(re)Defining Your Target Market

ThinkLikeABride.com

This may very well be the first topic I ever covered on Think. It used to just crack me up when I would ask an audience who their target market was and the collective answer would be “BRIDES.” Well no, duh? But uh, isn’t that just a little broad?

No two brides are alike and not every bride is in your target market. To be honest, you can’t even really hone your marketing if you just try to define it by budget because not every $20, 000 bride is going to be the same. Here are a few quick bullet points to get you started (re)defining your target market.

* · Does she shop at Target, Saks or Wal-Mart?

* · Will her reception be at a VFW Hall, a posh hotel or a quirky loft?

* · Reem Acra, Maggie Sotterro, David’s Bridal or J. Crew?

* · Non-denominational wedding officiate, family clergy or strict religious clergy like Pentecostal or Latter Day Saints?

* · Seated, plated Chilean sea bass or Swedish Meatballs and cheese cubes?

* · Cannon in D or Free Bird or the Imperial March from Star Wars?

* · Masters Degree or the school of hard knocks?

* · Blue collar, professional or creative class?

* · Precise scientific thinker or free-flowing creative?

As you can see, there are a lot of variables that make up your target market. Now it’s time to think like the marketing arm of major corporations think. Look back over the clients that worked best with you; the ones you loved that loved you back. Paint as detailed a picture of them as you possibly can. What do they wear, where to they eat, what do they drive, education level, where do they shop? Let me re-emphasize, I am talking about clients you have worked for, not the ones you dream about. In the big leagues they give each demographic a name and some even go so far as to put a face on them with artist renderings. The only way to really get into your markets head is to define their wants, needs and behaviors.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this is to be honest with yourself. If your last 15 successful events have been at the local country club don’t imagine your target market in a quirky loft. Wishing doesn’t make it so. You are attracting the brides you do for a reason. It is up to you to figure out what that reason is. Maybe you just have a flair for traditional design, don’t fight it; emphasize it.

I can’t tell you why your market is who it is. I can only help you start thinking along the right lines to discover them for yourself. I always get the question of how a client can start doing the really elite weddings. It may just be that isn’t your market. Please don’t take this wrong, but you are not going to attract a Harvard PhD if you don’t have a bit of education yourself. You aren’t going to attract the upscale gourmet urban crowd if your idea of fine dining is Applebees’s. If you dress in “comfortable clothes” you are not going to attract the fashionistas. You have to figure out who and what truly works for you and then find a way to capitalize on it.

There is no right or wrong target market, except the one that isn’t a fit. A few years back Wal-Mart launched a campaign to target the upper middle class that already shopped with them for basic household items like bug spray and kool-aid pitchers. They had this market and they were loyal, but Wal-Mart wanted to lure them to start picking up a few clothing items while they were there. Even with their massive marketing budget that campaign fell flat on its face. They were simply targeting the wrong market. Better, they should have added a few more upscale choices to their house hold goods to squeeze a little more out of that markets pocket. In time they may have been lured to the clothing aisle, but I doubt it. This group wants clothing that says STYLE and that was a level of cachet that Wal-Mart will never have. If they would have been more honest in looking at that group of customers they would have thought better about it. They did eventually figure it out. This group was never going to buy clothing from them but have you taken a look at their electronics department lately? A 60” HD plasma TV is a 60” HD plasma TV no matter where you buy it. For Wal-Mart figuring out the market worked. It will work for you to, if you’re honest.

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