How to define your target market

In this article, we explain how to define your target market. When it comes to standing out from the competitor it’s vital that you have clearly defined your audience. And also understand what their ambitions, fears and problems are.

There are two distinct main markets you can sell your offering — namely, Consumer (B2C) and Business (B2B). If you are a shop selling Cornish Pasties you are selling to the B2C market. However, if you decide to branch out to catering from business events, you become B2B. IBM, Octopus Intelligence, Oracle and Eddie Stobart’s are B2B organisations. In either B2B or B2C, the greater you define your target market, the better it will be for you. You can sell everything to any everyone. That’s why you don’t usually find a Prada store next to a second-hand charity clothes shop. Or a Gordon Ramsey kitchen next to a greasy spoon cafe. However, great niche markets don’t just happen.

Niche markets

Niche markets must be developed. We like many other organisations started by claiming we can do many things and be good at all of them. But you soon realise you have to be highly focused. A target market consists of customers that you will focus on within a market. Are you going for the artisan coffee shop experience or happy with the local basic instant coffee and sausage egg and chips routine? So, either which beans, the blend, country, the way the beans are roasted and which plant pot to serve the coffee in. Or, how many spoons would you like in your mug?

However, these coffee experience appeal to different market segments, and you will require a different market approach despite the product just being warm brown flavoured water. So take a look at the apparent segments within your target market. Look at different markets too to see how they are defined. Look at the existing market competitors and assess their strengths and weaknesses. Determine who they are selling to. Is there a gap they are not servicing, and you can grab? Or can you provide greater value than these competitors? While defining the market, you need to understand what your consumers are looking for. You need to be able to answer these questions:

• What is driving demand for your product or service need?
• Why will your offering sell?
• What problem are you solving?
• What makes it different from what is already in the market?
• Why should they buy from you?

Summary

In this article, we explained how to define your target market. How to find out how you can stand out from the competitor and define your audience, and it’s needs.

About Octopus Intelligence

Octopus is a global Intelligence service company. Answering the questions to help you grow.

We help brands and investors like yourself reimagine how you can beat your competitors, make more money, be disruptive, and enter new markets. Enabling you to grow faster with more certainty with Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence and good old common sense. We live in an increasingly uncertain, competitive and ever-shifting world. What you need is active real-world strategy. Where deep expertise combines with Competitive Intelligence based actions. To answer the what and the how, for the now and the next.