Media Management – Target Group Definition

One of the most important aspects of a media strategy or plan is to know, WHO is your audience? Without knowing whom your audience is, and making an advertisement, is like aiming in the dark! If at all, you succeed in achieving the aim, it will be purely on the basis of luck. You have to be certain whom you want your advertisement to reach.

An advertisement is a diligently made piece of art. There is so much time and energy invested in it. It is well crafted and made in a way that will prove to be beneficial for the brand. But what is the point if it does not reach the people it should? Even worse, if you have no clue about whom it should reach?

You can’t simply use any vehicle to carry your advertisement without a thought, it’s not only waste of money and resources but also waste of advertising space, since you don’t know if your audience has seen it or not!

Therefore it is important to define whom your audience. The audience is selected on various types of segmentations. The segmentations are as follows:-

Photo credit: Google images

Psychographic Segmentation: Psychographic segmentation is nothing but division based on the lifestyles, attitudes, activities, interest and opinions.

Example

If I my product is the a yoga class, I will aim at those who are interested in yoga and select media vehicles accordingly.

Demographic Segmentation: Demographic segmentation is dividing on the basis of income, age, gender, family size, and occupation.

Example

I am selling geometric boxes for school children. Now the users are every well defined, they are the students. So the media vehicle that will be selected has to be such that the advertisement should reach the children (as they make the choice) and parents (as they are those who will pay).

Or

If I have to advertise for agricultural products, I will try and choose media vehicles that will reach farmers, producers, shops selling agricultural material etc.

Geographic Segmentation: This is segmentation of the audience based on their geographic location.

Example

This is probably the most used example for geographic segmentation. If you have to sell sweaters you would sell it in a region, which is cold. Thus advertising in a region which has heavy users of the product.

Ethnicity Segmentation: Just as the name suggests, it is divided on the basis of ethnicity. These are products that are preferred by ethnic groups.

Example

For instance if my product is ‘Navari Sari’ I will aim it mostly towards the Maharastrian crowd. It doesn’t mean that non-maharastrian’s won’t buy it but it is simply that maharastrian’s will be heavy users of the product.

Life-stage Segmentation:  In this type of segmentation, it is divided on the basis of life stages

Example.
Baby Diapers would be a classic example. The audience is very clearly parents of infants. Those are the people who are likely to buy your product, hence the medium through which the ad is dispersed should be such that, it aims exactly at the target audience.

Most people try and aim at the heavier users than light users of the products. For most brands the target audience is heavy users and potential users

Identifying and defining the target audience is the first step to make a media strategy or plan. Segmenting the audience helps to get optimum results

Will back soon with the second step! :)