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Step By Step Techniques For Successfully Branding Your Business Understanding Your Audience

Guest post by: Teresa Bohannon

Article Overview: When it comes to branding your business, make no mistake about it-audience is everything! If you do not know the audience that you are targeting then you will waste an unbelievable and maybe even unrecoverable amount of time, effort and money trying to get your business off the ground. A "Been There, Done That, Worn The T-Shirt To Rags...." overview of Branding Your Business For Success.

Step By Step Techniques For Successfully Branding Your Business Understanding Your Audience

Your business branding audience is "pure and simple" the targeted customer base that you are hoping will purchase your product. Factors that make up your specific audience can include age, gender, specific professions, specific income groups, geographical regions, recreational interests and more. When building your brand, one of the most important factors to consider is the age of your targeted audience. If you are targeting children you want to build a brand that esthetically appeals to them, but you also have to tailor your advertising and marketing campaign to convince the ones holding the purse strings that your brand is the best option. The same is actually true when marketing many types of products, your end user may well be of one gender, or in one age group, but the decision maker holding the purse strings could be entirely of another age, gender or demographic. For example, if your audience is older and more sophisticated then they may be looking for a brand displaying more professionalism, but if your targeted end user is elderly and frail they may be more comfortable with friendly down home brand.

Gender of an audience is usually a vital element to consider if your business deals with clothing, or many items related to the domestic arts. Even in today's modern world where the majority of women work outside the home, shopping, clothing and anything related to the home is often still their domain when it comes to making purchasing decisions. So even when you create a brand specifically for a man-remember that you can and should create complementing ad campaigns targeting the women who will often purchase the products as both items to be used in and around the home and as gifts for the men in their lives.

Income is not often top of the list when you consider developing your brand; but it certainly should be! In the virtual world it is often easier to brand your product and target your campaign to those who can afford to make the purchasing decisions. That is one of the beauties of the Internet as a global marketplace. If it can be shipped at a low or reasonable cost your potential purchasing audience grows 100,000 fold. On the other hand if you have a product that can only be sold locally due to weight, bulk, practical limitations or other factors then your marketplace is naturally limited by those constraints, even when selling online. However, that should not discourage you since the process of selling online is easily able to target geographic regions, and in fact with proper search engine optimization actually even makes it easier to compete!

Of course, no matter what your product, you cannot sell an expensive product to a cash poor audience. Furthermore, people with an excess of disposable income are not nearly as likely to buy an inexpensive, lower quality or readily available to the general public type product-everyone wants the best possible value for their money, and in some cases that value includes the status that comes with possessing that which is rare. So it is vital that the value of your brand match the income of the people you believe to be your primary targeted audience.

Seasons and geographical regions are in many cases absolutely vital to your business success. Most Floridians do not need snow mobiles even in the winter, on the other hand bikini bathing suits probably sell just as well-though probably not in the same year round quantity-in Vermont and Seattle as they do in the deep south. So know your targeted audience's needs, and remember your benefits and features list. Unless your product or service is universally generic, make sure you are targeting the right audience, in the right time and the right place.

Once you have determined who makes up your primary audience both as the end user and the holder of the purse strings, it is important to narrow it down based on the age, gender geographical region, income levels, or whatever factors that are relevant. For example, your targeted end user and audience may be toddlers and your logo and advertising should naturally appeal to them, but your brand should speak to their parents and grandparents and the people who make the final purchasing decisions.

Of course, some brands may not be so specific or complex. Regardless, you need to finely tune the criteria by which you target your audience; because the more you can narrow down your audience the more value your brand will have for someone of their specific needs. Which, in turn means less competition for you.

Branding by specific audience will help you to be more successful with sales and develop long lasting customers that are loyal to you. Targeting the wrong audience will just waste time, money and resources which could in the end create credibility and trust issues, serious distractions and failure.

If you want to learn more about understand and using basic do-it-yourself techniques for successfully branding your business please see the other articles in this series.

Virtually Branding Your Business Techniques For Do It Yourself Online Success

Basic Branding Techniques For Do It Yourself Online Success

Smiles and Good Fortune,

Teresa Thomas Bohannon

********************

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. - W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915

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Article Tags: ad campaigns, age group, audience, business deals, customer base, decision maker, decisions, geographical regions, home shopping, important factors, income groups, marketing campaign, professionalism, professions, purse strings, recreational interests, virtual world, vital element, women work



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