Discover how these two points are connected and why it is extremely important to find a balance between the two
Every business needs an audience that consumes their products or services and keeps their brand "alive," but how do you know which one is right for you? Furthermore, how do you actually find your target audience? These are two very common questions every business owner and soon-to-be business owner has, and this article has the right answer for them.
Below you can find a detailed guide that contains useful information about finding your target audience, with key tips to implement to find yours, as well as the connection between your branding and your desired clients, focusing on how they affect your visual presence and how you market your products and campaigns to reach your target audience.
Target Audience & Branding: How Are They Connected?
Unlike most people might know about, there’s a crucial connection between your business's target audience and your branding, which affects the way you choose your story, tone, colors, and everything in between that has to do with selling a specific product to a specific public.
There are a few key terms that must be addressed to later explain the important string that connects them together. A product, in broad terms, is "anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need, including physical goods, services, experiences, events, people, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas" (Kotler and Keller, 2015), in essence, the thing you sell. A brand, according to the American Marketing Association, is "a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or service as distinct from those of other sellers"; it refers to the design and visual composition of a business. And finally, branding is establishing services and products with a strong brand foundation.
This last term can be exemplified by many products on the market that stand out among competitors solely due to their branding. Think about water bottles or sodas. Certain brands are associated with specific feelings or emotions that are targeted at a specific audience, the people who consume that product or service. Coca-Cola is associated with freshness, family time, and spending a chill day with something delicious to drink, whereas Red Bull centers its product on adrenaline, extreme sports, and speed. These two brands have the same product (a drink) but completely different audiences, which determines the course of their branding and marketing.
Why Does Your Target Audience Affect Your Branding?
When starting a business, it is very important to stay true to yourself and your vision, but it is equally important to analyze what your audience is saying, asking, and looking at, in terms of product characteristics, visual appeal, and other important factors that can make or break your sales.
For your products or services to be noticed, not only do they need to be shown on your desired consumer’s page, but they have to be attractive enough to make them interested in you; this means choosing the proper color palette, logo, and story, and how you present all this to them. If you don’t find a target audience, you can’t properly present your brand and product to the world.
This doesn’t mean to always go for what your public says, but do listen to them and their feedback to perfect what needs to be tweaked. Every detail, from your page’s logo, colors, and fonts you use, to your packaging and banners published, is important to make sure you are sending the right message to your target audience.
How To Find Your Target Audience
Now that you know why finding your target audience is essential to establishing your business, it is time to give you some tips to find the perfect one for you. Here are useful questions on key topics you can ask yourself to start looking for your target audience.
- Location Where does your target audience live? Where do they usually shop? How far is your product from them? These are just some of the questions you can ask yourself when conducting research to start narrowing your search.
- Demographics How old is my target audience? Are they females, males, or non-binary individuals? What is their occupation, income level, marital status, etc.?
- Psychographics What is my ideal client like? What hobbies or interests do they have? How do they behave?
- industry. What industry or field does my product or service fit into? (clothing, accounting, electronics, beauty, etc.).
- competition. What do my competitors look like? (branding and product differences/similarities) What are they doing differently? How do they approach their audience? Looking at what others are doing in the same field can help you figure out where to start, as well as provide inspiration and insight into important topics like marketing and communications.
The Bottom Line
Finding your target audience is essential to growing your business and converting views into sales. Furthermore, finding your proper target audience can impact how you brand your business, in terms of how you share your story, design a logo, and choose a color palette.
This article can be used as a guide on how to start searching for your perfect audience, but I know it might sound difficult or overwhelming, so the Branding Boss Print by The Boss Persona is perfect for you. This step-by-step guide contains highly valuable information that most marketing agencies will charge you up to $800 for you to know. It includes detailed knowledge for those who are just starting out with a business and those who want to rebrand theirs and don’t know where to start. This workbook is written for minority black and Hispanic women, so you can safely purchase it knowing that the info displayed can be easily and effectively applied to your needs, wants, and dreams for your business.
Starting a business is sometimes seen as something extremely difficult and something minority women should stay away from, but this cannot be further from the truth. It does require a good deal of time and effort to establish your brand, but everyone who has the right tools and knowledge can do it. That’s why I created this branding 101 print.