IT BEGINS WITH THE CONSUMER
In any business, consumers are foundational to driving growth. You can’t have a business without them. When a brand is out of touch with their consumer base, any strategies put in place may fall flat or, even worse, accelerate a sales decline. Consequently, the most successful brands understand their consumers and place them at the forefront of everything they do.
However, you can’t just randomly find a bunch of people and “get to know them.” You have to be focused about who your consumer is. You must be disciplined and spend the time clearly identifying your target audience.
But what is a target? It’s a homogeneous group of consumers most valuable to your brand. Great…but what does that really mean? These are the people your brand needs to specifically identify in order to grow. It is a subset of consumers similar to one another for whom your brand develops products and with whom it communicates.
So, why is this so important? A target consumer drives product development, price point, effective marketing communication, and where to place your brand. These are the 4ps of marketing - product, price, promotion and placement. Brands should know who they’re talking to and what resonates with them.
IMAGINE THIS…
You need to purchase a gift for 2 different people - a close friend and an acquaintance. Selecting a gift for a close friend is effortless because you understand their likes, dislikes, and preferences. You know exactly what to shop for, where to find it, and how much to spend. Best of all, there is a high probability your friend will appreciate it. Selecting a gift for an acquaintance, however, is more difficult. You may spend valuable time and resources casting a wider net - shopping at several stores, vacillating between options, wrestling with how much to spend. And, despite efforts, there is no certainty this person will enjoy the gift.
Knowing and understanding the people your brand is gifting to will not only be more efficient, it will be easier to keep them engaged and interested.
SO…WHO ARE YOUR PEOPLE?
We all want to be liked, but it is impossible to appeal to everyone. Knowing your consumer on a detailed level will help your brand narrow its focus, making it easier to communicate and connect in a meaningful way.
Thus, the key to any successful brand is determining who the ideal consumer is. Defining your target audience is often the most important aspect of marketing and, coincidentally, often overlooked. Missing this step will yield ineffective messaging and waste a significant amount of money. Spending time upfront, getting to know your consumer, is critical to growth.
Often, though, brands take a simplistic approach and identify their consumers only by demographics. Don’t shortchange it by taking a one-dimensional view by focusing on only one aspect of your consumer. There are many things that go into a good target definition.
HOW TO DEFINE A GOOD TARGET
Having a clearly defined target makes marketing more effective. Everyone is unique. Each consumer has their own interests, passions, motivations, values and beliefs. Crafting a product for everyone won’t meet anyone’s needs because it will be inauthentic and watered down.
Take Cosmopolitan Yogurt, for example. In 1999, Cosmopolitan, a popular women’s magazine full of fashion advice, dating tips, and celebrity gossip, introduced their own brand of yogurt. Within 18 months, the product disappeared from the dairy aisle. This was a case of a brand reaching beyond their consumer area of interest without doing homework first. Knowing what women want in print is a far cry from understanding what they want in yogurt. More importantly, was the magazine readership target the right target for a yogurt product? Introducing a product based on one common denominator - Cosmopolitan magazine readers - resulted in a mismatch of product and target. And that mismatch negatively impacted how they priced it, formulated it and promoted it. Launching a product based on only a few general demographic points or behaviors is short-sighted and one-dimensional.
Here are the 3 most important elements in defining a good target:
🏠 DEMOGRAPHICS
🛒 BEHAVIORS
👤 ATTITUDES
A good consumer target should never be too broad. Remember…a brand can’t be everything to everyone. It needs FOCUS and decisions need to be made about who, exactly, to focus on. Does this mean all your sales will come from one target? No. You’ll get peripheral consumers hopping on here and there for other reasons. However, without focusing on a specific target, communication and delivery of your product will suffer. If you don’t understand what’s meaningful to your target, then messaging will be lost and irrelevant. If you peel back each layer of the onion, only then will you truly understand your target. The trick is choosing the right onion.
🏠 DEMOGRAPHICS
Demographics can be age, income, gender, geographic location, etc. This is general statistical data useful in narrowing down those who resonate with your brand. For example, men ages 35-55 who live in the United States is a basic demographic description.
🛒 BEHAVIORS
Researching what people BUY NOW adds teeth to your demographics. Pinpointing current behaviors is key when uncovering relevant patterns instrumental in the positioning of your product. Do they buy certain brands or shop at certain retailers? Do they buy your brand or a competitive brand? It is important to note that researching existing behaviors is different from anticipating aspirational activities. Anticipating what consumers may or may not want or do is a bet you won’t want to put your money on. Often, consumers may say they want certain things but, in reality, they’re not quite ready.
An example of this is when consumers claim they want to eat healthier. Contextually, what does “eat healthier” mean to them? Do they want to lose weight or provide better nutrients to their body? If your product is flaxseed oil, identifying consumers who already buy nutrient foods (like flaxseed,) supplements, vitamins, etc. is much more relevant than consumers only desiring a healthier lifestyle but not actually demonstrating any of those behaviors. Defining healthy behaviors based on what people are currently buying will create a more homogeneous target group, resulting in more effective communication.
👤 ATTITUDES
Attitudes bring your consumer to life. Beliefs, feelings, emotions, values and motivations provide a deeper understanding of why your consumer behaves the way they do. Why do they eat or do certain things? What kind of lifestyles do they practice or aspire to have? Why do they follow certain diets or adhere to certain standards? What are their attitudes about work, friends, and family?
Get to know your audience and how they think and communicate. Where do they get their information? What challenges do they face? Can your product help them overcome these challenges?
In marketing, there’s no such thing as TMI (too much information). In depth knowledge of your target audience, as well as their wants and needs, will keep your brand relevant, competitive, and appealing. Knowing your consumer will keep them engaged.
Let’s test this approach by studying two familiar characters.
SLEEPING BEAUTY VS SNOW WHITE
What general DEMOGRAPHICS do Sleeping Beauty and Snow White share?
✔️White
✔️Female
✔️Teen princess
✔️Sleeping curse
This may seem like enough data to zero in on a target audience, but how can we be sure the product we are providing will resonate with each of them?
These princesses may share general demographics, but their BEHAVIORS differ. Sleeping Beauty has 3 fairy godmothers who are at her beck and call. She has never taken on a domestic role and sleeps in a castle at the center of town. Snow White, on the other hand, lives in a small cottage with 7 dwarves in an enchanted forest. She spends her days cooking, cleaning, and whistling (especially while she works).
What about their ATTITUDES? Do they have similar views, values, and beliefs? Sleeping Beauty is a dreamy romantic who loves the finer things in life. She is passive and easily influenced by things of beauty. Snow White values kindness, hard work, and practicality.
Going back to the gift example, Sleeping Beauty might enjoy a beautiful and expensive necklace whereas Snow White would probably appreciate some kind of a fruit wash. Do you still think they belong in the same consumer group? Probably not. Taking time to understand the intricacies of your target audience will only strengthen your brand’s marketing platform.
APPLY THIS TO THE 4 Ps OF MARKETING
Once your brand has identified a target, refer to the 4 Ps of marketing and place the consumer front and center:
✔️PRODUCT - What product do they want, and what important characteristics or attributes should it have?
✔️PRICE - how much are they willing to spend?
✔️PROMOTION - what type of messaging will they respond to?
✔️PLACEMENT - where will you capture their attention?
GETTING STARTED
Getting the data you need comes in many different forms - some at a cost and others for free. What you end up using will be based on need and budget. There are several resources and methodologies available to help define a consumer target.
SYNDICATED RETAILER DATA
If you’re a Consumer Products Goods (CPG) company and have access to IRI or NielsenIQ syndicated data, using their panel information is a great starting point. It is rich with demographic and behavioral information. Larger companies subscribe to this data as part of a contract, but smaller companies can purchase one-time access. If you are just starting out or don’t sell through a grocery retailer yet, then a syndicated data source may not work for you.
CUSTOMER DATA COLLECTION
The check-out process is an excellent opportunity for capturing consumer data. Collecting an email or survey response can be just as valuable as the purchase itself. There are several free online survey tools available, so do your research before selecting the one most appropriate for your needs. Another effective opportunity for engagement can be through a customer service call line or online chat tool. These features provide a more personal interaction, helping you connect to and understand what customers like or dislike most about your product.
SEGMENTATION
Market segmentation divides your target into approachable groups based on demographics, needs, priorities, common interests, and behavioral criteria. When studying and testing these segments you can see which one might be a good consumer for your brand. You can use your own customer data, IRI, or NielsenIQ panel data to create a custom segmentation, or you can take advantage of available syndicated (already segmented) data for various categories.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Most likely your brand has a social media presence. A great way to learn more about your target is to closely monitor comments and reviews. Study post engagement analytics. What time of day are your consumers most active? Which marketing graphics or product images resonate with them? Which platform drives the most sales or traffic to your website? Can you glean anything about your consumers that might help shape your target profile?
EMAIL LIST
Emails can be personal, purposeful, and targeted. An email list is valuable because a majority of these people demonstrated their interest by opting in twice to receive information and news from your brand. Subscribers typically join an email list via social media campaign or website visit (first opt-in). Then, they choose to verify their identity by entering an email via a separate link (second opt-in). These people are extremely interested in what you have to offer and are likely to convert into paying customers.
INDUSTRY REPORTS
These reports provide market and industry insights usually for a small fee. And while these are not custom to your category they can include helpful information on things like emerging trends and customer behaviors. Even just getting on Google and entering keywords or categories related to your product, can provide useful information.
FOCUS GROUP
The purpose of a focus group is to gain the perspectives and experiences of various consumers that can provide immediate feedback. Participants can be recruited from an email list, social media post, busy mall, or grocery store. Depending on how many people you recruit, interviews can be one-on-one, in small groups of 3, or larger groups of 6-8. This is a chance to go deep and start understanding the behaviors and attitudes associated with your brand.
BRING THEM TO LIFE
Now that you’ve done your research and defined your target, it’s time to bring your consumer to life! Internalize who they are. Stop thinking of them as an amalgamation of facts and start thinking of them as real people who want to buy your product. Many in the industry call this ‘creating a persona.’ Step into their shoes. Think like them. Why? Because it helps unlock the 4Ps of marketing - product, price, promotion, and placement.
Create a visual image of your target. Maybe it’s someone you know. Maybe it’s a cutout from a magazine. Maybe it’s a famous actor, TV character, or reality star. Give them a name.
THIS is your consumer. THEY are at the center of your 4 Ps.
A TALE OF TWO TARGETS:
How an Iconic Brand Turned Sales Around
For years, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese has benefited from positive brand association. The flavor from the iconic blue box elicits an emotional response that transcends familial generations. As a result, this positive brand association has helped Kraft maintain favoritism over the competition. However, times (and consumers) change.
In response to the growing trend of minimally processed foods, sales for Kraft Mac & Cheese slipped. Their target audience began to waver. Would they need to adjust the formula to please wellness-centered consumers, or leave it untouched for their original base of support?
The team quickly understood they were dealing with two distinct consumer groups and needed to define demographic and behavioral needs for both. For example, which brand of mac and cheese were the more natural-leaning consumers purchasing? What were some shared general characteristics within this group? The team then needed to do an even deeper dive to identify the motivation behind these behaviors. At one point, it became clear that minimally processed foods would remain part of a modern lifestyle and was not a passing trend. In an effort to retain consumers and increase sales, Kraft needed to appeal to both audiences.
Remember the 4 Ps? In this scenario, the consumers’ needs were centered around the ✔PRODUCT. Regardless of changes made to the formula, the product would need to taste the same, eliciting the positive response associated with the original meal. Kraft needed to address the rise in ingredient awareness while maintaining their image of convenience, familiarity, and consistency.
Due to a detailed understanding of their consumer base, Kraft expertly changed the formula to be more natural and less processed without changing the texture, appearance, or taste. As a result, the brand grew 4% (that’s millions of dollars for a brand that size!)
SUMMARY
Identifying and defining a solid target is the foundation of a strong brand. Really get to know your current and prospective consumers. Continually check that by revisiting their behaviors and attitudes at least once a year to ensure continued success and longevity.