Target Audience- 3 effective steps to find an attractive Audience

Do you know what is the population of India? According to Wikipedia in 2019 it is 1,352,642,280. And as a marketer, you can not target all 1.35 billion people? So that you have to identify an attractive target audience.

So you have to identify a group of people who have a similar set of needs and wants, and that identification is called market segmentation. And from that segmentation, we can find an attractive segment and target them, which is also called the target audience.

When you watching comedy videos on youtube, did you ever notice one thing, after watching that video, you went to youtube’s home page then youtube suggest you many comedy videos from that or other channels?

That is also a part of targeting. So segmentation and targeting is very important for a business to better positioning their product, and here I discuss all about that segmentation and targeting which helps you to grow your business.

Don’t know about brand positioning? Check our blog.

What can I learn from here? 

1. Segmentation of the consumer market to find a target audience.
2. Segmentation of business market to find a target audience.
3. Choosing a most attractive target audience.
4. Conclusion.
5. Frequently asked questions.

Segmentation of Consumer Marke to find Target Audience

So to find an attractive target audience first you have to segment your market with these four characteristics Geographic, demographic, psychographic and their behavioural segmentation. 

Geographic Segmentation:    

In this segmentation, you can divide all the people on their geographical location bases. Like either my target audience is living in India or any other country and if they live in India then which city or state they are living.

So as per their geographical region, you can identify their needs and wants and you can better serve them. You can segment this by specific zip codes also

Demographic Segmentation: 

Demographic means which we can measure, like people’s age, family size, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, generation, and also nationality.

Consumers needs and wants changes time to time depending upon their age and life stage. A 25-year man’s need maybe for a bike but a 10-year boy it may be a bicycle. So you need to identify your target audience as which age group is suitable for your product.

Life stage means in which stage a person live in a particular time. Like whether a person is married or single, searching for a job or searching to buy a home.

This life stages also create the opportunity of different type of need and want. Like a person is newly married then he may be searching for home decorating materials or good furniture for his home.

You have to segment people according to your product, if your product is a bicycle then you can target parents who have a little boy, whose age is between 25-35 or 40 etc.

So as a marketer you have understood which demographic segmentation is suitable for your product or service.

Psychographic Segmentation:

You can also segment people by their psychographic state. So for this type of segmentation to find a suitable target audience, as a marketer, you have to use the science of psychology and demographic to understand consumers.

Here peoples in the same demographic may also have a different psychology.

Like two-man with the same age and same occupation but their living of lifestyle may different, one may be very health conscious and doing exercise regularly and other may be money-minded so he doesn’t want to waste his time on exercise. 

So a framework is available based on U.S. adults psychographic measurement is called Strategic Business Insight’s VALS framework.

It classifies eight groups that are innovators, thinkers, achievers, experiencers, believers, strivers, makers and also survivors.

All these have their definition like innovators are successful and they are high in self-esteem so they may find value in a product or service rather than searching for a low price.

So as a marketer you have to understand what type of people buy your product, and target them.

Behavioural Segmentation: 

So to find an attractive target audience we have to segment people into groups based upon their behaviour towards the product, how they use the product, what is the attitude towards the product.

This segmentation has three varieties of behavioural, needs and benefits, decision roles, user and usage-related variables.

Need and Benefits:

This behavioural segmentation is not based on which geographic or demographic, but it is based on what a consumer looking from the product.

What need they want to satisfy and what benefit they want from the product. Some may buy the product for best functionality, some for saving some money and some may also to show their image to society.

So you have to choose this according to your product.

Decision Roles:      

Decision roles are a consumer play the role during the purchase decisions. People play five types of roles when they decide to buy a product. So these are initiator, influencer, decider, buyer, the user.

For example, your younger brother wants you to buy a bicycle for him. And you know one month ago your friend also brought a bicycle for his brother.

So you call your friend for information regarding where do they buy, which brand is good, affordable,  etc.

After that, you go to the shop and buy a bicycle for your brother. Here your brother is starting the buying process so he is the initiator and finally he uses that cycle so he also the user.

And your friend helped you for choosing, so he is the influencer, finally, you decide and buy so you are the decider and buyer.

User & Usage:                         

There are many variables available related to users and their usage like occasions, user status, usage rate, buyer readiness stage, and also loyalty status.

Occasions:

You can also distinguish buyers according to their occasions like you can influence more Hindus to buy clothes at the time of Dussehra. Because at that time they want that product most.

Occasions mean not only festivals it may also any particular season like summer holidays, at that time people may plan to travel.

 So any occasions may create an opportunity so you have to distinguish these type of people according to your business.

User Status:  

Every company has its product’s ex-users, potential user, nonuser, regular user, and also first-time users.

So as a marketer you have to understand why ex-users are not using your product now, how can I attract my nonuser, how can I serve effectively to my potential customer, how can I hold my first user.

Usage Rate:      

Usage rate is the most important thing for a company.

The user who uses a low amount of product is called light user, the user who uses a little more product than light user then they called medium user and when a user uses a heavy amount of product then they called heavy users.

Heavy users buy more products and because of them we become more profitable. So as a marketer you have to focus more on heavy users then medium and at last light users.

Buyer Readiness Stage:

There are different buyers stages, some people are unaware about the product, some are aware, some are informed, some are interested, some are desire to buy the product and some are intended to buy the product.

So as a marketer you have to aware the unaware people, inform people and make a funnel to convert people from their stages to the buying stages.

Loyalty Status:

The user who uses product regularly from one brand then he is the hardcore loyal to that brand.

The consumer who buy from two to three brands then he is the split loyal to the brand.

When a consumer shifting from one brand to another brand then he called shifting loyal to that brand.

 When a consumer shows no loyalty, and every time purchase from another brand then he called switchers. So as a marketer, we have to focus more on loyal customers to maintain relationships.

Also check our blog how to build customer loyalty?

Segmentation of Business Market to find Target Audience

You can also segment the business market with some of the same variables that we use in the consumer market.

Such as geography, need and benefits, usage rate and also use other variables. A business industry may first select which type of industry should we serve.

Then select what size of companies, a small company who serve a small audience or a large company who serve a large number of people.

Then they select what type of user status should they serve, like heavy users, medium users, light users or nonusers.

They may take many decisions whether they do business with existing customers or new, whether they do business with companies who have policies like leasing, contract etc.

Should they do business with quality, service or price seeking companies?

They can also see some loyal based characteristics like should we serve companies who are highly loyal to their suppliers and should they serve the company whose peoples values are similar to theirs.

Choosing a most attractive target Audience

 After following all the segmentation variables now a company can identify the best Target audience, where the best opportunity is available for their business.

After identifying opportunity there are more variables available to find a long run attractive markets to target.

Targeting is, focusing on one segment or two-three more segment that we created previously. So how can you select one or many segments? So to make easier of the selection method you have to follow some parameters.

First Parameter to find an attractive target audience:

The first parameter is the segment’s size and growth. Whenever you are trying to find an attractive target audience you have to see how big that market is?

Does it mean if you are entering into a health-conscious market then how many health-conscious people are there?

So the next important thing is the growth, growth means in the next two or three years how numbers of these people are going to be? So as a marketer, you have to find all these things by using various marketing research tools.

To correctly finding this parameter is very essential because if you do it correctly then it gives you some good idea about how much you have to invest in that market? And how much it gives you return after two or three years?

Not only money bases but also it helps to increase market share. So that it is one of the important parameters to select a target market.

Second Parameter to find an attractive target audience:

The second parameter is also important like 1st. But here we have to select segment according to the segment’s attractiveness. So in this parameter, you have to identify the attractiveness of the segment.

Does that mean how much competition that market have? Then we have to check what are the entry and exit barrier that market have? Etc.

A good entry barrier means where another person cannot start a business easily in a particular field. So to make the entry barrier strong you may make your patients etc.

Exit barrier means whenever a person wants to exit then he can easily exit from that business.

You can also use Michael porters five forces and easily determine the structural attractiveness of a market.

The five forces are:

The threat of intense segment rivalry –

By this force, a segment is unattractive if it contains many strong competitors. Where already many big competitors available and the entry barrier is high and exit barrier also high then that segment is not good for us.

So we have to choose the segment where the threat of intense segment rivalry is low.

The threat of new entrants –

In this segment the entry barrier is high and the exit barrier is low then that segment is a good attractive segment. If the entry barrier is low and exit barrier is high then it is a most unattractive segment.

The threat of substitute products –

If is there any substitute for our product available then that segment is unattractive. Our product must be unique or it also has some extra attributes from other products.

The threat of buyers‘ growing bargaining power –

If in a market segment buyers bargaining power increases then that segment is not attractive.

So we have to choose a segment where the bargaining power of buyer is low or to defence this force we have to develop a superior offer or product quality that buyer cannot refuse.  

The threat of suppliers’ growing bargaining power –

To enter into an attractive segment you also have to see who is the supplier. Is it easy to get a good supplier or difficult? Is that supplier is the leader.

Because if he has the whole market control then whenever he wants he can raise the price or reduce the quality. So the key is we have to choose a good supplier.

Third Parameter to find an attractive target audience:

After that, we have to see the Organisation’s objectives and resources. Because to target any segment we need some resources and manpower. So we have to act according to our manpower.

Evaluating and selecting the market segments:

Once you observe all the segment through that all parameter your next step is whether you focus on one segment or multiple.

There are five types of targeting strategically available.

Here we consider supposing we have three product line and three segment.

Product line	segments	segments	segments
	Kids	Young	Adults
Jeans
T-shirts
Shoes

1. Single-segment concentration:- When you sell only jeans for kids.
2. Selective Specialization:-When you sell three different product line to three different segments. That is when you sell jeans for kids, t-shirts for young and shoes for adults.
3. Product specialization:- When you sell one product line but a different type of product for a different segment. When selling jeans for kids, also different type of jeans for young people which suits them and different jeans for adults also.
4. Market Specialization:-When you sell all product line in one segment. That is jeans for young people t-shirts for young people and shoes for young people.
5. Full Market Coverage;- When we sell all the product line to all the segment.

conclusion

If you have a small business, and you want to find a suitable and attractive target market then first you have to segment the market according to your product.

And then you have to check each segment based on the attractiveness and other factors that we discussed above. Then you can select the best target audience.

Like if your product is kids bicycle then you have to segment market by questioning yourself. Like who buys my product? Where would he live? What will be his income? Will they get married or not? etc

After that, we can find an attractive audience. And we also reach them by online, social media etc.

So we can target the couple who has a newborn baby, whose income is fine. We also target the people by their geographical region. Like, people who lived in India.

So that way we can find our target audience. This process is very important, because with out correct target audience the chances of failure of a business increases.

FAQs