Target Audience
Part 1 Describe Your Target Audience Demographic
Before you know how to message or where to spend your advertising money, you must know who you are trying to influence. The more details about your target market or target audience you provide, the more effective the marketing communications.
Andrews & Shimp (2018) descirbe a target market as “a group of customers who share a similar set of needs and wants” (p. 88). You will create persuasive advertising campaigns targeting those needs and wants. Creating your target market or target audience is essentially creating a buyer persona or profile of a person who you will be messaging in your advertisements and promotions. The target audience must be specific:
Give your target audience a name.
Describe your specific target, using Andrews & Shimp’s (2018) suggestions: behavioral (past purchases), psychographic (needs, values, and attitudes), demographics (age, sex, income, and ethnicity), and geodemographics (where consumers reside).
Write his/her story, including his or her career, how many (if any) children, married or single, urban or rural, interests, lifestyles, and hobbies.
Include a picture that represents your target audience.
Submit to the discussion board by 11:59 pm ET on Thursday of Module/Week 2.
Keep in mind that the target audience is not everyone you want to buy your product, but rather the one demographic you are going to target with this advertising campaign and are more likely than other segments to respond positively to your message. Later campaigns might target another demographic.
Part 2 Psychological Description
In order for you to create ads that speak to your target audience’s values, you must identify those values. Review the 8 Descriptions of consumers in the VALS system.
Describe which 2 types best describe your target audience? Include the description of each one and short explanation of how it relates to your target consumer. Submit to the discussion board by 11:59 pm ET Thursday of Module/Week 2.
Part 3 Peer Review
Review another class member’s target audience. Is it well defined using Andrews & Shimp’s (2018) suggestions: behavioral (past purchases), psychographic (needs, values, and attitudes), demographics (age, sex, income, and ethnicity), and geodemographics (where consumers reside)? Include one quote from Andrews & Shimp in your discussion. To ensure everyone gets a peer review, pick one that has not yet been reviewed, if possible. Due by 11:59 pm ET on Monday of Module/Week 2.