Friday, May 30, 2014

Do You Truly Know Your Target Market?

Are you preaching to the wrong choir?

While every business owner or marketing department head certainly has heard that basic rule of advertising -- know your target audience -- when was the last time you stopped to ask, "How well do I REALLY know my target audience?"

Say, for instance, you run a landscaping business. You know your target audience includes homeowners in your town. But if you take it a few steps further, you may just discover that your true target audience includes homeowners between the ages of 45 and 65 who live within a five-mile radius of the center of town and who have an annual income over $55,000. Sounds pretty specific, right?

The old adage "you can't please all the people all the time" certainly applies to your marketing efforts. Too many businesses try to be all things to all people, focusing on too broad a demographic. Narrowing your focus can result in a more effective use of your marketing dollars.

If you haven't taken this particular commandment to heart, it's likely affecting your marketing for the worse. Here's how to identify your true target audience.

Playing Detective

Get out your deerstalker. It's time to play Sherlock Holmes. Identifying your target audience involves a bit of research into demographics. Start by compiling a list of customer characteristics, including age, gender, location, income, education, occupation, ethnicity, martial status, and number of children. Now think about the last few purchases you made. How many of these factors influenced that purchase?

Narrow your focus down to the two most significant factors -- we'll call these your core factors -- and then choose up to two "secondary factors" to round out your market. You'll want to focus your research on these core and secondary factors to really get to know your target audience. Find out where they shop, what's important to them, which businesses they frequent (both online and off), and what problems they experience that your product or service can solve.

With those answers in place, it's time to delve deep into your audience and compile the data and information that make them tick. Resources for your research may include:

  • U.S. Census Bureau

  • Google Analytics

  • Facebook Insights (analytics available if your business page has at least 30 "likes")

  • Customer review sites (What other businesses are your customers patronizing on Yelp? What appeals to them?)

  • Your competitors' sites and reviews

  • Surveys or interviews with your current and past customers

  • Hosting small focus groups

Keep in mind that you're also looking for psychographic information, such as hobbies, interests, lifestyle, attitudes, and beliefs. While demographic information tells you who is most likely to buy your product or service, psychographic data tells you why they're interested.

When you're compiling the data, look for common threads that run among your customers. Do they work in similar industries or have similar hobbies? Does your product or service appeal to families with two kids or single professionals? Seeking out similarities makes it easier to target relevant customers.

Develop a Profile

Now that you've gathered your research, develop a "typical customer" profile. The goal? To create an in-depth picture of who your customer is. Your profile should contain both demographic information -- age, location, marital status, etc. -- and psychographic information -- values, attitudes, political leanings, hobbies, and the like.

Your profile will help you determine where, exactly, to find your target audience. Do they tend to live in a certain neighborhoods -- or certain streets in certain neighborhoods? Do they patronize certain businesses because those places reinforce their values? The better you understand your target customer, the more easily you can tailor your marketing materials to appeal to them.

Remember, your customer profile and your target audience aren't static. They'll evolve and change over time, and so should your approach. Determining your target audience isn't a once-and-done proposition; rather, it's an ongoing task that grows along with your business.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Color in Print Advertising: Are You Sending Hidden Messages?

A printed marketing piece -- whether a brochure, flyer, catalog, or letter -- contains many design components. From margin size to font, use of white space to size and type of paper, the elements that go into a printed piece require much consideration. But when it comes to color, marketers all too often make choices based on personal preference, anecdotal evidence, or even hunches.

However, people actually devote time and effort to studying this stuff; researchers have uncovered a large body of quantitative data about the many ways color affects consumer behavior. Their findings can help inform color choices, so printed projects can better reach their intended audiences.

How Important is Color in Marketing?

In a nutshell: Very. A study by the Seoul International Color Expo found that almost 93 percent of consumers said visual experience is the most important factor when it comes to purchasing. Of these, almost 85 percent listed color as the major factor. Even more impressive, a report from the Institute for Color Research notes that most consumers make a judgement about a product within 90 seconds of first seeing it and that color accounts for 62 to 90 percent of their initial impression.

Color is also key in branding; a University of Maryland study found that using a consistent color palette increased brand recognition by a whopping 80 percent! Why? It's all about brain chemistry; our neurocircuitry is hard-wired to respond to color. Multiple studies indicate that color significantly improves mental processing, storage, and memory. And if you're still not convinced, consider that colorful ads are read 42 percent more often than black-and-white ads. Readers also tend to spend more than twice as long lingering on a colorful ad than on a black-and-white ad.

These numbers aren't exactly ambiguous -- color matters (a lot!) when it comes to marketing. But which colors are best?

Color Choice for Intended Results

While each individual reacts to colors in their own way, research indicates there are some common themes associated with colors. In fact, certain colors actually trigger biological responses, some of which improve attention and evoke emotions.

Red: Studies indicate that consumers tend to associate red with attention, vigilance, excitement, stimulation, and enhanced concentration. When products are featured on a red background, readers tend to have more positive thoughts about the product if specific descriptors are used, rather than creative or evocative language.

Blue: In contrast, readers preferred emotive, creative descriptions for products featured on a blue background. The cool color blue tends to elicit feelings of calm, safety, and openness, which can open the door to creative expression and exploration.

Yellow and Orange: Like red, these warm colors evoke feelings of excitement and attention. Orange tends to be associated with extroversion and energy, while yellow is often seen as optimistic and friendly.

Green and Brown: Both green and brown are associated with nature, making these colors effective for outdoorsy, rugged, or natural products or campaigns. In addition, green is associated with security, while brown is linked to seriousness.

Pink and Purple: Pink and purple both evoke associations with femininity and sophistication. Purple also connotes luxury and authenticity.

Black: For the ultimate in elegance and sophistication, nothing beats black. Glamor, power, dignity, and high-fashion are all evoked by the use of black.

White: As the absence -- or complete reflection -- of all colors, white evokes feelings of purity, simplicity, and cleanliness. It's also associated with happiness and peace.

When choosing colors or combinations for your print ads, keep these associations in mind. Select colors that support your messaging, rather than subconsciously undermining it.

Friday, May 23, 2014

What You Can Learn from a Stack of Pancakes

Everyone has comfort foods they view as the perfect meal after a long week at work, a stressful day, or even just to wake up to after a long night out with friends. These foods range from a plateful of pancakes to a bowl of homemade macaroni and cheese or Mom's chili. Whatever the comfort food may be, most tend to share a few characteristics on common.

  • They're not all that good for you.

  • They're very filling.

  • Health experts would tell you not to eat them.

Theoretically, food should be optimized to provide our bodies with nourishment. Foods that don't provide optimal nourishment -- and might actually hurt it with excessive calories, salt, and fat -- should not be desired. However, as humans, most of us like to enjoy our foods. Hence, the popularity of comfort foods.

What purpose do these foods serve?

Comfort foods fill a very specific role in our lives. For some people, favorite comfort foods remind them of their mother or grandmother's cooking when they were growing up. Others might just take pleasure in the savory taste.

These foods tend to fill us up, make us feel warm inside, and allow us the opportunity to take our minds off whatever might be worrying us or stressing us. They're not the foods we eat every day. Instead, they're a special treat, and that's part of their appeal.

The next time you're feeling stressed and decide to turn to a bowl of cheesy, carbohydrate-laden deliciousness to help take the edge off the pain, look down at that dish and see what you might actually learn from it.

What can be learned from Grandma's pie

As already mentioned, comfort foods fill a specific role. We don't turn to them for nutritional value or health. We turn to them for comfort. In other words, these foods have a specific niche. Your business must also determine its niche and be able to articulate exactly what it is you do for people. The same way not all food can be nutritious, easy, or cheap, not all companies within a given industry can fulfill the same needs for customers.

How to identify your company's niche

There are two main criteria your company should examine when looking to identify your niche. The first is what your customers are looking for. No industry is so over-saturated that every possible customer need is already being met. Perhaps there's a distinct specialization that's underserved, or every company focuses so much on lower prices that they fail to address the quality customer service and customer assistance that's being sought. Determine what it is that's lacking within the industry.

Secondly, discuss what unique skill sets your company brings to the industry. Perhaps several of your founding members have a background in a particular area that could help guide your company toward a specialization. Bring these two criteria together to determine the best niche for the company.

Identifying a key niche helps distinguish your business and secure its place as an essential player in the industry. Remembering that your company cannot be everything to everyone should help you determine what exactly you bring to the table and how you can use your skills to an advantage. If you're looking to begin identifying and advertising to a specific niche, contact us to learn more about how we can help.