Five ways to know your target audience

With the ever-changing dynamics of the consumer market, it is becoming difficult for brands to keep up with the emerging trends. From launching new products to coming up with an advertisement, fully understanding Indian consumers is difficult considering the diversity of our culture. With these unclear conceptions, brands have failed several times and re-launched their campaigns.

In the constant struggle of meeting deadlines, brands often skip the important step of knowing their target audience. So, in order to save time, money and efforts, it is necessary to be in the skin of your consumer and understand them thoroughly.

We try to list out the ways in which brands can keep up with this challenging game.

1. Look for trending topics on social media:

Conducting a survey that helps you clear your doubt about the age group you want to target is clearly the first step to do. After you are done analysing hundreds of papers on your desk, the next step is to hop on to your favourite social platform. We all like scrolling through our Facebook feeds and double heart food pictures on Instagram. The task of knowing your consumer becomes easier when all you have to do is stumble upon their account. Make a note of the pattern that you observe: know their favourite blogger, understand their social and political opinions, the pages they like, comments on platforms like Quora and Twitter. It is simpler to learn about their behaviour, psychographics, and the level of usage of the platform with social media. Pay close attention to all social conversations. We all like how Amul follows the trending topics in its every ad. Therefore, you should talk trendy to them. This, in turn, will help you in developing your campaigns effectively. Apart from social media, your audience’s lifestyle can be a mirror of some recent film or a book. You have to keep your eyes and ears open and incorporate their current lifestyle.

2. Talk to them in their language:

Reflecting their personality by the way they dress, think and talk can make your consumer stop and listen to your advertisement. If your target audience is millennial, make sure you sound like them. A perfect TVC exemplifying the importance of talking like your TG is the ‘Shut the Fake Up’ campaign by Fastrack. It portrays its audience clearly by the lingos they use. If you want to clear the clutter, reach across that virtual screen and make them sit next to your product, you have to sound like you know them pretty well. By sounding like one of them, you establish empathy and make them feel like you are a part of their integral life.

3. Keyword research:

With SEO being the most common business tool used right now, you will really lack behind if you don’t know what your customer is searching for. Take a pen and write down the 10 keywords your consumer might look for. The importance of this method cannot be overstated. Keywords can help you understand the shifts in demand and it is an easy solution to respond to the changing market conditions. You just need to ask yourself – is my keyword really what the consumer will search? In that situation, will my website be the first one to pop up? Making your website most visible on the search engines should be the first goal on your list.

4. Know your competition:

If you are lucky enough and have a product that your audience has never seen before, then you can skip this step. If you are a product that offers a better version of your competitor, you need to know what your competitor’s next step can be. Observe their successes and learn. If you crack what makes your target audience switch their choice, you can lure them back. After you crack this code, portray your uniqueness in your campaign.

5. Challenge your assumptions:

After you conduct a research study and a social media check, you should make a consumer persona. Brands often feel like they know their consumers. However, you have to challenge your assumptions and update your consumer persona annually. The general perception about the rural consumer is that they don’t use mobile phones actively, but is that a stereotype you are creating? Hypotheses are only clarified by a conclusion. Go on the field and ask your consumer again. After you finish the first four steps, you need to challenge yourself. You assume that your consumers use your product for a certain reason. However, when you go on field, what your survey will uncover can be completely different. Alter your product, service or campaign according to their needs.

Customer relationships are not too different from your real life relationships. It just needs a little bit of your time.

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