Target Market Characteristics
The different characteristics of a target market are geographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and product related.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Differentiate between different target market characteristics
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Key Points
- A geographic target market can be consumers in a city, state, or country.
- A demographic or socioeconomic target market would focus on a specific gender, age group, income level, or education level.
- A psychographic target market would be a market that has similar attitudes, values, or lifestyle.
- The behavioral target market focuses on occasions and degree of loyalty.
- Product -related segmentation describes a target approach for customers who already own a specific product.
- Determining a target market approach to sales has many benefits. It can create a more specific marketing campaign, increase sales, and decrease the number of competitors in the market.
Key Terms
- target market: a group of people whose needs and preferences match the product range of a company and to whom those products are marketed
Target Market Characteristics:
The different characteristics of a target market are geographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and product related.
Geographic
A geographic target market can be consumers in a city, state, or country. This is often important when it comes to international advertising. Some products may do well in some countries but not in others. For example, in Japan where they don’t have ovens, companies such as Betty Crocker would not focus their products in this geographic target market.
Geographic Target: A geographic target market could be a city, state, or country.
Demographic/Socioeconomic
A demographic or socioeconomic target market would focus on a specific gender, age group, income level, or education level. For example, Plato’s Closet, a consignment store for young adult clothing, would focus on the teen and young adult demographic. Irish Spring would focus on a male demographic.
Psychographic
A psychographic target market would be a market that has similar attitudes, values, or lifestyle. For example, the televisions station G4 is aimed at men but also gamers in the age 16-34 demographic.
Behavioral
The behavioral target market focuses on occasions and degree of loyalty. Facebook marketing is often focused on loyal customers with specials they can claim by getting a code on Facebook. There are also discount cards available that offer discounts by allowing shoppers to collect points each time they shop at their store.
Product Related Segmentation
Product related segmentation describes a target approach for customers who already own a specific product. For example, accessories for people who own cell phones, tablets, computers, iphones, or gaming systems. Determining a target market approach to sales has many benefits. It can create a more specific marketing campaign, increase sales, and decrease the number of competitors in the market.