Definition of the Target Audience | The new way

The classical demographic and psychographic definition has become obsolete. Firstly the old definitions of treating and reasoning the customers as a cluster of people who will buy your product are becoming absurd in current reality. Your customers are people with motives, values, sensitivities, who are living a self-sustained life and have no desperation to buy your brand. The Hukuhodo’s Su – Keth – Shesha concept explains it with rationale specificity. Su – Keth – Shesha is the opposite of the consumer. He/she is self-satisfied and has no immediate need to buy anything. In reality, more than 80% of people live their lives in this mode unless the need arises to solve a specific problem. This is the golden truth. People’s motive is to solve a specific problem in their life and purchase happens due to that.

Now before visiting the new age TA definition let us first revisit the old school definition to understand their origin and premise. Business and brand managers had a mammoth problem when they are confronted with the market which is the people of a country. Here the total universe of the market will make your brand insignificant when you try to sell. The very reason for this is the change factor in the cluster or set of people. Indeed the term demography is defined as changes and classification of the set of people. These are the statistical perspective of a country’s people which classifies and cluster the total universe based on race, education, occupation, dependency ratio, death and birth ratio, age and other factors which present the holistic view of the country’s population and their progress.

The brand managers found this system complementing and creating ease in defining and focusing on a target definition. Simply because this forms the basic context of market segmentation. This principle became the fundamental element of any brand’s marketing and communication campaign. With the evolution of time, the media and research specialist created factors like socio-economic classification and socio-cultural classification which defines the Usage, Attitude and Interest of the audience and sharpens their focus and measurement matrix for calculating the reach and impact parameters of the brand.

Unfortunately, these principles have factors of unrealism and in-authenticity on their hindsight. Firstly these statistical phenomenons are not based on the brand focus but they are originated from economic indicators and conventional media indicators (print and electronic media). The people in the economy are heterogeneous and behold a history which provides the scope of the classification. The media classification is based on people’s infotainment pattern based on their background. In principle, both these function does not say anything about the intent of purchase for a brand, but old school marketing has presumed the intent and want. So the assumption that people will buy me if I invest and covered so much percentage of the whole population is a marketing myth. But these definitions have worked till now. How is that possible?

It’s simple. First one is the fact that the conventional mediums provided great scope for brand narrative and projection technology was ideal for one way communication. The second one is due to this fact. These classification helped researchers to investigate, retrospect and mine insights as insights are rooted in people’s history. But unfortunately, this technology of Target Audience definition does not hold relevance in the present and future scenario as people are not the same anymore basis their history. Hence it is irrelevant to assume a set people are based on their background. The other factor which disrupts this principle is the change factor. Today people are empowered with knowledge. Purely not only from the academic knowledge but knowledge through sharing and mining on the internet. So, they are clever and intelligent while it comes to purchase. The next factor which forms the premise of this argument is the simple fact that one-way communication does not hold ground due to the digital, especially with the social media revolution. Why is that?

Because people have the power of reference for your product performance. And they are watching you and all your effort from a single desktop or mobile window. So your promise delivery is measured not by your bosses but by your audience. It is as simple as the movie review. So how do you succeed in this contest? Psychographics! Is that the trusted technique which can empower you in this context? Psychographics is the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. This is a good parameter provided it is not affected by change quotient. Honestly, psychiatrist themselves find it extremely difficult to identify their patients based on this broad and dynamic psychological factor. Experts say that the results of rigorous personality tests like PDA do not have a shelf life of more than one month. Personality, Opinions and Interest possess a nature of evolving as per the context making your customer respond differently in every discrete situation. So what about lifestyle? Lifestyle explains the way a person lives and will reveal the research insights. But it will never explain the motive of your customer which is crucial for your communication and marketing program. Secondly, it does not guarantee a specific set of behaviour. Thirdly lifestyle indicators are not solid factors on which a perspective and assumption can be based on. People’s lifestyles are homogenous beyond a point and it is valid only in case of extremists. So the scope of defining your target audience based on psychographics or other factors like the stage of the life cycle is not foolproof.

Before proceeding further we must learn the purpose of Target Audience / Group definition. It originates its reasoning from the differentiation principle. To sharpen the context, people are unique by their nature. Their needs wants, intent and motives differ from one another. Hence it becomes obvious for brands to offer their solutions based on their need and want. The only factor which is making this principle dysfunctional is the factor called clustering. In today’s reality, you do not require clustering and defining a group to marketing. Please appreciate the fact that the TG definition is and have always served you for one singular purpose. That is to give you clarity for your marketing program which your audience is not even aware of it. Currently, these groups which you define do not remain in the concrete walls of your definition. They have the mobility to shift from one group to another just when their context and motive changes. Hence your ways of marketing do not remain the same and have to evolve. For sure, these point of views irritates and annoys the brand service professionals, as they are reluctant to change. So what is the solution? The solution is a simplification.

Let us understand the primitive reason for any human action. As Sigmond Freud articulated it is fear and greed. Either of these reasons prevails among every action of ours. The quantifiable purpose of fear and greed are intent and motive respectively. In the context of marketing Intent is the need intent for a specific solution. Let us illustrate the need intent in the marketing context. Let’s look at the smartphone as a category. The need for smartphone varies from person to person. But the intent or intensity of the need could be articulated as a hierarchy. The higher-order intensity of the need requires a higher value solution and the lower need intensity requires a basic solution. For example, if a guy needs a smartphone 24 x 7 and as a denomination of his success in the society, then he will need a smartphone that is designed as an ornament like a golden bracelet and functions in virtual reality. Now this solution will be highly expensive but solves the purpose of his need intent. In the other case, there exists another customer who has seen the peak of materialism and decided to live a simple life. His need intent is minimal and would opt for a normal functional benefit. So, this required the basic model smartphone which comes at an affordable price.

Motives are the purpose hidden behind every action. Motive will sound similar to intent as it shares a thin line. To be distinguished we need to understand the reasoning for these reasons. Firstly, motive occurs first occurs as it is the purpose which creates the perspective. These are based on human values and have a broader scope. Motives explain the relationship between a person’s emotional world and his belief system. They have the nature of evolving with the experience in life. While the intent is purely based on an objective which a person wants to achieve at a specific moment in life as per his motive. Intent is specific and momentary. Unlike motives, they don’t evolve but they change as per the need of the moment. The other specific nature of intent is that it is realistic, precise and specific, unlike motive which is an overarching guideline.

In the above-mentioned illustration, the motive of the customer who would need the functional phone would be simply ‘Be Connected’. The motives naturally will be simple and philosophical and sound slightly vague. The reason is that motives are like a broader canvas which makes you paint a broader picture. Something unique about this segmentation or target definition technology is that there are not well defined concrete groups in the first place. Instead the need intent and motive presents a community where you can do business. These communities evolve, commune and collaborate with other community, grows, shrinks and even subdivides itself like an amoeba. And people move from one community to the other as per the changes that occur in their need intent and motives. So marketers have to use listening and improvising as a technology rather than using the earlier projection technology.

The business going to be based on referrals rather than pitching. Indeed your customers are going to co-create products and marketing campaigns along with you in the new age brand practice. We will explore this argument in detail in further chapters. Now, if the business is going to be fluid based on the need intent and motive then which solution should I choose and what business should I be in? There is an internal factor which decides and designs your business. That is the purpose of your business. Your business will not work from now on if you do not know the purpose of your business. To be distinct these are not your fancy and manufacturing-based vision and mission statement. They are not based on money and your financial target. Nor they are feel-good community statement. They are also not time-bound. They are simply the reason for your existence in business. Just like the ‘One Minute Salesman’ concept, these are the urging purpose of your life and the one which others in the world want. For example, as an author my purpose of existence is to ‘inspire others’ and I would call myself as an Inspirer in one word. I would intend to gain attention and acknowledgement for my and everyone’s effort and my motive is to be inspired.

The other example would be Pepperfry.com. This is an eCommerce portal which provides the customers to select the ideal and quality furniture at a click. Now the purpose of Pepper fry is not to sell more furniture or achieve the targeted turnover. It is simply to make people comfortable at home. Tomorrow Pepperfry.com can sell consumer durables or even offer a maid service at your home. This improvisation will be co-created with your customer. It can even partner with its customers to create unique furniture and home infrastructure needs to the market. But it aligns with their business purpose.

We now summarize the 3 core factors which created the perspective of the brand. They are Need Intent and Motive of your customer and your business Purpose. These factors will become one at a point when you get revealed to an insight. This will happen naturally when your clarity on all these 3 factors. For example, the insight in my case as an author is simple. ‘I want to be listened to and understood’. I became inspired to get people’s attention and acknowledgement. When I see the same urge prevails among every human being I created my purpose of life. A piece of advice before you starts introspecting. Kindly detach yourself from your brand and business and retrospect it as a stranger. Else there is a chance that you will get carried away.