Methodology
Four steps from raw signal to one clear archetype.
Every composite we produce goes through the same disciplined pipeline — so the result is defensible, not a guess dressed up as one.
1. Ingest
Structured & unstructured signal, pulled continuously
2. Segment
Filtered to your exact cohort definition
3. Synthesize
AI resolves overlapping attributes into one archetype
4. Deliver
Report, dashboard, or API — refreshed as signal shifts
Step One
Ingest: pull from where behavior actually shows up.
We don't rely on one panel or one platform. Every composite draws from a wide, continuously refreshed pool of sourcing, including:
Resale & marketplace listings
What people are actually reselling, hunting for, and paying above ask for.
Social & short-form platforms
Save rates, comment sentiment, and creator adoption within a cohort's own feeds.
Search & discovery trend
Rising query patterns, spec comparisons, and "best of" seeking behavior.
Retail sell-through
Which SKUs actually move, restock, and hold price versus quietly discount.
Editorial & press coverage
What's being written about and by whom — weighted by outlet relevance to the cohort.
Review & sentiment text
Verbatim language people use to describe what they love, return, or regret.
Step Two
Segment: cohorts are defined in layers, not labels.
A cohort in Zeitgeist is a stack of filters, not a single bucket — so "20-somethings" becomes something specific enough to act on:
Demographic
Age band, life stage, household composition.
Economic
Income band, spend capacity, price sensitivity.
Geographic
Metro, region, density, climate.
Psychographic
Values, aesthetic affinities, stated priorities.
Step Three
Synthesize: resolution, not averaging.
A naive average of "popular couches" produces a mush of contradictory features. Our models instead cluster attributes, weight each cluster by signal strength and recency, and resolve to the single most representative combination — the archetype, not the mean.
Step Four
Deliver: in whatever shape your team works in.
Composites ship as a readable report, a live dashboard your team can filter, or an API feed you can drop straight into product or planning tools — and every one refreshes automatically as new signal comes in.