Hitting Your Target Market

James Leavelle, Senior Certified Business Advisor For example, it is fairly obvious that an infant and children’s clothing boutique will target parents and grandparents with infants and children that are within a certain age range. For the business to succeed there must be enough parents and grandparents to generate sufficient demand for such clothing and an evaluation of the competitions strength and the number of competitors.

Not all industries’ target market is so easily identified. Research must be done to identify the target market. Sometimes the business owner is surprised at the research results. They may have been expecting 18-24 year old single males to be the target market only to learn that the 38-55 year old married couples with no children left at home is there ideal target market.

Understanding your market this way affects how you promote your business to the market. If you are considering a radio ad campaign, you want to choose a station that has programming that your target market listens to. Not many 55 year olds will listen to rap or the newer genres of music, but you might find them listening to an “oldies” or country station. If that age group is in your target market, then those are the stations you would consider using.

Additionally, target market analysis is something that businesses should continue to do periodically. Markets change. An obvious example is hair styles. The styles that the 16-24 year olds of the 1950’s was not the same style choices of the same age group of the 1960’s, 1970’s, or any decade since. In fact, each decade had its own style. So a barber that only knew how to do 1950’s haircuts eventually ran out of customers. But, the one that adapted and learned new styles and created the environment that the target market desired has the greatest potential for continued prosperity.

Whether you are considering starting a business or you have been in business for 20 years, it is important to know and understand your target market. This knowledge and understanding helps position you to promote your business in the most effective and economically advantageous way possible.

This article was written by James Leavelle, Senior Certified Business Advisor of Angelo State University’s Small Business Development Center. For more information on the topic of this article or the services of the ASU · SBDC, contact him at James.Leavelle@angelo.edu.