Are You a Lighthouse or Laser

Are you a lighthouse or a laser?  Lighthouses cut a broad swath of light with lots of spillage.  Lasers are modern, pinpoint accurate and very cool.  Laser light can do so much more than the simple illumination of lighthouse lights.

Lighthouses are antiques and on a national historic registry.   You can love lighthouses and long for a day when they were reliable and necessary.  GPS has rendered lighthouses useless.

When you think about your target audience, do you think like a lighthouse or a laser?

Are you still trying to hit everyone with one message? Are you sending your light far and wide, or are you pinpointed and laser-focused?

I’d say that we all worry that we will  be disappointed if we really focus our message to one particular audience—we think of the anecdotal exceptions.  We soften our message and our targeting the way the lens spreads the light for all to see.   Time to narrow our focus in message and media.

You can go after many audiences, but each needs its own pinpointed message and delivery method.

Read Full Post »

Can You Think Like Your Audience?

The best way to think like your audience is to conduct research.  Yet quantitative surveys, focus groups and online sampling are not always feasible. So when we don’t have research, we must decipher what will appeal to our target audiences.

The problem is that when you try to interpret your target market, how do prevent your own personal tastes and biases from contaminating messaging?

Here’s a little test:

• Do you listen to an argument and think both sides are right?
• Do you love all colors?
• Do you vote for both parties?
• Do you like rap, classical, rock, country and pop music?
• Do you have a high degree of empathy for the problems of others?
• Do you often watch people react to situations and study their responses?

If you answered “yes” to all, you probably can set yourself in someone else’s shoes.  If it is “no,” crank up the research.  My father was head of engineering at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.  He took the clocks out of every patient room because he thought it would drive people crazy watching the clock for hours.  After he had to spend considerable time as a patient, he realized that when you are floating in and out of consciousness, the first thing you want to know is the time. How long have I been sleeping?  Is it still day or night?  He couldn’t think like the audience until he was literally in their shoes.

Colors, language, models, music and mood should not feel right to you if you are not the target audience—and that is more than age or sex, it also applies to psychographic differences as well.

It is a rare skill to separate your personal feelings from messaging decisions.  And, it is too easy to think what others should do, but almost impossible to know what others will do.

Read Full Post »

The Power of Consumer Opinions with Millennials

Millennials (those born between 1975 and 1995) are the next powerful spending demographic.  The problem is that the 20- to 30-year-olds buy differently than the boomers who are dominating current spending. 

According to a study by Bazaarvoice.com, more than half of Millennials felt that user-generated content (reviews and comments) on a website has more impact on purchase decision-making than reviews from friends and family.  Family and friends are still important, but Millennials are not likely to buy at all without input from user-generated content.  No content, no purchase.  Millennials are three times more likely to seek feedback on products and services on social media than boomers.

The recommendations from Bazaarvoice.com are to make “customer opinion the hero,” get user-generated content up front on websites and let Millennials have the opportunity to respond and communicate.  Millennials want a conversation.  Are you ready to start and continue the conversation?

Read Full Post »

The “Coveted” Demo

I heard it again on MSNBC, ”the most-coveted demo of 18- to 34-year-olds…”  What?  I just heard that the demo was the hardest hit in the Great Recession with more than 20% unemployed, and even more underemployed.  This is the coveted demo?

You would think the marketing press could get it right, but even they are in love with what the “younger generation” is buying.  Right now, it looks to me like their boomer parents are doing the buying.

Apple has figured it out:  They are selling the iPad2 on regular, old-fashioned broadcast television, in newspapers and in magazines (I just picked up a New Yorker magazine and the iPad2 had the back cover).  Look around.  This breakthrough technology is in the hands of people with gray hair (if the hair isn’t gray, they are coloring their hair).

As Emenim says, “I’m not afraid.  To take a stand.”  So finally take a stand.  The broadcast networks are drying up trying to chase the coveted demo.  When CBS realized that its core audience is older, it quickly rose to number 1 status.  When the movie industry realizes the same thing, boomers will start going back to movies. The coveted demo to me is the one that is buying.  Drink a Red Bull, tighten up your flip-flops, and start fishing where the fish are.    Covet performance, not a fleeting perception.

Read Full Post »

Fishing for Target Audiences

Have you ever gone to a bait shop or looked at all the fishing lures at a store?  Hundreds, maybe even thousands of lures.  There seems to be more different types of fishing lures than there are fish.

Each lure is designed to attract a specific fish.  And different lures attract different fish–and different lures attract the same fish on different conditions, days, and times of days.  Yet, when we talk about target audiences (people, who are far more complex than fish) we are quick to categorize the message into one nice neat lure—that will work for all people, at all times, in all media.

Take a look at this chart from a study by Harris Interactive.  It shows that even in the teen years, the likes and dislikes of teenagers are impacted by allowances, part-time jobs, independence, activities, access to the Internet, and food.

It is a lot easier to just say, “I’ve got just the right lure for 10-to-18-year olds so we only need one ad.”  If that were the case, a lot of fishing enthusiast would only need one hook and a worm.

How is your message tackle box looking?

Read Full Post »

ESPN Targeting Women

ESPN has been quietly targeting women with a new website called ESPNW.com. ESPN is hoping to expand the women’s brand into other areas including television. 

Nike has long marketed successfully to men and women using specially branded female-focused marketing vehicles. NIKE has several Facebook pages dedicated to women and a special area on the website.

There may be a need for you to develop multiple websites for different audience targets.  However you do need to be careful that you include women in the decision-making process.  ESPN used a large group of A-list female athletes to help design the new approach to women.

In spite of ESPN’s effort, some women bloggers have accused ESPN of attempting to “ultimately ghettoize women’s sports and take ESPN off the hook.”  Obviously the Big 10 Network can have its channel, but ESPN creating a women’s channel will just “make something pink and put sparkles on it.” 

ESPN assured everyone that there will be little pink on the site.  ESPN is leading the way.  We should all follow.

Read Full Post »