Ah, the world of marketing. A universe where every brand, big or small, is a cosmic traveller, each journeying towards their unique cluster of stars – their types of target audience. Imagine the vast cosmos as the marketplace and every star as a potential customer. So, what kind of constellation is your brand aiming to form?
Let’s commence our space journey by hovering over the galaxy of demographics. This is the essential, big dipper of target audience types. It includes age, gender, income, education level, and marital status.
Consider the case of our imaginary friend David who decides to set up a lemonade stand. In summer’s sweltering summer, David observes that his most loyal customers are children and young parents. Voila has identified his demographic target audience.
Next, we traverse the intricate constellation of psychographics – delving deeper into customers’ minds, attitudes, values, hobbies, and lifestyle choices. Our friend David notices that his lemonade stand is a hit among customers who prefer fresh, homemade drinks over processed beverages. This realization guides his marketing strategy.
Now, let’s cruise to the nebula of behavioural segmentation. Here, we examine the customers’ behaviour towards, usage of, or response to a product. David observes that his sales skyrocket during summer and plummet in winter. He promptly decides to add hot chocolate to his winter menu. This observation, ladies and gentlemen, is an apt example of behavioural segmentation.
Next, we sail across the vast ocean of space to the realm of geographical segmentation, where businesses segment their audience based on location. For instance, our lemonade entrepreneur David noticed that most of his customers are locals from his town, indicating that his marketing efforts should be focused there.
We’ve been in consumer space for a while now; let’s traverse to the B2B galaxy. Here we encounter firmographics, where businesses themselves become the target audience. The factors considered include the industry, company size, location, and organizational structure.
Imagine David’s lemonade stand has grown into a lemonade production company. He then begins to target local grocery stores and supermarkets, considering their size, sales volume, and location. David’s humble lemonade stand has evolved to understand firmographic segmentation.
Which type of target audience is most important for your business?
No cheating now! Your answer might be the breakthrough you’ve been searching for in your business journey.
It’s simple! The universe of consumers is massive, and “one-size-fits-all” is a theory that doesn’t apply here. Understanding the different types of target audiences can help businesses shape their product development, tailor their marketing campaigns, and, ultimately, boost their sales.
Imagine trying to sell a spacesuit in the Sahara desert. Not a wise choice, right? That’s precisely what happens when you need to define your target audience correctly.
Yes. Businesses often have multiple target audiences based on their range of products or services.
Not necessarily. It depends on the nature of your business and what you offer. One or two segmentation types can easily define your target audience.
Definitely. As your business evolves, so can your target audience. Regularly revisiting your target audience and keeping up with market trends is good practice.
Knowing your audience is crucial whether you’re a fledgling startup or an established company. The art of understanding “a target market is” is akin to aiming for the bullseye in the cosmic archery of marketing. The better you understand your target audience, the more accurately you can aim your strategies.
In the immortal words of Philip Kotler, “There is only one winning strategy. It is to define the target market and direct a superior offering carefully.” As you embark on this exciting journey, remember that each star in your constellation is unique. Your approach to each one should be as well.
So, where’s your spaceship headed next? Which type of target audience will you explore in the wild cosmos of marketing? Safe travels, cosmic traveller!
Up until working with Casey, we had only had poor to mediocre experiences outsourcing work to agencies. Casey & the team at CJ&CO are the exception to the rule.
Communication was beyond great, his understanding of our vision was phenomenal, and instead of needing babysitting like the other agencies we worked with, he was not only completely dependable but also gave us sound suggestions on how to get better results, at the risk of us not needing him for the initial job we requested (absolute gem).
This has truly been the first time we worked with someone outside of our business that quickly grasped our vision, and that I could completely forget about and would still deliver above expectations.
I honestly can't wait to work in many more projects together!
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