Why Target Audience Matters - An Example
We talked a bit about target audience and how to find out who they are. Why do you need to know this information? Sure, I said you’d spend less time, money, and energy, but what does that mean in a real-life scenario?
In an earlier post I said, “Think of it like fishing in a stocked pond with a net versus fishing with the same net out in the middle of the ocean. Which is likely to catch more fish?” This applies to several scenarios in the entrepreneur world.
For the sake of the rest of this post, let’s say that you are a small business who hand-crafts baby bibs and swaddling blankets in organic cottons. You ship with recycled materials and use no plastics for packaging. Which of these logos do you think would be yours?
If your brand name is Oh, Eco Baby that makes a lot more sense and would appeal to a much different market than if your brand name was Rocker Babe, right?
Your values include things like finding sustainable methods for shipping that allow you to provide fast and reliable shipping with eco-friendly materials. If you shipped your baby bibs and blankets surrounded in plastic bags and Styrofoam peanuts, that would likely not properly live out your values, right? Your target market would definitely notice and probably be well turned off, no?
The logo design for Oh, Eco Baby would likely include softer colors and lines with a more traditional font. What does the logo for Rocker Babe look like? Would the two appeal to the same crowd of people? Nah.
What about your voice? If you walked into an Oh, Eco Baby store that was full of pastel pinks, blues, and yellows, with soft lullabies playing over the store speakers, an were greeted by a sales associate who spoke in calm hushed tones would you speak to her the same way you’d speak to the sales associate of Rocker Babe, where there were lots of stark black and white items, 80s rock was playing over the speaker, and there was a red accent wall at the back of the store? Probably not. So why would you create content or speak through copy in the same way?
If you just throw some marketing out there with no general target, you’re going to hit a group of single men with no children. Do they have any interest in buying your baby bibs or swaddling blankets? Probably not, unless there’s an off chance they’re buying as a gift. Now you’ve spent time, energy, and money on marketing to this school of single men fish and it is wasted. Had you aimed that same message at a group of mothers, aged 25-25 who had children under the age of 2 at home you’d be much more likely to “catch a fish”, right?
Position yourself in front of the people who you want to sell to. Don’t just aim for anyone. Not everyone is going to want to buy your product and that’s okay. That is more than okay, it is what you want.
Your product is special. Your consumers are special. Make them feel that way. Remind them they are what inspires you to create. They will return the favor by finding more like-minded people who absolutely need what you are providing and value you at your worth.