What is the target audience, methods and methods of its determination

How to determine the target audience?

The target audience or target group is a group of people who may be interested in the company’s offer and will order in the future a specific service or product. It can become a potential consumer, so it is the target audience that should target everyone advertising efforts and communication. The marketer must design an advertising campaign based on features and tastes advantages of a particular CA, which will significantly increase its effectiveness.

The heart of the target audience is the core, which includes the most active customers who bring in most of the profits. There are the following types of target audience:

• Primary - a key audience, the initiator of the purchase, which can be influenced
• Secondary - participants in the purchase process, for example, can pay for it. Secondary target audience - opinion leaders that affect the primary CA.
• Tertiary - includes organized groups that affect the first two species.

On the other hand, the target group is wide or narrow. For example, wide - coffee consumers, and narrow - latte buyers. The group can also be designed for the B2B (business for business) or B2C (consumer business) market. The B2B sector is in trouble fluctuations in demand are noticeable, and it is easy to estimate the capacity of the market and the CA itself.

Defining your target group makes it possible to determine the socio-demographic characteristics, type, segments of the audience, coverage of stakeholders, factors influencing the purchase decision. How to determine the target audience? Algorithm of actions will depend on the specifics of each product or service.

How to segment the target audience?

Segmentation - the division of smaller groups based on different characteristics. These include:

• Geographical region, city, nationality, country.
• Socio-demographic - marital status, age, gender, activity, education.
• Economic - financial literacy, income, solvency. It also takes into account which segment of goods will give customer preference (premium or savings), which brands are most frequently purchased and at what time.
• Social and psychological - include worldview, values, hobbies, as well as habits, lifestyle.
• Motivation and list of needs - it is important to answer what needs can be met by a particular service.

There are different methods of CA segmentation. The simplest scheme will include the following components: the division of CA into categories (potential customers, at the stage of purchase and current customers who at least once could make a purchase), finding out the motivation and the purchase process itself, analysis of categories in terms of advertising costs and preparation of the offer, advertising certain groups.

How to gather the target audience?

You don’t need to invent new ways to gather an audience - start with the sources you have at hand. For the absolute visualization and empathy creation uses the technique of creating a person. A virtual person is created who embodies in itself the audience of the brand. It is endowed with a certain name, biography, habits, work, family and similar attributes, relevant to the brand and lifestyle of CA.

To create a person, you need:

• communicate with their customers;
• follow them on social networks;
• conduct marketing research;
• use data from open research of the Ukrainian audience.

When creating a “Person”, you can divide the information about the virtual consumer into the following headings: general information, method life, life values, social status, hobbies, field of activity for the brand, for which purpose it uses the product / service.

Tools for collecting CA.

Collection tools are methods and techniques that help determine CA. The description of the target audience will help to analyze customer needs. To do this, you need to study incoming calls, answering the following questions: what are the most common problems clients are addressed, the methods of solution that have been used, objections, outrage.

The most effective methods of determining the target audience:

• research of data from public sources;
• conducting surveys;
• drawing up a portrait of the audience;
• interview method;
• analysis of data on human behavior or statistical method.

Another good tool is to collect feedback by calling or mailing. Analysis of social groups can also help networks. You can get a complete set of information that will help to make maps for all the characters. In other words, it will direct “access to goals” of customers.

The main mistakes in the work of the target audience

The main mistakes in the work of the target group are:

• The whole purchase chain is not taken into account. Before creating content and advertising, it is important to understand the process of buying a product.
• The target audience is overestimated. This is a common mistake for VIP audiences. Instead of a sober look at its CA, marketers are beginning to idealize it.
• Lack of segmentation. If you divide the customers, you can upgrade the product or service for different categories of customers.

The most important key parameters for determining the target group are its habits and hobbies. The product or service must decide buyer’s problem. He has a need that needs to be met, you have something that helps. The company’s task is to become component of this formula: when I need it, I mention the brand.