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photo credit: Russ Nelson

Focusing on and choosing a target market is often the hardest thing for a business to do. The reasons make sense: you don’t want to exclude any potential customer and you don’t want to show preference to one customer over another. But here’s the thing — getting good at target markets makes you not only more efficient, but gets you better results.

Think for just a minute about the last spy movie you saw. When the hero got into a tight spot with 5, 10, or more people aiming their guns at him, what did he do? He focused on one person, hit his target and moved on to the next. Over and over again until the threat was incapacitated, right? That’s a tactic we understand when we’re talking about spies and guns, but we fail to follow that philosophy often in our marketing, but the truth is, it’s no different.

Imagine what would happen if our movie-hero tried to focus his attention on all of the individuals gunning for him at the same time? What would he aim at? And more importantly, what would hit? Probably nothing substantial and the odds are good that our hero would be incapacitated, not the bad guys.

Be the hero, pick one target!

The same is true for marketing, if you try to focus on all the potential customers out there, you’ll find yourself incapacitated just as our hero did. You’ll spend a lot of time and money trying to hit all your target markets, but in the end, your lack of focus will cause your brand to be so diluted that your business will be incapacitated. Instead, if you pick one target market and make sure that you focus on it, you’ll get really good at hitting the bullseye for that target. You’ll develop products and services for that target market. You’ll advertise to that target market. You’ll make sure your sales force reflects, and can speak to, that target market. And you’ll bring more of that target market through your doors.  Then, and only then, can  you move on to the next target, focusing on it and hitting a bullseye, just as our hero in the movie did.

Through successive focusing, you’ll be able to have many different target markets, all of which will bring new business to your door. The key is to build those markets slowly and to focus on building one at a time – just like the hero in the movie.

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About the Author:

Tisha Oehmen

Tisha Oehmen is a professional brand strategist and a leader in the branding field. She has been named a member of the Global Guru’s Top 30 Brand Gurus. She is also the co-founder of Oregon-based Paradux Media Group and the best-selling author of the book, Finding Brand: The Brand Book Tutorial.

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