What is a Target Audience

What is a Target Audience?

A target audience is the group of people who are most likely to be interested in a company's product or service. Target audiences have similar demographic characteristics such as location, gender, age, education, economic status, etc.

The main value of a target audience in marketing is that members of the selected group are more likely to want to buy a particular product. By knowing the target audience, you can create an effective communication strategy and minimize project costs.

Determining your target audience will help you choose the right direction in your advertising and further development of the proposed product. Anyone doing business on the Internet needs this kind of research.

Examples of Target Audiences

Service: In-home hair care and salon services

Target audience: Men and women between 18 and 80 years old living in a particular area.

Interests: Beauty, fashion, style, personal care.

The core of the target audience: women and men from 18 to 60 years old.

This example describes a broad target audience that should be segmented for efficiency:

  1. Women ages 18-25, studying or working, with an average income, leading an active lifestyle, following fashion.
  2. Women ages 25-60, working, above average income, with at least 1 child, married.
  3. Men 25-60 years old, working from home, leading a sedentary lifestyle.

Each group needs special advertising, promotions, and special offers. The narrower the segments, the more specific the advertisement can be. Despite the difference in advertising, members of these groups will use the same in-home hairdressing service.

Let’s consider a more specific target audience using the example of an elite clothing boutique whose latest collection is aimed at women between the ages of 30 and 40:

  1. Target Audience: Women aged 30 to 40.
  2. The core of the target audience: Women ages 32-38 years old.
  3. Location: major cities
  4. Field of activity: Business owners, and those working in large companies in high positions.
  5. Education: Higher
  6. Active between the hours of 7pm and 11pm
  7. Marital status: Divorced with at least one child
  8. Interests: fashion, meeting new people, career growth.

Such a specific description targets a narrow circle of buyers who are guaranteed to be interested in the offer.

What kinds of target audiences are there?

Today’s marketing world identifies the following types of target audiences:

1. Primary and Indirect

The primary target audience makes the purchase decision. They initiate the action and are therefore of top priority. For example, the primary audience of children's toys is children, and their mothers are the indirect audience, even though it is they who check the quality of the toy and pay for it.

2. Wide and Narrow

A wide TA covers all potential customers, while a narrow TA covers a specific group. For example, chocolate lovers are a wide audience, while fans of milk chocolate with nuts are a narrow audience.

A wide audience does not have the same needs and interests in common, so they are usually divided into several narrowly focused segments.

3. Target audience by type of target group

The target audience is in the field of business (B2B) and in the field of individual consumption (B2C). If your business provides a product for another business, then the target audience will be legal entities. If your primary clients are individuals, then the target audience will match.

4. Target Audience based on purpose of visit

Resource visitors have only two goals: buying or searching for information. There is a target audience interested in the content of the app who come for information, and there is a target audience who are interested in goods and services for subsequent purchase.

Analyzing your target audience and using of obtained data in advertising campaigns helps you:

  • Bypass competitors
  • Reduce costs
  • Become familiar with your customer base
  • Find growth potential through customer reviews and ideas

Learn more about MVP.

Next term