Target preferences audience
Basic principles for describing the target audience
Every marketer who first encounters the task of “describing the target audience for a company’s product” or “creating a portrait of a targeted consumer” asks himself the following questions:
-How to understand who is the target audience of the company?
-At what stage of the strategy should the target audience be selected?
-Where to get information to compose a portrait of the target consumer?
-What characteristics exist to describe the target audience?
-How should the product target audience be described in detail?
-Are there features in the description of the target audience for my market?
We will try to answer the questions listed above in this section of our article as detailed as possible. Let’s start in order.
Who is the target audience?
When drawing up a portrait of the target audience, you should always keep in mind the following thought: “The target audience is a group of people / clients who seek to satisfy the need that your product solves” In other words, your company sells a certain product; This product solves the specific need of people; then you need to find people who have this need; these people will be your target audience.
The target audience can be wide (for example, all consumers of dairy products) or narrow (for example, consumers of low-fat products in the low-price segment). The wider the target audience, the more blurry its description will be, as it will be difficult to isolate the pronounced characteristics of consumers (all consumers will be very different).
In practice, companies are still focused on a wide target audience, limiting it to the framework of income, age, and values. Then the wide target audience of the company is divided into several groups according to the model of consumer behavior, describing each group in more detail (using the behavioral characteristics and the intensity of the consumer’s needs). In the future, for each group of consumers, individual products, individual advertising messages and strategies for working with clients are developed within a wide target audience.
In the description of the target audience, you should talk about the most prominent representative of the target market, trying to describe common characteristics by which you can distinguish the consumer of your company from all consumers in the market. Making up a portrait of your consumer, you should describe not only the current buyers of the product, but also all potential customers who have not yet bought the product.
At what stage of the strategy should the target audience be selected?
The target audience of the product is selected at the stage of developing a positioning strategy , after analysis and market segmentation. It is often necessary to identify and describe the target audience without a marketing strategy, this is especially important for marketing professionals who are just starting to work in the company. In this case, you can do the following:
-understand who are the main competitors of the company;
-to conduct a brief comparative analysis of the product with these competitors;
-highlight the distinctive or main features that value the product;
-understand who buys the product now and is a loyal customer;
-present the ideal buyer of the product (who should buy the product?);
-based on the information received, make a portrait of the target audience;
Ideally, the portrait of the target audience should include current customers (because these customers already generate a steady income), include potential customers (have a development vector) and base on the needs that the product solves with its distinctive or most important characteristics.
Where to get information to describe the target audience?
In order to create a detailed portrait of the target audience, you need to understand: who buys and does not buy your product; why buy or not buy your product; how it is chosen, bought and used (the whole process); how they relate to other products and competing companies; which have experience in the use of goods. A survey conducted among consumers and non-consumers of a product helps answer all these questions. Make a short questionnaire and interview the most prominent representatives of your customers. Questionnaire questions depend on how detailed for what characteristics you want to describe the target audience.
Additional sources of information can be: sales managers who directly communicate with customers; open internet research; data from online sources in the presence of contacts of consumers.
What characteristics exist to describe the target audience?
All characteristics of the target audience, by which one can make a portrait of a standard consumer of a company, can be divided into 4 groups. All parameters of the target audience are taken from the criteria of segmentation of the consumer market :
| Parameters of the target audience | Short description |
| Geographical | Geographical characteristics of the target audience set the actual boundaries of the market. |
| Socio-demographic | Socio-demographic characteristics of the target audience allow you to set a clear target for advertising campaigns and determine the boundaries of the market in terms of age, social status and solvency of the audience. |
| Psychographic | Psychographic characteristics make it possible to create a detailed portrait of the consumer and describe it in terms of human character traits and values, are very necessary in highly competitive markets and when using the emotional positioning of the product. |
| Behavioral | The behavioral parameters of the target audience allow us to describe in detail the particular behavior of consumers when choosing, buying and using a product, which can be very helpful for advertising campaigns. |
| B2B market | When it comes to the B2B market, the standard characteristics of the description of the target audience are useless. Special characteristics should be used to describe the company in terms of size, key objectives, ability to pay, and individuals who influence the decision to purchase. |
How to describe in detail the target audience?
When composing a scoring of the target audience, you should describe the most typical of its representative. In the description, try to use all the groups of parameters described above. Only in this way the description of the target audience will be really a portrait. Having read your description, a bright clear picture should appear in the head of any person. Ideally, if you insert a collage of photos into the description, complementing and visualizing the portrait. Prepare 2 descriptions of the target audience: short (based on 3-4 criteria and allowing to roughly separate the target consumers from the entire market) and full (describing the buyer, his habits and consumption patterns, nature and key values) in as much detail as possible.
The description of the target audience will be as complete and detailed as possible if you describe the vector of development of the target audience in the format: how it is now and how it should ideally be. Such a description will help to understand the key changes that must be made in the development and promotion of the company’s goods.
Are there features in the description of the target groups for different markets?
All markets are different and universal recipes do not exist. Each market will have its own characteristics in the description of the target groups; and for each market you will need to find your criteria by which it is best to make a portrait of a consumer. But still there are several rules that will facilitate this task.
| Market type | Recommendations |
| Consumer Products Manufacturing Company | If your company produces products for the consumer market, then to work with the market you will need a description of two separate groups: a description of the customers – dealers who buy your goods for further sale and a description of the final consumers of the product. It is necessary to describe the wholesale channel from the point of view of parameters of the B2B market, and to describe the final consumers from the point of view of socio-demographic, behavioral and psychographic characteristics. |
| B2B market | In describing the target audience of the b2b market, special attention should be paid to understanding the size and solvency of the business; requirements for quality of service and level of service; a description of the main purchase motivators and expectations from the purchase; understanding the circle of people who make decisions and influence the choice of a partner. |
| Retail market | When describing the target audience of a store or shopping center, special attention should be paid to the behavioral parameters of the target audience: describe in detail the main reasons and motivators for the purchase, seasonality of sales, the average customer check and the consumer set of goods that the consumer buys. |
Three levels of description of the target consumer
We turn directly to the target audience description model. This model describe the target audience into three levels:
-General level of the description of the target audience
-Description of the target audience at the product group level
-Description of the target audience at the brand level
General level of the description of the target audience
The general level of the description of the target audience is the drawing up of a portrait of a typical company buyer according to geographical, socio-demographic and psychographic criteria. This level of description of the target audience helps to make a clear picture of a person in his head by age, character and lifestyle.
Product Category Level
At the product category level, you describe the typical behavior of a typical buyer of your products when selecting, using and buying products on the market. In other words, after reading this description, anyone should understand the parameters of behavior that your target audience differs from all consumers in the market.
Pay special attention to the following characteristics:
| Characteristics of the target audience | example of the description of the target index by parameter |
| category use frequency | used daily, once a month, every six months. |
| category purchase frequency | buy every day, once a month, every six months. |
| use of number of brands | buy several brands or prefer 1 brand |
| packing preferences | 250 ml, 50 ml, 1 l. |
| where they prefer to buy the product | in grocery stores, via the Internet, in pharmacies, in the markets, etc. |
| category attitude | consider that juices are harmful to health or consider that they are important and must be drunk daily |
| way of making a decision in the category | choose the product directly from the store shelf or prefer to plan the purchase in advance;choose from one or more brands; First choose by price, type of action, etc. |
Brand level
At the brand level, the authors of the method suggest describing the target consumer according to the following characteristics: product knowledge level, brand loyalty level (highly committed, relatively loyal, switching, abandoned), brand opinion formed (brand A is better than brand B; brand A is more natural), the intention to acquire the brand.
An example of describing the target audience of the consumer market
We proceed to practice. In this part of the article, we present an example of a description of the target audience of a typical consumer of large household appliances.
1. General level:
Demographic characteristics: women aged 25-55 (core target audience 30-50), with an average / below average income, a resident of large cities and business centers numbering 500 thousand people. Married, 1-2 children under 10 years old. Office employee in a small company or sales assistant in a large shopping center.
Key values: Family – key value for her. He prefers to spend all his free time with his family, loves family vacations at sea. Leads the family budget and clearly calculates all family expenses. Appreciates stability, comfort, regularity.
Psychographic characteristics: Leads a measured, planned, relaxed lifestyle. By the nature of shopping – a follower. He buys popular trend items, but at the peak of popularity. Does not make impulse purchases. In the shopping trusts the opinion of friends and close relatives. She wants to show the following desires in purchases: purchases for a family confirm her status as a good caring mother and keeper of the hearth; purchases for themselves confirm her status as a modern and active woman. Has a hobby, but gives them a little time. Hobbies confirm its activity. It prefers outdoor recreation, picnics in the country or at the cottage with parents.
2. Level of product category
The purchase of large household appliances prefers to associate with certain life events. Plans to purchase 2-3 months before its commission. To make a choice, she uses the following sources of information (in descending influence on the decision): the experience of girlfriends, reviews and reviews on the Internet, the opinion of her husband, the experience of parents, the advice of sales assistants. Buys equipment in stores of large shopping centers in the city. Choose from 2-3 famous brands. Does not buy unknown brands. Prefers to buy on credit if the amount of the purchase exceeds half the monthly salary. From the model range prefers to pick up mid-priced goods. If you are in the mood for a purchase, then it does it, even if the desired product is not available. (i.e. buys the closest placeholder).
3. Attitude to the brand
Brand X is neutral. It is not included in the set of its commonly purchased brands, but it is not included in the set of brands that it will never buy. Her experience with the brand is based on 1-2 random purchases or gifts from friends. He believes that the brand is not innovative enough, has a masculine tough character and a cool design, so it does not fit into its usual way of life and does not quite fit with the interior of the apartment.
An example of a description of the target audience of the business market
An example of drawing up a portrait of the target audience for the B2B market of goods and services (for example, the manufacturer of women’s dresses).
1. General level:
Wholesale companies and individual entrepreneurs engaged in the wholesale and retail business and casual wear for women. As well as online women’s clothing stores. Companies are small in size, operating within the same city / region. Often have their own retail outlets. Located in major cities, regional centers, but not in the capital.
2. Level of product category
Mainly working with manufacturers of low or medium-price segment. They prefer to buy one-time, for the season, collections of the entire size range. They are looking for an exclusive supplier of clothing that will provide them with an interesting offer and a competitive advantage in the range. Prefer to work on deferred payment. Important criteria for choosing a supplier of clothing are: the ability to order in small batches, reasonable prices and favorable discount terms, exclusives, the absence of such a range from competitors, the availability of a full size range, interesting models, convenient conditions for returning goods, delivery speed. The decision to work with the manufacturer is made directly by the owner of the business.
3. Attitude to the brand
Almost not familiar with the brand of the company. Along with our dresses, such brands as A, B, C are purchased. The choice in favor of one or another manufacturer is made on the basis of prices, availability of goods, interesting fashion models, and convenience of working with a supplier. They do not perceive our trademark as the main one in their assortment, they rather “dilute” their current assortment.
An example of the description of the target audience of the store
Example description of the target audience for a retail store of children’s goods.
1. General level:
Women aged 25-55 years (core 35-45), low and medium income. They live in the city of N and in the nearby small villages adjacent to the city. Have from 1 child aged 0 to 7 years. Rational in the choice, most often do not have the opportunity to make impulse purchases. Appreciate the practicality, convenience and stability. Very dependent on the opinions of others, especially friends. Subject to advertising, reviews, recommendations.
2. Level of product category
They go to the store only when there is a clear need for a purchase: updating the child’s wardrobe, purchasing children’s furniture, making a gift if there is a valid reason. The average frequency of shopping: no more than 1 time per month. They prefer “home” shops, as they do not take much time and do not require a long trip. Never buy immediately: bypass 1-2 stores, watch reviews, compare prices before making a choice. They fear online purchases, as they carry certain risks and uncertainties. They love to see or try on the product. If it does not fit, immediately go to change it. prefer to buy all at once in one place. Very susceptible to discounts and promotions. The average bill for the purchase of clothing is 3000-5000 rubles, for the purchase of toys up to 2000 rubles, for the purchase of bulky goods up to 8 000 rubles. The main characteristics that cause satisfaction from the store: reasonable prices, convenient range (there is always what you need), the presence of well-known brands, proximity to the place of residence, emotional attitude of sellers.
3. Brand level
They are not true supporters of purchases in this store. Buy here because it is convenient and you can always buy the desired product. They can switch to buying at other retail outlets at any time if they are not satisfied with prices and assortment. Do not recommend shopping in the store to your friends. They appreciate the fact that the sellers in the store recognize them and know their preferences and purchase history, which means they can recommend exactly the products they need, which reduces the time to view the entire range in the store and to choose.