A target is, in a nutshell, your target audience, i.e. the group of people to whom your company, brand or business should direct its products and/or services. Now we tell you what it is for, how to define it and some brief examples. Don't miss it!
what is the target for?
In marketing, knowing the market and the public you are targeting is fundamental and should be what really guides all the decisions you make. It also serves to shape our ideal consumers and stimulate them by means of appropriate strategies. Some of the main functions of the target are:
- Increasing sales.
- To determine the price of a product.
- Create much more effective and profitable campaigns.
- To focus your product strategically.
- Better meet the needs of your target audience.
- Know which are the best communication channels.
how should you define the best target for your company?
- Determine your company's business model. The first thing you need to do is to define the services or products through which you want to create a sustainable business model. Once you have this, describe each of the products and services, taking into account aspects such as objectives, importance within the business model and target audience.
- Analyse your competition: It is essential that you carry out an in-depth analysis of your competition to find out how they are generating sales through their business and obtain more information about the target.
- Define the demographic profile. Obtain the demographic data of your customers, such as age, gender, location, profession, etc. Define their characteristics.
- Define their characteristics: Specify the data related to the socio-cultural environment of the users, i.e. their economic level, social class, studies, languages, hobbies, purchasing behaviour, profession, values, beliefs, customs, etc. Define their digital profile: This is where the digital profile is defined
- Define their digital profile: in this section you must find out where your customers are. Ask yourself if they use social networks, how often they browse them, from which device they do so or how long on average they are on them. Answering these questions will help you know when is the best time to launch a campaign, at what time and day it is best to publish content, etc. Conduct research
- Conduct research: To do so, you can carry out the following points:
-Online surveys: Conduct online surveys so that the users themselves can answer the questions and you can collect their data.
-Conduct interviews: Although this is more time-consuming, it helps you to get to know your customer much better.
-Consult reports and studies. There are many studies by other companies that compile data that may be of interest to you in order to define your target. It would be interesting to consult this source of information as well, without having to copy their target.
-Review the activity of your customers. If your company has been in operation for some time, review the movement of your customers to find out their habits and preferences.
- Define your buyer persona. Your buyer persona is a semi-fictional profile that creates a personal profile of what your ideal customer is like.
- Create marketing strategies based on all the information gathered. As a last step, integrate all the information and data gathered into your marketing strategies to get the best results.
Brief examples of targeting
- Coca-Cola sugar-free or Diet Coke: This product of the famous Coca-Cola chain is targeted at people between 25 and 30 years old who are looking to maintain a good physical appearance. This, of course, does not mean that this is its only target group. Its range is quite wide, but it all came about with people belonging to this specific group in mind because they need it the most. These are people who do not want to sacrifice their health and fitness, but do not want to stop consuming this very tasty Coca-Cola product either.
- Heineken, non-alcoholic beer. At theend of 2019, Heineken focused on a new target by launching a non-alcoholic beer, in order to respond to the wishes of people who lead a healthy lifestyle, but who want to continue to refresh themselves and not sacrifice this pleasure. In this way, its target audience was expanded compared to the one it had before, being a consumption option for many other people, who want to get the taste and quality of this tasty drink, but without very important effects or restrictions.
We hope you have understood what a target is and everything related to finding your target audience. It really is a step that you should take to start your business or start with it new ways to achieve new and great goals. Do not hesitate to get down to work and if you need advice in Occam we are here to help you. Thank you for reading us!
