Which Woman 25-54? Know your Target.
- Posted by Misi McClelland on October 17th, 2007
filed in Segmentation |
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Standard demographics have been tossed around marketing discussions with as much care as cucumbers out of a salad shooter. It’s amazing that such a critical aspect of marketing is reserved to a line item in a plan. With changing demographics and a diminishing mass market, thoroughly defining the target audience is becoming increasingly important. Not putting forth the effort in calibrating this dimension can cause leaks in your marketing plan and leaks result in wasted dollars – the days of reaching the homogeneous masses are gone, gone, gone.
Segmentation tools are now essential. They have been under construction for decades, and the dynamics of our world are making these tools more valuable than ever. They consider geographic, behavioral and psychographic aspects that help define the best candidates to target and offer direction on how to do it. Two random women ages 25-54 have can have completely different lifestyles. One can be married, with kids, works full-time as a mother, watches TV only in the morning, listens to R&B music, shops online at Ann Taylor for her clothes, and never has a chance to make it to the movies. Another woman within the same age range can be divorced, a single mom, works full-time in the office, listens to country music, watches TV only at night, shops at Banana Republic, and goes to the movies twice a month. If you tried to catch both at the same time because they fall within the same age range, your chances would be rather slim. If I added that the second woman through a segmentation analysis was 120% more likely than the first woman to buy your product, what would your marketing efforts include? Would you place an ad on the Today Show or Desperate Housewives? Would you do a promotion with Ann Taylor or Banana Republic? If you had an endorsement, would the creative feature Alicia Keys or Faith Hill? Does it sound to good to be true because the answers are included in the description of the target? It’s not. It just takes more thought, more time, and more consideration to uncover who the target is and what they are like. The benefits reaped outweigh the additional effort. You’ve now just managed to hit the bulls-eye versus the wall surrounding the dartboard.