Behavioral Targeting Blog » Targeting Strategies

Targeting Strategies in Advertising

neal — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:46:14 +0000

The first approach to advertising was mass advertising, where the aim was to reach as many people as possible.

History of Mass Advertising

Advertising first started with newspapers during the 17th century. The advertisements during that time showcased simple product descriptions and prices. This was the kind of advertising until the 19th century. When this century came, color became available, and illustrations can now be placed due to technological advances.

People began realizing the importance of reaching out to a large number of customers to make their products and services known. Thus, during the later part of the 19th century, advertising became an institution. Advertising agencies began appearing. At the same time, market places became more crowded. Manufacturers realized they need a way to promote their products. Advertising agencies came to the rescue; they were called communication experts which were hired by manufacturers as they went on making products.

Advertising progressed even more during the first World War. Governments used advertising for war propaganda. Then, during the earlier stages of the 21st century, mass media rose, and advertising took advantage. Advertisements were now aired through radio and even film. There was a little lull during the Great Depression, but post war 1950s saw a resurgence in consumer needs.

Finding and Selling your Target Market

While mass advertising became popular, it was only beneficial to firms that had the resource to advertise in a large scale. Businesses realized that in order to be successful they need to do two things: know who their customers are, and second, know who are the customers who will buy their products. As a business, you can’t assume that everyone will buy your product. That kind of assumption will only make your business fail, as it leads you to make wrong decisions, prices, and marketing strategies.

Firms are successful when they acknowledge only a few are willing to buy their products or services. By doing so, all resources are directed towards knowing those people and finding ways to target them. That’s how to make your business stronger; by identifying your target market. Don’t sell products that try to “please all.” Make very specific goals and decisions for market planning. Furthermore, understand that people buy products because they want to satisfy their needs, want to solve problems, and want to feel good about themselves. Use this information to know what kind of products you want to sell.

Using Market Segmentation

Market segmentation allows you to focus on your target market, or the specific customers who will be interested in your products. There are several questions that you need to ask yourself. First is, what is the scope of your product? Is it international, or national, or within your region, or in your small community?

You need to have a good understanding about the demographics of your target market. This is done according to several categories: age, gender, education, income, marital status, ethnic or religious background, and family life cycle. After demographics, psychographics comes next. These include lifestyle (economical, trendy, exciting, conservative), social class, opinion, activities, attitudes and beliefs. In addition, a B2B company needs to know the available industry types and the characteristics of those industries. All this research will give you a good picture on your ideal customer. It can even give you a good approximation about the number of ideal customers in your locality.

Targeting Influences

For targeting audiences, you need to consider the two kinds of environment that influence targeting. These are the internal environment and the external environment. The internal environment is based on the principles that your firm or business is built on, such as the objectives, values, mission and vision. On the other hand, the external environment includes the following sub environments: social, economic, demographic, task, political, cultural, global, natural, technological and legal.

The objective is to determine the buyer’s geographic behavior, psychological behavior, and demographic behavior, and to create a complete customer profile based on what is called the 4 P’s: product, price, place and promotion. Ultimately, knowing who the potential customers for your firm is the main goal. The products that should be offered is also determined, and each is designated to a specific segment that will find these products useful.

The next step is proper product positioning. If your firm has already developed a good segmentation and targeting strategy, the next step is to create a positioning strategy. This means finding a good strategy that properly put a brand in front of customer’s that will respond to it. This gives your firm a positive image and be competitive in the market. Positioning comes in several forms, such as promotion, product, price, advertising, publicity and selling differentiation positioning.

Kinds of Targeting Strategies

A firm looks for potential market segments. Once it’s determined these segments, it will then proceed on targeting segments with services or products which consumers belonging to that segment would most likely respond to. In other words, a firm targets the needs of the consumers within each segment. There are several targeting strategies to achieve this. The following are some of them.

Niche or concentration marketing – a firm can choose to target one specific niche (a group of customers) with similar interests in the overall market. All of the firm’s advertising resources is poured into this niche. For example, Jordan’s, a cereal firm, targeted a small group of customers that preferred organic products. Niche marketing works best for small businesses that don’t necessarily have to target large audiences. The disadvantage of course, is the limited sales growth, and a decline in sales can easily kill that firm.

Mass or undifferentiated marketing – a firm may sell products or services and target them to the entire market. The premise is that customers have identical or very similar needs. Low costs production can allow a firm to have mass production. The high volume of sales should compensate for the cheap price per unit product. The disadvantage of this type of marketing is that nowadays more people would pay premium prices to have products personalized for their own needs.

Differentiated or selective marketing – each segment in the market is targeted to supply products that fit the common needs of consumers in each market. Thus, a lot of brands are made for one firm. Consumer satisfaction is likely to go up because consumer needs are met more closely, and consumer loyalty is at a high. Risks are also spread; as one brand declines the rest are not that much affected. The disadvantage is that customers may be confused by the various brands presented them. It’s also more expensive to advertises not just one brand but several brands.

Targeting Strategies

Martin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:37:02 +0000

What are Targeting Strategies?

Targeting strategies are generally used in terms of advertising as ways to maximize sales profits by directing marketing projects directly at the most likely consumer base. There are several different targeting strategies but the basic goal of each remains the same, to identify the target market or audience who is most likely going to be interested in buying your product so that you reach the people who will make a purchase. In general, the aim is to spend money reaching only consumers who want your services instead of a wide audience out of which only a few people may be interested in your services or products.

Different Kinds of Targeting Strategies

Along these lines, some of the most popular and frequently used targeting strategies are consumer marketing strategy, behavioral targeting, contextual targeting, and segment marketing. The common link of most of these targeting strategies is based around identifying the needs of your target audience and tailoring your marketing efforts so that you meet their needs and wants. Of course, in order for any of these strategies to work to their best they also require the proper consumer research to identify who your target audience is.

Offline Targeting Strategy

A popular offline targeting strategy is to create a brand name and style that carries a stigma that your target audience can identify with. For example, back in the nineties when the economy was still healthy Abercrombie and Fitch marketing affluence and exclusivity at middle class society and as a result created a clothing label out of thin air that was the requirement for all teens and college kids. Their success did not happen overnight as they participated in wide consumer research strategies throughout their period of success to provide what they deemed their audience wanted.

Advertise to your Target Audience!

For an online business, targeting strategies include consumer research that focuses on the willingness of their target audience to spend versus the relative need they have for a product. It also focuses on the consumer behavioral habits of consumers which are roughly defined as browsing habits. Then, the real trick is placing marketing advertisements in an area where the target audience surfs that is directed at the research that defines what will make them bite. While it is a twofold process, the payout is that most browsers will take the chance to look at the product offering and maybe purchase versus a wide scale marketing effort that only succeeds in a few people taking a glance.