Any given product or service does not appeal or apply to everybody equally. So why advertise to those people who will not ever use your product or service? That would be a waste of advertising money, right? Small businesses do it all the time.
One of the most costly and overlooked planning staging is determining who you should be targeting as customers. Too often this is not done very well, creating a “shotgun” blast of advertising that generates a lot of expense and little return. Advertising to “everybody” is very, very expensive.
The idea here is to isolate your most profitable or best potential slice of the “everybody pie” and focus your advertising dollars on them. Gaining market share in these groups whether their defined by demographics, psychographics or geographical boundaries will increase the odds your advertising will pay for itself. Often you will still gain exposure to secondary target segments - but target the bigger returns first.
To reach qualified prospects with your advertising, you’ve got to have a clear idea of who they are. This will help you select the right media, create the right message, as well as improving your closing ratio.
Tight Targets
Sometimes your target audience will be very “tight” or a specific segment of the public. You may be trying to reach only nurses, or men who like to hunt deer, or retirees needing electric wheelchairs. These simple characteristics make our target easier to reach with advertising. Most of these groups have specialized magazines, publications, websites just for them. Some of the even have specific cable shows they like to watch. It just takes a little research and common sense.
Often, our targets are a wide group of people with different characteristics and interests. For instance, an optometrist needs to promote himself to just about everybody: men and women, young and old. In this case, it would be difficult (if not impossible) to find simply one publication or television show that will reach them all. You might have to use a multi-media approach, and that will be more expensive than simply trying to reach only deer hunters.
Multi-Segment Targets
There is also the issue of more than one target for the same advertiser. Take for instance, Sears or Wal-Mart. They have items for just about everybody. Both of these chains run “image” advertising that is designed to a) create an impression and b) remind you about them. Again, advertising dedicated entirely to image is normally only for the privileged companies who have big financial resources. This is because it does not generate the immediate return and price and product advertising required by small businesses.
Although they spend a lot of money in image advertising, most of the advertising the big guys and gals do is targeted campaigns; using different media and different messages to target specific buyer segments within their wide and diverse audience. Sears will send a direct mail flyer to a database of men that might by Craftsman tools. At the same time, they may have a Fall Fashion Clearance advertisement running nationally on television shows with large numbers of women viewers. Here you have the same store trying to reach two different audiences, using different media with different creative approach in the ads.
