What Is Market Targeting?
Market targeting is a broad term that is used to describe the process of identifying groups of consumers who are highly likely to purchase a specific good or service. There are several different approaches to this process, with some of them allowing for a broad cultivation of a market, while others are focused more on identifying markets that are small but somewhat lucrative. Businesses of all sizes engage is some form of this marketing essential as part of their efforts to secure and maintain customers.
One approach to market targeting is known as broad or undifferentiated marketing. With this approach, the underlying concept is that the product or service has broad appeal that transcends factors such as age, gender, and location. Instead of attempting to tailor marketing and sales strategies to cultivate sales within one or two groups of consumers, the approach will be a marketing campaign that is aimed at gathering in customers from all walks of life. This often involves the inclusion of rich mixture of visual and auditory elements that provide a something for just about everyone.
Market targeting may also take on a form that is known as selective or differentiated marketing. With this approach, the business will identify two or more specific consumer groups that are highly likely to become loyal customers. The marketing efforts will focus primarily on creating rapport with those identified consumers, by appealing to them in ways that are relevant to characteristics such as location, age and gender, economic status, and any other attribute that is widely shared among that group of consumers. This approach can often involve creating specific programs that speak to the needs of the targeted markets, although the goods and services provided are essentially the same for all programs.
A third approach to market targeting is known as focused or concentrated marketing. With this strategy, the business will identify a specific group of consumers that is highly likely to generate enough revenue to allow the company to enjoy a profit. Focused marketing may involve finding a niche market of consumers that is overlooked, or developing goods and services that appeal to a larger segment of consumers by offering something that the competition does not. Once a very popular marketing approach, focused marketing has lost some of its appeal as more companies recognize the need to establish a presence with several different groups of consumers in order to remain profitable over the long-term.
Market targeting requires carefully understanding consumer wants and needs, as well as having a good grasp on how a given product or service can meet those consumer desires. Market segmentation and targeting takes place with businesses ranging from local bookstores all the way through to international conglomerates that have a worldwide consumer base. This relationship between what customers want and what companies offer must be define in order for the successful marketer to move forward with the development of a viable marketing plan that will attract the desired customers and allow the company to be successful.
Written by Malcolm Tatum
