Identifying your target market is one of the key elements to developing an effective brand building and advertisement strategy. It will guide your decisions in aspects such as naming the product, which features to invest in and highlight, what marketing channels to focus on and what message will have the strongest emotional impact.
You probably already know that you can’t sell your products and services to everyone. You need to focus your efforts on the most favorable demographic and, as your insight grows, so will your conversion rates leading to better return on investment.
What Is Target Marketing?
Target marketing refers to the process by which you pinpoint what demographic is most likely to be interested in your products or services and then examining their interests, values, lifestyle and needs. This helps you make a profile of the ideal buyer persona towards whom you will be focusing your marketing efforts and budget.
Even if your company is only selling products or services geared towards your local community, you are still not going to sell to everyone who lives there. There will be different segments based on age, gender, income level and other factors that will change the way they perceive your message.
You might actually discover that you have several target markets and in that case you can try to tailor your marketing campaign to address a broader population, but don’t try to please everyone because some groups will have conflicting views and this strategy will lead them to perceive your brand as dishonest. To increase their emotional attachment and loyalty to your brand, you need to stand for something they can identify with.
Defining your target markets and knowing exactly what type(s) of people are most interested in what your company has to offer is fundamental to creating an informative market analysis. This, in turn, will help you predict how sales might be impacted by market fluctuations, trends and policy changes. You can also use a template that will help get great results. With this market analysis template, you can have a better overview of your audience, execute a competitor analysis, and more.
Market Analysis
To identify and establish the purchasing behaviour of your target demographic, you’ll be looking at factors such as:
- Age – What age are the people who most often buy your products and who would be interested in your future products? Are you catering to kids, adults, seniors? What role might generational differences in lifestyle and values play in their purchasing decisions?
- Gender – Are both men and women interested in your products or both? If only one gender why? Can you change features of your products or marketing strategies to attract both genders or more members of one gender? Which option would yield the best results?
- Marital status – Are your target customers single, married or divorced? How does this impact their lifestyle and perception of your type of products?
Family – The family structure of your target demographic and how that affects spending patterns. - Location – Are you selling your products locally, regionally, nationally, internationally? Are you looking to enter a foreign market?
- Education – What is the level of education your target demographic has and how does that impact income, lifestyle, values and purchasing decisions?
- Income – How much disposable income do your customers have? How much can they afford to spend on your products? How much are they willing to spend?
These are just some of the markers you’ll be analysing to determine the best marketing strategies. You should also factor in occupation, religion, lifestyle, motivation and market size. Then you’ll be conducting polls and surveys on this particular demographic to see how they perceive your company, your products and what attributes they’re most interested in.
