(This post is part of a series created to help you help your advertising agency create the most effective communications for your business.)

Advertising is often defined as a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some form of action in connection with a.) product or brand. Defining this audience, the one you are gearing your advertising towards, is another step in making it more effective.

The importance of the target market can be seen by the fact that it appears on top of the advertising brief, right after the objective.  Unfortunately, often, what is written there are just generic descriptions of socioeconomic classes, gender and age groups, and perhaps, a descriptor or two. While that is not necessarily wrong, it is, at best incomplete.

Consider the following:

TARGET MARKET: AB, Upper C females, housewives 24-48

Or

TARGET MARKET:  Lower C and DE youth, 18-35

What does that tell you about your audience? Whom, exactly, are you talking to?

And do you really want to be talking to a class, when people are so much easier to talk to?

It is said that for advertising to be effective, it needs to be specific, and as your advertising agency will tell you, “more targeted.”  It’s simple, unless you know just who it is you’re talking to, chances are, your communications will end up irrelevant to them,, and the chances of connecting drops to almost zero.

Knowing more about your market informs the communications: in content, language, tone and more. As yourself these questions, for instance: Your target housewife, what kind of housewife is she? Your student, what are their interests?

There are many different ways to narrow down the scope and define the market by segmenting it using various aspects such as geography (location), psychography, (attitudes and values), life stage,  behavior (usage of product, degree of loyalty) and more.

So. Who is it you want to talk to?  If you can figure that out, let’s talk.

How many times a day do you think this? (Click here, you know the drill.)

Hugh Macleod.
He writes and draws stuff we try not to think about all the time. Check it out. Download the manifestos. Order the books.