It got me thinking of the importance of market research for any business. Is marketing researchreally that important? And how important is DEMOGRAPHIC information in the bigger scheme?
The answers are yes and very!
Not knowing your target audience is really like shooting an arrow in the dark. How can you engage in appropriate promotional marketing if you don¡¯t know who your customer is and what he/she likes, needs etc?
Customers today are spoilt for choice. In such a scenario, companies that can provide each individual customer with exactly what he/she needs and not a generic product are the ones that are successful. Indeed, demographic segregation and customization are at the core of brand marketing strategies of successful companies like Dell. Dell realized that customizing its offerings for its customers is essential in carrying out its marketing strategies as well as in enabling it to build a solid customer base.
The first step to any successful brand marketing strategy is determining your target audience. While in some industries, the target audience is limited. For example, a store that sells clothes for moms-to-be has a very niche target audience. For some industries, the target audience could be people from almost any age group, of any social background and any income level. For example, if you manufacture tomato ketchup, your target audience ranges from 5-70!
When identifying your target audience, don¡¯t ignore potential customers from industries you haven¡¯t worked with in the past. The ideal brand marketing strategy is to identify a wide ranging target audience and then segregate further. For example, 20-50 year old American men and women. Thereafter, segregate your audience further according to their ages or other aspects and create different promotional strategies for each group to appeal to them better. Thus, your advertisement aimed at those in their 20s-30s should be different to your ads catering to your 40-50 year old customers.
Similarly, if you want to engage in effective promotional marketing, you need to provide customers with products they will use. Thus, if you are a manufacturer of a product like chocolates (that appeal to both children and adults) you could offer promotional products like slap bandz to children and products like photo frames to adults.
So before you work on any elaborate marketing plans, remember that the first step to a successful brand marketing strategy is identifying your target audience based on key demographics and then catering your advertising, promotional marketing and products to the different customer segments you have identified.
I hope these branding tips have helped you! Good luck with your brand marketing strategy!
