Blog 77: How to identify the target market?
- Idea2Product2Business Team
- Jul 24, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 12, 2024
Identifying the target market is a precursor to building any product of significance. A product focussed on solving the needs of a unique set of consumers is more likely to succeed compared to a product catering to the universal audience. Refer to our prior blogs (blog 9: A 360 degree understanding of business - business model canvas; blog 51: How to achieve product-market fit; blog 61: Four-step design mind map etc.).
There are multiple benefits to a targeted approach i) we better understand the niche requirements of our audience ii) we are equipped to build a product that is loved by our audience ii) we are in a better position to create effective marketing and sales campaigns etc. Thus, we will be able to improve our business. For example, identify an underserved population, explore untapped markets, improve product’s pricing strategy, streamline/refine the product offerings, and leverage appropriate GTM strategies.
What is a target market?
Target market is the core customer group that is most suited to our product and is more likely to buy it. We can use a variety of methods to identify our target market.
Steps to understand our target audience.
1. Clearly articulate what the product is about. This will involve in clearly mentioning what the product does, what real-world problems is it solving and how is it different from the competition (refer to blog 33: Tell why your product is unique (strategic positioning) compared to why better; blog 47: Position your product to appeal customers; blog 13: Know thy competitor SWOT).
2. Analyse the data gathered from multiple product touch points (such as its websites, apps, social media, mass media campaigns etc.). Once this data is analysed, we will be able to better understand the type of customers interested in our product.
3. Leverage insights gained from step 2 to define our ideal audience. Use the 5W to define our audience. Who will buy our products; What are their interests and needs; When will they use our product; Where will they use our product; Why will they buy our product.
4. The above ideal audience can be further categorised to create focused customer segments and user personas. These user personas include details such as buying habits, age, location, pain points, education, income level, lifestyle, interests and more (refer to blog 14: User personas to understand our target users; refer to blog 78: What are the different types of customer segmentation?). Note the difference, customer segments are broader grouping of customers based on shared characteristics. While personas help us creating personalised content and messaging that speaks directly to individual needs.
5. Conduct primary research and interviews with past, current or the perceived ideal customers (refer blog 64: 8 popular UX research methods). Try getting the product into the hands of as many users’ as possible.
We must avoid making assumptions as to who our target customers or target audience is. We may end up making all the wrong choices with respect to our product features, go-to-market campaigns etc. We must let the insights derived from primary research, SEO results, usage data etc. to do the talking.
Jump to blog 100 to refer to the overall product management mind map.
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All the best! 😊