Last week, as I browsed in Borders, my eye was caught by a magazine: Time Out – Property Special.

Time Out started as a London listings guide, but has now gone global, with weekly magazines from New York to Singapore, a must-consult travel site and a slew of funky guides.

And now, they’re listing properties. But it wasn’t the properties that attracted me – it was the people.

Meet the Owners, it promised.

And that was enough – I was hooked. I even found myself reading dreamily about a house in Hither Green, south London.

Now if you’ve ever been to Hither Green, you’ll probably have vowed never to return – unless you live there.

For me, there’s an added reason to dislike the place – I failed my first driving test there. And yet, leafing through Time Out, I almost found myself putting in an offer on Margaret’s pebble-dash semi.

Almost.

Do you mind if I just take a peek?

People are a powerful draw. Just look at our obsession with celebrities. In the UK alone gossip magazines Heat, Now and Closer each sell over 500,000 copies a week.

The reason is simple: we want to know about people’s lives.

We’re endlessly curious. Are they like us? Do they share the same concerns? How do they juggle a busy work life and a family? How did they lose 40 pounds in three months? Why are they moving home?

Some companies are great at personalising their marketing. Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty is a marketing master stroke: it makes ordinary women feel extraordinary.

You can even read all about them on the website. Sigrid saved her dad’s life one evening when he was choking in a restaurant. And Julie likes pizza.

It’s easy to weave people into copy, and it makes a big difference. It’s what Time Out did in their property special. They’re not listing houses – they’re listing homes, with all the mess and clutter that you’d expect. Plus real people, with real lives.

And that changes everything. Even in Hither Green.

• Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty: click here for more information (and to find out what Lindsey’s favourite colour is).

Related posts:

1. I just know they’ll love it
2. How to market without marketing
3. Know your audience
4. Don’t know what your clients want? Ask them.
5. The power of personalisation

At my local library, my eye was caught by these two information packs. Open them up, and you’ll find that much of the content is common.

So why not keep costs down and combine them into one pack called Tackling race, faith, homophobic and transphobic hate crime?

The answer is simple: incompatible target audiences. The race and faith hate crime pack is aimed at ethnic minorities, religious minorities and asylum seekers. And the chances are that those people come from cultures that are less tolerant of alternative lifestyles.

It’s an uncomfortable truth, but a crucial one.  Combine both packs, and you’ve probably lost half your target audience. So it’s a false economy.

Related posts:

1. Gotcha!
2. What sort of mind do you have?
3. Country branding: lessons we can learn
4. The secrets of successful web copywriting – Pt 2
5. Who are you?