Establish & Segment Your Target Market
Establish & Segment You Small Business's Target Market - We cover target market segmentation and consumer-based marketing techniques!
Learn how to establish and segment your small business’s target market with Downtown Digital!
Table of contents:
Understanding your Target Market
We can not express the importance of getting to know your target market enough, whether you are starting a new business from the ground up or looking to reconnect with your existing customer base! It is important to remember that your target market is a group of people who you want to provide value to, not exploit.
Your target market is going to most likely be relatively large. Let's move on to breaking down your overall target market into smaller segments.
Target Market Definition: A target market is a group of consumers who share common needs and characteristics that a company aims to fulfill.
Target Market Segmentation
Target market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into smaller segments of buyers with distinct needs, characteristics, or behaviours that might require separate marketing strategies or mixes.
This allows businesses to better focus their marketing efforts on specific groups of consumers, and tailor their messages and products to better meet the needs of those groups.
Different Types of Target Market Segmentation
Geographic Segmentation
Geographic segmentation is the process of dividing a market into smaller groups based on location. Geographic segmentation can consist of segmenting your target market based on:
Nation Based Segmentation
States Based Segmentation
Regional Segmentation
City Based Segmentation
Neighbourhood Based Segmentation
Demographic Segmentation
Demographic Segmentation is the process of dividing a market into different groups based on demographic characteristics. Demographic Segmentation characteristics can include the following:
Age Based Segmentation
Sex/Gender Based Segmentation
Income Based Segmentation
Occupation Based Segmentation
Education Based Segmentation
Religion Based Segmentation
Family Based Segmentation
Ethnicity Based Segmentation
Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographic Segmentation involves dividing buyers into groups based on their lifestyle preferences. For example, you could have a group of buyers who prefer active lifestyles, another group who are interested in health and fitness, and another group who prefer more relaxed lifestyles. Here are the different types of psychographic segmentation:
Lifestyle Based Segmentation
Personality Based Segmentation
Attitude/Opinion Based Segmentation
Value Based Segmentation
Interest Based Segmentation
Behavioral Segmentation
Behavioral segmentation is the process of dividing a market into segments based on consumer behavior. This type of segmentation can be used to identify groups of consumers with similar buying habits, preferences, and needs. Behavioral segmentation is often used in marketing and advertising to target specific groups of consumers with tailored messages and offers.
Here are four common types of behavioral segmentation to experiment with your small business’s marketing strategies:
Purchase behavior: Customers are divided into groups based on their purchasing habits, such as how often they purchase, what they purchase, and how much they spend.
Occasion-based purchases: Customers are divided into groups based on the occasions when they are most likely to purchase, such as holidays, birthdays, or special events.
Benefits sought: Customers are divided into groups based on the benefits they are seeking from a purchase, such as convenience, value, or quality.
Customer loyalty: Customers are divided into groups based on their loyalty to a brand or company, such as how often they purchase from the same company, how long they have been customers, or how often they recommend the company to others.
Introduction to Customer-Driven Marketing Strategies
Now you have successfully segmented your target market, you can begin implementing customer-driven marketing strategies.
What is a Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy?
A customer-driven marketing strategy is a marketing strategy that focuses on creating marketing programs and messages that are based on what customers want or need. This type of strategy is often used in order to create a more personal relationship with customers, and to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.
A customer-driven marketing strategy is one that is created with the needs and wants of the customer in mind. This type of strategy is typically used in order to increase sales and brand loyalty. In order to create a customer-driven marketing strategy, businesses must first understand their target market and what they are looking for. Once this information is gathered, businesses can create marketing campaigns and messages that are tailored to the needs of the customer.
Four Customer-Driven Strategies to reach your Target Market
There are lots of our customer-driven marketing strategies to look into. A few common customer-driven marketing techniques are: Undifferentiated Marketing, Differentiated Marketing, Concentrated Marketing, and Micro Marketing. A customer-driven marketing strategy means that you focus on the customer and their needs before anything else. You base your marketing strategy, plans, and tactics on what the customer wants and needs. Here is some more information about these effective marketing strategies:
Undifferentiated Marketing
Undifferentiated marketing (also known as mass marketing) is a marketing strategy in which a company communicates with a large, undifferentiated target market.
A firm that uses this mass marketing technique, seeks to target the entire market with one offer. This strategy ignores market segment differences and instead focuses on what is common among consumers.
Undifferentiated Marketing Example:
A firm might decide to ignore market segment differences and target the whole market with one offer.
Differentiated Marketing
Differentiated marketing is a form of marketing strategy in which a company creates separate marketing plans for different segments of its customer base. This type of marketing strategy is also sometimes referred to as "segmented marketing."
Unlike mass marketing, this strategy tends to focus on what is different between your target market segments, rather than what is similar, and communicate separate messages depending on these differences.
Differentiated Marketing Example:
A firm decides to target several market segments and designs separate offers for each.
Concentrated Marketing
Concentrated marketing is a strategy in which a company goes after a large share of a small market, rather than a small share of a large market. This can be done by specializing in a particular niche or segment, and catering specifically to the needs of that group.
Concentrated Marketing Example:
An organic, healthy food store only needs focus on one target market, healthy and conscious consumers.
Micro Marketing
Micro marketing is a marketing strategy that involves tailoring products and marketing programs to the needs and wants of specific individuals and local customer segments.
This type of marketing strategy is often used by businesses to reach out to local customers and build relationships with them. Micro marketing can be very effective in reaching target audiences that may be difficult to reach through other marketing channels.
Micro Marketing Example:
A corporation customises its merchandise store by store to meet the needs of local shoppers. The merch changes depending on the local target market’s needs and culture.
Final Thoughts On Establishing & Segmenting Your Target Market
Being able to identify and segment your business's target market puts your in a good position to create marketing content that resonates with them. It also allows you to develop business strategies that are refined to meet the needs of people in your target market. You can also conduct market research into your target market segments.
To figure out what strategies you need to come up with, segment your target market based on their geographic location, their demographics, their personality, and their behavior. This will create smaller focus groups inside your general target market.
Now you have a better understanding of your target market! Now you need to develop a customer-based marketing strategy that make the most sense for your business. The four strategies we covered earlier were: Undifferentiated Marketing, Differentiated Marketing, Concentrated Marketing, and Micro Marketing.
These are all aspects of brand positioning. Learn more about positioning your business to be relatable and approachable to your target audience.
Keep your target market setgments in mind when developing customer-driven makreting strategies. Each stategy will need to be designed based on the individual segment's charateristcs and background.
Get help with your brand positioning!
Downtown Digital is here to provide brand positioning assistance for your small business! We provide specialist brand development services for small to medium businesses and startups in Africa.
Contact Downtown Digital today to find out more about how we can help with establishing your small business's target market!
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