They Keep Trying

A marketer's dream is to know everything about the target, to understand that group so completely that no move is unanticipated and that no product fails to hit the mark. If a marketer could, they would just spend every single day with the target audience, and sometimes members of the target audience do allow marketers to come into their homes, check out what's in their closet and hang out for a while. However, that is not the norm and typically companies have to find other ways to figuratively invade the lives of the consumers.

After reading several articles on specific target market segments (female teens, young males, boomer women and Hispanic women) it is plain to see that in-depth research and a great deal of time go into getting to know a segment. Buzz Focus: Cracking the Ficke Tween Code was an excellent example of the "hang-out"/focus group approach to understanding an audience. The author spent time asking young girls what they thought about emails, samples and celebrity endorsements. Turns out, this group was willing to gab and disclosed that they adore ads, can't get enough samples, find email "sacred" and greatly admire celebrities. Now the men and boys in Targeting Young Men, on the other hand, were described as experts in "confounding advertisers." This enigma of a a segment has been most successfully reached by grassroots and has succeeded in alluding the Neilson ratings.

Looking more closely at the older female market, the articles entitled Market Focus: Hispanic Women and Market Focus: Target Female Boomers, described some findings. In the Hispanic household, the female is the "decision maker" and looks to do what is the best for their families, often buying premium brands. In order to figure out what this segment is like, they recruit people who really know the market and how to reach them. Spending on advertising directly targeted to the Hispanic community has grown exponentially, and will only continue to over the years. Now the boomer age segment of women in general is an interesting group. This is a viable and profitable segment, that seemed to be best understood, at least in the article, by women marketers just taking time to learn about themselves and all about women. This segment seems to be dominated by a collective, nurturing mentality that enjoys social networking and blogging.

Image from- www.ciadvertising.org/.../Implications.htm