Identifying your target audience is essential in marketing. How can your message resonate if you don’t know who you’re addressing? In order to cater to your audience and craft intentional, resonant campaigns and marketing strategies, you need to understand what your audience wants. Take your product, or a simpler product if you want to loosen yourself up, and think about what aspects of that product would appeal to different kinds of people. Simple exercises like these will help you strengthen your marketing message and appeal to the right audience.

Remember when you saw your favorite movie for the first time? For me, it was How to Train Your Dragon back in 2010. Maybe yours is The Matrix, Poltergeist, Iron Man, Star Wars Episode IV, or, heaven forbid, Star Wars Episode III. There are people out there who will agree with you and people who won’t. Remember when The Last Jedi came out? Online wars are being waged over that movie to this very day.

My point is, one movie isn’t going to appeal to everyone who sees it. Actually, one anything isn’t going to appeal to everyone.

So, when marketing a product, you shouldn’t try to attract everyone, and you shouldn’t market to everyone in your target audience the same way. That’s why it’s a good exercise for marketers to think about framing products for various customers. For the sake of this article we’ll look at a Practical Consumer and an Innovative Consumer (Check out Targa Media’s 5 persona system here). As for what we’re selling? There’s no need to get into the intricacies of film marketing today—let’s start with something simpler: Fire.

SELLING FIRE TO A PRACTICAL CONSUMER

Our practical consumer, Penney, is motivated by health and financial security. She doesn’t like to take risks and always thinks through her purchasing decisions. When targeting a practical client like Penney, your marketing campaign should present a proven track record. Every claim you make should be supported with evidence, Penney will notice if it isn’t. Penney will appreciate that fire can be used to create smoke signals in emergency situations—but she would need a supporting statistic about the effectiveness of smoke signals.

FEATURES:
Heat
Light
Smoke

BENEFITS:
Easy to make
Can be made with a variety of materials
Creates light so surroundings are visible, creates a barrier of safety
Sustains warmth and enables food preparation for survival
Smoke signals can be made if help signals are required

OUTCOMES:
I want to be able to survive on my own.

SELLING FIRE TO AN INNOVATIVE CONSUMER

Luc is our innovative consumer. Luc is motivated by discovery, creativity, and curiosity. He appreciates marketing campaigns with cutting-edge ideas. Your features and benefits should highlight the product’s creative potential or ingenuity. Luc will like that fire enables users to be creative by lengthening the day’s working hours. Point out that fire creates heat, and that heat can be transferred, a handy benefit for someone inventive like Luc. Innovative consumers will buy in to a product if it appeals to their creative side.

FEATURES:
Heat
Light
Smoke

BENEFITS:
Creates heat which can power inventions/machines
Warms rocks, transferring sustained heat
Provides light so creators can work after night falls
Creates light which enables long-distance communication
Limitless applications

OUTCOMES:
I want to create something new.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER

It can be tricky to properly categorize your ideal consumer. If you need a little extra help, contact Targa Media. We specialize in targeted marketing campaigns that will help you build stronger relationships with your best clients.

What’s your consumer type? Comment below!