The unseen value

The Unseen Value.

Rethinking the 80/20 Rule in Modern Marketing

The Pareto Principle – the idea that 80% of outcomes often stem from just 20% of customers has become a fixture in business thinking. From economics to logistics to digital marketing, it’s almost folklore. But what if our obsession with this rule is now quietly limiting the way we build brands, run campaigns, and grow organisations?

Across sectors, this pattern of disproportionate value holds remarkably true. In fast-moving consumer goods, for instance, I’ve proven that just 20–25% of consumers often generate over half the category value, and they do so through a relatively narrow slice – around 25% – of their overall needs. 

In retail banking, whale-curve analysis reveals that the top 20% of customers don’t just drive the majority of profit, they contribute 150% of it. The middle segment tends to break even, while the bottom 10–20% actively erode profit.

Even the charity sector isn’t immune. Despite the democratic ideal of mass participation, most UK charities find that around 20–30% of donors are responsible for 70–80% of total income.

So yes, the Pareto pattern is widespread. But it’s also shaping our strategy in ways we rarely challenge.

The danger of short-term self-fulfilling logic

Modern marketing often leans heavily on recency, frequency, and monetary value (RFM) models to drive return on investment. But here’s the problem. These models favour the people who already engage. They focus on what’s worked in the past. In doing so, they perpetuate a cycle where attention and investment are disproportionately funnelled into existing high-value audiences, simply because they offer the lowest risk and highest short-term return. After all, many people have their annual bonuses aligned to their annual targets.

This isn’t just shortsighted. It’s self-limiting.

Because the truth is, not everyone in the bottom 80% is low-value. Some are simply overlooked, poorly understood, or offered little of genuine relevance. And yet many could become tomorrow’s high-value customers, donors, or advocates, if only we invested in understanding and serving them differently.

Time to reframe the opportunity

What if we reimagined the other 80% not as low-hanging fruit, but as untapped potential?

What if we made it someone’s explicit job to get to know these quieter segments, to co-create messages, experiences or even new products that meet their needs more directly? 

That’s where the real opportunity lies. Not just in reaching more people, but in reshaping what we offer to make it more valuable to more people. Future proof these segments.

Crucially, the technology now exists to support this. Advances in AI and predictive modelling mean we can forecast future value with increasing accuracy. We can spot emerging behaviours, segment more dynamically, and test new approaches without wasting budget or time.

In other words, we finally have the tools to look beyond the obvious, to back not just the top performers, but the high-potential outliers too.

Now is the time for the long view

None of this is to say we should stop serving the top 20%. Quite the opposite, they’re vital, and they deserve care and retention. But once they’re secure, the next frontier lies in the groups we’ve historically ignored.

In a world of quarterly reporting and annual targets, that kind of thinking might feel countercultural. But if we’re serious about building lasting relationships and future-proofing our brands - commercial or charitable - it’s exactly the shift we need.

Because if there was ever a moment to step back from the short-term race and take the long view, surely it’s now.