Even though the term target group is often
connected to advertising and marketing one
should be aware that target groups must
also be considered on a strategic level.
What can make your offer superior to competitors’ offers is a conclusion made after carefully
considering strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
You should define a niche where you are likely
to be successful. That means that there are no
clear market leaders, no big loyal consumer segments and no price war as a result of too many
players.
If you though have a key advantage you might
still consider niches which already are taken but
you will have to be prepared that success will
require extensive marketing efforts.
Defining a niche
includes not only
specifying
your
branding efforts
but also finding
your
target
groups. Who are
you going to sell
to?
A target group
includes individuals who are currently customers
of your business,
who are potential
customers
and
people who currently are loyal to another brand.
Target groups can be defined by demographic
characteristics, geographical location, behavior,
ideology/interests. Studying their behavior and
the trends in for example the different age
groups can help us target our messages in a way
making them strategically efficient.
An example here can be a company trying to
sell fitness services. Monitoring marketing
reports tells us that the trends among the
different age groups are changing drastically. Surprisingly, the group seeing strongest growth in sells is people over 65.
Such a discovery requires that strategy is
modified to reflect that. Classes should be
designed for the elderly and equipment
should be made safer.
Not responding to trends is a sure way to
fail no matter whether you are a startup or
an established company.
Defining
your target
group means
also defining
your
company.
Are
you going to
sell to everyone
interested or are
you going to
specialize
and offer superior
services to a
specific segment? Are you going to be cheap or expensive? Will you have a wide portfolio of products or a small one with unique products?
Those decisions are once again based on
your SWOT analyzes. What you need to remember is that changing an image is more
difficult after beginning with your
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