What’s Keeping You From Your Target Market?

If you want to convince your family or friends to take a long trip, you wouldn’t suggest a trip by covered wagon, would you?

No, of course you wouldn’t. Travel by covered wagon is impractical, outdated, and has been replaced by safer, quicker alternatives with greater appeal to the modern person. You would make your argument based on what you know about your audience

A young traveler might propose to a friend a trip by car, discussing the fun that could be had on a cross-country road trip. Making the case to most leisure or business travelers, you would suggest travel by plane, for the sake of speed. For someone afraid of flying, you might recommend a bus or train.

The mode of transportation you recommend and your messaging would differ depending on the audience.

My point here is this: in order to effectively market an idea or a product, you need to know your audience. You can’t use the same message to reach an audience that doesn’t value the same things, that lives with different circumstances. You need to know what messages will reach the market.

Is your target market different than your current audience? Then what are you going to change?

If you want to reach a new audience, you can’t continue to do the same old things that haven’t worked before.

It might mean evolving your brand image or changing your messaging. It might even mean changing your product. Sure, you’ll probably alienate some existing customers along the way, but if you are convinced you need to reach the new market, change is inevitable.

Far too many companies and organizations try to reach new markets without change or adaptability. This is not a strategy for growth.

What do you think? How can we use what we know about our audience to promote change to our brand, to our messaging, to our product?

Photo credit: DaveWilsonPhotography