Why should you have a target group? The target market: what’s that?
It’s of utmost importance to know and understand what your target group is and how it operates. Undoubtedly, you admire the big companies like Google, Microsoft, and name it all. These big companies were only able to attain their present status with some strategies.
This article aims to guide you through this path that the idol companies have threaded too. From our knowledge of probability, it would seem logical to agree that the chances of randomly picking a green ball from a basket dominated by green balls are higher than choosing from a basket where it’s equal to the red balls or even lower in number. That’s how the core market and target group works.
It is a significant risk if you attempt selling to everyone if you are starting your business. Yes, the big boys in the market can do that, but honestly, you lack what it takes to compete with them at this stage. It’s best to know how to pick a suitable target group that will grow your business effectively.
Are you ready for this?
Description of the Target Market
A target market is a group of people towards whom an organization looks to channel its resources.
Picking a suitable target market is very vital for any organization because services, products, packages, and everything marketable revolves around these consumers. Because of its importance, targeting receives a lot of attention from business.
All efforts would end terribly if an organization aimed its products and services at the wrong people. That situation gets even worse when it is about people who have no use for the products and services rendered. The products and services are intended to satisfy the needs of the intended customers. Who are the customers?
The target market can be broken down into:
Landscape
Statistic
Psychographics
Illustration of a Core Market
A prominent example of a case where a statistic marketing strategy is in the display is in the case of McDonald’s.
McDonald’s today wields the ability to serve several groups and target markets. Through several years and deploying experience, they’ve successfully designed specific products for all types of people.
Specifically, one of their outstanding target audiences is the kids. Kids love to have a place to play, and McDonald’s recognizes this and offers it in abundance. Toys are available to compliment great meals, and children can even see their favorite Disney characters featured on marketing campaigns.
McDonald’s has been able to hold onto the most significant share in the fast-food sector in the whole of the United States. It was made possible by their policy on competitive pricing and strategies that help them focus on their target market.
But nothing lasts forever.
Recently, McDonald’s sales curve has depreciated, forcing them to make changes in their target market.
Here is a further description of how it happened.
A study in the United States in 2016 showed that the Baby boomers had surpassed the Millennials population-wise. This change meant that McDonald’s was pushed to make some changes to favor the new Champions. The Millennials’ preference for healthy food was glaring enough compared to generations that existed before it.
Taking this change into view, McDonald’s had to start making nutritious products, a menu devoid of stale options.
Enough said. Let me introduce you to our next term in case you have wondered too much what it meant.
Target Group
A target group is a much more defined set of consumers than the core market. It points distinctly to a closer and more defined set of customers focused on by sales advertisements.
The target group is the set of customers that are well-positioned to react positively to changes to an organization’s advertisements.
The target group is not necessarily those that are at the bottom of the market chain. Due to their potential to react positively, they are the group in utmost consideration when drawing up advertising strategies.
Efficient communication between you and your target group is essential for your business; a careful understanding of what your target group needs and who they are is vital to establish this.
Why is it of utmost importance? You may have asked.
Because regardless of whatever you sell or services you render, education and enlightenment of the populace are paramount, according to Robert Allen.
There’s constant need to enlighten your consumers on the various benefits of patronizing your business, education on how to make the most out of your products, and how your products or services could help improve their lives generally.
It’s essential to keep in mind that a consumer is only going to purchase any product for reasons best known to them and not to you, according to Orvel Williams.
Let’s use the McDonald’s illustration again to further expound on this.
Illustration of a Target Group
It could be a bit tricky to consider because although one of McDonald’s focus core market is the kids, however, kids can’t afford to buy, their parents or adults in their lives possess the purchasing capabilities.
The strategy implored by McDonald’s is that they create tasty meals for their core market, the kids, and they set up marketing promotions directed at their target group, the adults.
These promotions focus on subjects relevant to the adults and less critical to the kids after all the kids pay little or no attention to these things but their toys. Things like donations and preservatives could only be useful information to adults.
McDonald’s Happy meals have the kids as their core market, but their target group is adults who wield the purchasing power.
Notable Variations Between the Core Market and the Target Group
While Core markets and target groups could appear to be very similar terms in that they coincide in lots of ways. They vary in terms of the impacts they bring to your business.
The core market finds itself in the center of all the choices made by any small business.
The core market dictates proceedings because of the design of products or services revolves around the needs of its core market. Again, it’d be bad business if nobody is buying.
Decisions on costing and packaging are mostly user-oriented. Sales depend heavily on the consumers’ purchasing penchant.
However, the target group only affects choices concerning a well-defined promotion advertisement.
The core markets are mostly the end consumers of the products or services. This is not usually the case with target groups as there are situations that the target groups may not be the end consumers.
Can the Core Markets and the Target Groups be the same?
Usually, the target groups and core markets are the same in promotion advertisements.
A clear case is one in which a brand (yoga leggings) may identify a target group of young and single women who fall between the ages of 24 and 34 who have a profound interest in yoga and ones who use the gym very regularly.
It is a clear example of when the core market and the target group look inseparable.
Sales experts, however, could hone in further on the target group. Take, for example, marketers who could choose to advertise on Instagram to reach their core market.
In this case, the target group is the Instagram users.
Further insight on how vital targeting is to the success of your business.
Targeting, its Strengths, and Impacts
The experienced fishermen make their nets bearing in mind the type of fish they intend to catch. There are aware of where to cast this net too in the sea for this type of fish. However, lots of people have their opinions in terms of casting the net for a wide variety.
This has a lot to say about why targeted ads prove to be more efficient than non-targeted ones. On average, its efficiency is doubled in the case of the targeted advertisements than non-targeted ones.
A well-defined target group enables for the development of product or services that suits the needs of the user. Undoubtedly, this could only lead to good reviews from satisfied consumers.
Also, a specified target group aids the defining of the promotion advertisements to suit the users’ views, tastes, and emotional stands.
The ability to create promotional advertisements that are in line with your users is a vital step to creating a formidable brand and positive results.
According to Howard Gossage, “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, it’s an ad.” A statement that needs to be adequately understood and one that needs to be considered when dealing with targeting.
It takes little to nothing to develop a target Facebook ad. We’re in an age where there are varieties of digital marketing tools to help with the promotion of our businesses.
However, there’s a need to know how to gain from these impacts and strengths of targeting.
1st Stage: Knowledge and recognition of what your business offers to its consumers
According to Philip Kotler, “Authentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make.” Sound very much like a statement of real intent because what’s most important is to get your products or services out there and to achieve consumer satisfaction.
There are quite a few questions to answer quite diligently
What solutions do you offer?
Are you meeting consumer desires?
Do you meet consumer needs?
Note the famous saying, “features tell, benefits sell.” It is like that because people use the internet every day, and they see lots of ads, but what stands out among these ads are the ones that tell more about what the user stands to gain by using their services or products.
A notable example of a company that implored this strategy is the iPod ads; Apple instead advertised the benefits of the iPod, which is music over the features of the device. Features such as its memory capacity of over 1Gb for music files.
From the above example, Apple was able to know and identify users who needed the benefits of owning an iPod. Users who love to have music with them most times
Apple was able to sell iPods to its core market by trying it out with this segment of users who fit within this common category.
2nd Stage: Filter your Core Market
It is where you need to refine your core market after understanding of who stands to benefit from your products or services. You need to concentrate on the market group that is your primary focus.
Here, statistics and psychographics come into play as their going to be very instrumental in helping to define your intended target group.
Once this hurdle is crossed, and a definite core market is created, the disguise over the consumers’ character is lifted.
3rd Stage: Be even-handed
Taking from CB insights, it could be derived that a large number of startups fail because they lack market desires. Funding could be a challenge, but the numbers that fail through a lack of market needs are staggering with an overwhelming 42%.
Honestly, it’s challenging to be unbiased towards your products and services. Most times, lots of businesses pay more attention to researching but fail woefully in testing and understanding what are the current demands of the market they hope to thrive in.
It’s best to go with the notion that no core market is interested in your business. It helps you up your game to prove what users stand to benefit from using your services or products and a better understanding of the market reactions.
4th Stage: Validate your Market Group
It’s essential to ask and provide for yourself answers concerning the market group you intend to sell your products or services to.
A few questions to take into consideration include:
What are the competitions you’re likely to face in your chosen market group?
How certain are you about the sustenance of your business to this group?
Are the consumers in this group financially viable enough to purchase?
These are, but a few, and real-life assessment with your core market is vital as just research wouldn’t be enough to have comprehensive answers to these questions.
Conclusion
A well-defined core market and a target group are very vital for the sustenance of your business, especially in its early phases. You risk choking the life out of your little store if you start by aiming for the whole world, you’re not Amazon or one of the big guns yet.
Good grasps of the audience you look to serve and why it should be them is vital for your business. People are only going to buy what they need; your product and services should look to achieve consumers’ satisfaction primarily.
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