- and interest-based audiences together have conversion rates up to 2.2x higher than those only using age-based audiences.3 This demonstrates the effectiveness of using multiple signals for marketing.
Sources
1–2 Amazon Ads custom research with Strat7 Crowd.DNA. Beyond the Generational Divide: The new rules for consumer connection. Fielded December 2024 to January 2025. Data reflects AU, BR, CA, DE, ES, FR, IT, JP, MX, U.K., and U.S. aggregated. Base: All respondents (26,400), Gen Z (6,680), Millennials (6,680), Gen X (6,668), Baby Boomers (6,372).
3 Amazon internal data. January 2024 – December 2024. Analysis based on 710 Amazon DSP campaigns that used either age-based audiences only or both age-based and interest-based audiences. Among advertisers in US, CA, UK, IN, FR, JP, AU, BR, AE, TR, DE, ES, IT that sell their products on Amazon.com.