Launch an Advertising Campaign

Now you understand the different advertising strategies; next, you will define the typical profiles of the people you want to deliver your message to.

It sounds complicated, hence the importance of identifying your targets and your core target before trying to reach them.

Specify the Profile of Your Target  

By defining your target audience, you aim to identify people who are likely to become your customers. To do this, you have to determine what their most relevant characteristics are.

Here are the essential characteristics that you can use:

• Socio-demographic characteristics: sex, age, PCS (professional and socio-professional categories), family status, location, etc.

• Psychological characteristics: lifestyle, interests, etc.

• Behavioral characteristics: attitudes and feelings towards the product, consumption habits, purchasing behavior, uses, average basket, etc.

Here are examples of their applications:

• For a luxury car dealer, age and purchasing power are decisive characteristics. 

• For a video game brand, owning a game console with internet access and being over 18 years old.

• For a baby products brand, the frequency and number of small food jars purchased by families with a child between 2 months and 3 years old.

Now that you have defined your target audience, you want to find out a little more about them. The more information you have about your targets, the more relevant you can be in your approach toward them.

Identify the Needs and Expectations of Your Target Audience 

Defining your target audience is essential, but today it is no longer enough. If possible, you should understand their needs, expectations, preferences, and behaviors that may impact their conversion results over the long term.

Here are some additional identifying features:

• What motivates your targets to invest in the products or services you offer, and what separates them from consumers who opt not to purchase - or choose your competition? 

• What benefits do your customers hope to obtain by purchasing your products and services?

• What factors lead your target audience to believe that your products and services are not the best or most suitable? 

• What will influence your ideal customers' choice throughout their decision-making process?

• What will win their trust?

The definition of a target audience is an iterative process that needs to involve the sales teams. After all, they are in contact with customers and can help you identify your target audience. 

Take Extra Care to Avoid any Backlash 

Getting this analysis wrong can have serious consequences. Clothing retailer Billabong stumbled into a sexism storm when they portrayed men surfing in their swimwear, but women lying on the beach sunbathing. By totally misreading one of its crucial target audiences' expectations, the brand became famous for all the wrong reasons.

🥤 Discover Bio Boost's Target Audience

If we want to define a standard target for our Bio Boost🥤 start-up example, what characteristics should we choose?

• Both women and men, 18 to 40.

• An intermediate or even upper socio-professional class 

• Energy drink consumers who might be interested in switching to an organic product 

• People who do not consume energy drinks since they were not organic until now.

• Consumers of organic products. 

Let's Recap!

• Effective target audiences should be based on real data, not just impressions and intuition. In this chapter, you learned how to gather that data:

  • Socio-demographic data.

  • Psychological data.

  • Behavioral data.

• Don't be surprised if you happen to have more than one target audience for the same goal; you will be able to segment them according to the different characteristics, allowing you to find your core target and send the right message to each one.

You have just taken a new step in developing your advertising strategy; you are now able to lay the foundations of your strategy. In the next chapter, you will learn how to choose the best media to reach your target audience.