Many companies misunderstand what "defining your target" means
In marketing, you'll almost always be told to "clarify your target."
However, in practice, this "target setting" often proceeds in quite vague terms.
For example,
- Women aged 30-40
- Households with children
- Small and medium-sized business owners
- People considering home purchase
- People interested in beauty
With settings like these, they think "we've decided on our target."
However, strictly speaking, this is more of a rough market classification than an actual target.
What you really need to consider is,
"Among them, what kind of person, in what kind of situation, and why would they need this product"
down to that level.
Demographics alone don't move people
For example, even among people of the same age, 35, and married status, their thoughts differ dramatically depending on their circumstances.
Taking housing as an example,
- A child was born and the current house feels too small
- Questions have begun to arise about continuing to pay rent
- Want to build a house before the child enters school
- Concerned about budget due to rising housing prices
- Not satisfied with ready-built homes, but custom homes feel too expensive
- Already consulted with several companies, but haven't found the deciding factor
Even if everyone is the same age and family composition, the ads and words that resonate with them differ.
Simply being a '30-something household raising children' doesn't reveal what problems that person faces, what they seek, or why they're motivated to act now.
In other words,
Attributes are merely one element that describes the target
is the point.
Low-resolution targeting weakens your messaging
Companies with vague target settings tend to use abstract language in their ads and websites.
For example,
'Your own way of living.'
'A service that fulfills your ideals.'
'We stand with our customers.'
'Make the future even richer.'
There's nothing wrong with such expressions.
However, when the target is too broad, you can only use expressions that apply to everyone.
In exchange for not being disliked by anyone,
the message fails to resonate strongly with anyone.
This becomes the situation.
Conversely,
'Prices keep rising. But I don't want to compromise on quality.'
If you can narrow down to the specific circumstances the other person faces, language suddenly becomes concrete.
Target setting isn't done solely for ad distribution purposes.
It's also work to increase the resolution of the message you're communicating.
"People in trouble" and "people who buy" are different
This is another part of target setting that's frequently overlooked.
Even if someone is facing a particular problem, not everyone with that problem becomes a customer.
Even with the same concern,
- They don't see it as a problem in the first place
- They see it as a problem but aren't in a hurry
- They're trying to solve it themselves
- They don't want to pay to solve it
- They're considering other products or services
- They tried a similar service in the past and failed
- They must solve it immediately or face difficulties
Purchasing intent differs significantly.
In other words, in marketing,
"who is struggling" alone is insufficient.
Furthermore,
"who is taking action right now to solve that problem"
must also be considered.
The goal is not to target "people who might buy"
When thinking about your target audience, there's a natural tendency to expand it.
"This person might buy too."
"That demographic might have demand too."
"Perhaps we should expand the age range a bit more."
As you keep adding conditions like this,
ultimately,
"ages 20 to 60, regardless of gender"
"from beginners to experienced users"
"regardless of individual or business"
becomes the result.
On the surface, it appears the market has expanded.
But in reality,
all that has happened is you've lost clarity on who you're targeting
in many cases.
What marketing should actually seek is not
"people who might buy"
but rather
"people who have the strongest reasons to buy."
です。
In target setting, deciding "who to exclude" is also important
When determining your target audience, most people think about "who to target."
But perhaps the opposite is what truly matters.
Who NOT to target.
By deciding this, your target audience's profile becomes clear.
For example,
"We won't target people who only consider price."
"We won't target people who only seek short-term results."
"We'll focus on people who have some willingness to contribute effort themselves."
and so on.
This doesn't mean rejecting customers.
Every product has people it suits and people it doesn't suit.
Expanding your target too broadly makes the product itself ambiguous.
Pricing becomes ambiguous.
Your strengths become ambiguous.
Your advertising becomes ambiguous.
Your website becomes ambiguous.
And ultimately,
"Ultimately, I don't know what's good about it."
This becomes the situation.
Target setting is about finding 'the strongest reason to buy'
Target setting is not about deciding age, gender, or occupation.
What matters is
"What kind of person, in what situation, and why do they need this product right now?"
to consider.
And
deciding not just who to sell to, but who not to sell to.
What marketing should actually seek is not
It's not "people who might buy."
It's people with the strongest reason to buy.
So how do you find those "people with the strongest reason to buy"?
When you think about this further, perhaps targets shouldn't be thought of in terms of "people," but ratherfrom the "state" or "situation" that person is in.seems like the better approach.
I'm exploring this further in a note.