When creating a marketing plan for a business, it is imperative to hone in on the target market, or, specific type of people you imagine buying the product or service. Focusing on the details of the customers allows businesses to create a niche for themselves, whereas casting a wide, vague net increases prospects at the expense of increasing competition. This second approach can end up costing the business more resources, as efforts may be wasted on people not within the typical parameters of the product or service. For example, marketing tampon products to men or neon hair dye to old ladies.
One tool marketers can use to define their target market is through geographic segmentation. This divides the audience based on their location, which can be be broken down by nation, state, county, city, and even zip code (Eaton, n.d.). Small and local businesses such as Spiral Space Dance Studio, the business I am opening, can benefit greatly from marketing specifically to potential customers in the zip codes immediately surrounding the base of operations. Keeping it local is important, because it is unlikely that people over an hour away will have the motivation to drive to a business, especially if they already have something similar in their area.
After honing in on location, marketers can further segment the market based on many different demographics such as gender, age, education, socioeconomic status, and more. All can be important factors in determining the most ideal customer base for a product or service. For my studio, my research and personal experience has told me that the geographic segment I'm targeting lives in Ventura County. The demographics are female, ages 18-45, high school diploma-PhD, middle-upper class. This type of segmentation allows me to focus in on the people most likely to sign up for classes.
Another tool marketers can use to find their target market is through psychographic analysis. This technique looks at the potential customer's beliefs, values, lifestyle, social status, opinions and activities. It is often confused with behavioral segmentation because they seem similar, but psychographics is differentiated through looking at the motivations behind behavior, rather than tracking the behavior itself (
Psychographic Segmentation: A Beginner’s Guide, 2022). This tool is exceptionally helpful for marketers to look at the customer's "why." For example, some psychographic details or motivations behind why a person may want to take classes at my dance studio is to feel healthy, improve self-esteem, impress a partner, find friends, etc. Knowing this information will help me tailor my messages to appeal to these subconscious desires and needs.
References:
Psychographic Segmentation: A Beginner’s Guide. (2022, November 22). Qualtrics. https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/brand/psychographic-segmentation/
Eaton, M. (n.d.). Segmentation [Slide show; Prezi]. https://prezi.com/_tefmqctqvlq/segmentation/
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