A target market is the group of people that a businessperson or company would sell their product of service to. There are many kinds of target markets, some are demographics like race, age, gender, geographical location etc. Some might have to do with hobbies or occupational interests. For example, if a company was selling toilet paper, it has a large target market because *everyone* uses toilet paper. But if a company was selling something like expensive wines, its target market would be people with a higher income and who over 21.
I was researching how to start an online bakery for a family member, even though the business was going to be based online we still needed to try and market her idea. She was looking for a target market of busy working mothers who want to make home-made goods but did not have the time or expertise. We went to places of business that had primarily women workers and gave samples with a business card stating you could only order online but that it was a fast easy experience. The majority of mothers/sisters/aunts loved the idea and the product and online sales started to come in fairly quickly. In my marketing class in college we had to do target marketing for a particular products for consumers that would be outside the box. I was given a sweet sugary cereal with the primary target being children under 10. My idea was to target this cereal to dads to increase sales; online poles, focus groups and research showed that dads were more inclined to buy sugary cereal than moms and that dads liked using these products to relate to their children.
To acquire your best targets some things need to be considered. Depending on what you’re researching is one of the biggest factors. Some things that I consider valuable are age, race, hobbies, income, education, location, occupation, personality, values, lifestyles, etc. These are just a few categories I would build off personally because its best to know a little about your targets before marketing your specific product.
The above story and insights are from a go-getter interested in improving their career and business ventures. This is part of the RichardStep Steppers plan to get more out of life! Now, let’s jump into some potential customer interviews and survey responses to see what people really think about this topic.
Researching Target Markets
Explain why this topic is important to people like you and me.
The first benefit of knowing your target market is being able to identify and implement optimal advertising strategies. The second is being able to perform more targeted surveys towards the correct audience and make improvements they wish for. The third is being able to style a product in a way that is most likely to appeal to the target market.
This is very interesting stuff here and I think it could help people. What do you feel is the most life-altering thing about the topic?
If someone is selling a product it is important to know your target audience. If you research the target audience, you will know what they want in a product. If you are developing or selling a product, usually the goal is for it to make the consumers’ lives better. If you can make the best product available and have it tailored to the target market, that will optimize the product’s usefulness.
How do you think this could be used for personal development or just being a better person overall?
Researching any topics in general provide a good life skill of being able to navigate the internet. People that are good with computers (and more specifically, the internet) are becoming more and more prevalent in society today. Researching target markets in particular you help inform the researcher as to what a large portion of the population is interested in, and knowing what most people are interested in can help with developing relationships in other areas of the researcher’s life.
If you had to put more time into bringing this topic into your daily life, what would you do?
Someone interested in the topic could use internet search engines to become more knowledgeable about the topic at hand. I find it easier to learn about a certain subject if I have the aide of the internet and can find information given by others that may have experience in the topic I’m researching. Internet forums are also a good place to look because there are more than likely some first hand accounts.
What types of resources could people use to learn more about this subject?
To learn more about researching target markets, I recommend googling the topic first, and expanding your knowledge second. By googling, you can quickly find an overview on how to research a target market and to expand your knowledge, I recommend using Amazon to search for in-depth books on such topics. I’ve actually done quite a bit of this using Amazon’s search system coupled with their great customer feedback.
Provide us with an example of what kind of person is better of never talking about this subject ever again.
Healthcare companies/professionals to locate patients in their area. Staffing firms to determine need and high turnover jobs in a specific market. Schools to determine where to find students and the best job market. Sales reps to determine local businesses and ideal areas to sell. Car salesmen or dealerships to find out demographics for certain car buyers. Real estate agents to learn the best place to get listings and sell homes. Game networks to determine trends amongst specific groups of people. Non-profit organizations to know where to find donations.
Give us some hints and tips on this subject, please.
Take the time to research target markets. Look at past trends that were popular in that market, and more importantly, try to find where the trends came from. If you stay ahead of the trend in your target market, you can get inventory low and sell at its peak, instead of playing catch-up. Likewise, try to locate indicators of the ending of trends to know when to get out.
What would you say is something we should avoid at all costs when it comes to this topic?
Try to avoid outliers, but not disregard them entirely. You could do this by asking general questions to see how closely the respondents conform to the norm. Avoid gathering all your information from one type of survey: go out into the communities and do some footwork with people who are not online, invite focus groups (again not desperate people who will join any group for a few dollars and some bagels) ask experts in the field their opinions. Watch for bugs in your survey, such as fields that won’t open in different browsers and timers that run out. Don’t run untested surveys.
With the right skill level in this topic, what kind of success can one expect?
If I were an expert in researching target markets I would create a business that surveys or polls people in very cost efficient ways and provide that information to people. Specifically, I would cater this new information to startup companies. Providing these startup companies with information that would be invaluable to the success and future of their company, I could then demand a small percentage of their profits. Doing this to a large base of startup companies would create a large revenue quickly and passively, whether or not the companies I invest in end up succeeding or not.
If you could only give one piece of advice for this folks out there, what would it be?
When researching target markets, it’s important to know who that target is. Know the boundaries that divide your specific target market from others. Meaning geographic location, income level, cultural differences, and others. A good idea would be to record sales based on what target market the customer belongs, and also to question the customer on what could be done to make her target market more comfortable in the environment in which you are engaging in business.
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Thanks for reading, please share your comments below, and share this article with someone looking to get more out of their career understanding or business development efforts. Also, this article is part of the target market research work we do here at RichardStep. If you’re interested in learning more about the niche most important to your business, please click the link below.