Market Targeting: How To Successfully Define Your Target Market

The most important strategy, when it comes to pragmatic target marketing, is understanding exactly who your customers are. The more you understand what drives a person to need your company can mean the difference between a successful and unprofitable business. Market targeting is defined as the classification of the segment or segments of persons to which your product or service is marketed. Having too large or too small a target market can lead to wasting money. Not completely knowing who they are can result in bad marketing choices and incorrect product and service offerings.

Using Demographics and Psychographics For Market Targeting
The first step to a successful market targeting campaign includes appreciating the demographics and psychographics of your appropriate customer. Demographics are the characteristics of a potential customer that you can readily see – sex, age, local, income, marital status, education, and ethnicity. Psychographics are categories that makeup one’s nature including values, lifestyle choices, beliefs, and attitudes. Using these characteristics you can draw up a customized customer profile.

Market Targeting Customer and Competition Assessment
To help better define your target market you should assess your existing customers – what demographics and psychographics are compelling them to use your product or service. You will also want to take a good look at your competition’s target market and ask yourself whether or not you believe that they are targeting too openly or too narrowly? Lastly, look at your product and determine who would most benefit from using it – what are the characteristics of your product(s) and/or service(s) and why does it/do they matter to customers?

Sample Customer Profile
Let’s explore the market targeting of a health and wellness company. One of their products, for example, is a weight-loss pill. Their customer profile may look like this:

Demographics:
Sex: Female
Age: 35-45 year old
Ethnicity / Race: Hispanic
Marital status: Single
Education: College graduate
Employment: Full time
Income: $35,000 / year

Psychographics:
Values: Staying healthy
Lifestyle: Has had weight challenges since childhood
Personality: Trendy, cultured
Lifestyle choices: Exercises regularly, makes informed food choices

Would they benefit from my weight-loss pill product? Would it be helpful to this prospect now? When you have to define your target market, think deeply about this 5-question checklist: who, what, when, where, and why. It will open the door to a very well-defined campaign.