How to choose your ideal target consumer segment

Are you grappling with the fact that you have more than one actual or potential target consumer segment? Groups of people who do or may use your brand and whose contribution is important or attractive to your brand scale and growth? But by targeting multiple groups are you splitting already scarce resources into too many baskets and therefore sending out potentially conflicting messages and inhibiting your effectiveness and ROI? I wanted to share a story with you about how a client and I used the questions in this workbook to help make a significant & strategic decision on a brand’s positioning. Which then helped us crystalise a really clear brand promise. The brand we were working on is currently in decline because it has lost relevance with consumers as their health motivations are changing and they are moving onto other more relevant brands. After an exceptionally insightful research debrief, we identified two very valid consumer segments that we could potentially target to attract new & lapsed users and rebuild brand relevance. But for the above reasons, we had to choose one. So how did we choose? We used some of the questions in our brand positioning checklist to make sure our decision was strategically sound: What are some of the motivations or tensions that these consumer segments have? We chose the target who we thought had a motivation the brand could best solve for. So the consumer segment would think that this brand is relevant. Who would our competitive set be? Ie which brands might these two consumer segments choose instead of our brand? We chose the target where we had points of difference to leverage against these competitors. So the consumer segment would think that this brand is distinctive. We took an honest look at the brand’s attributes & equities and chose the target whose motivations the brand could best solve with real proof and credibility (after a bit of comms & innovation work) So the consumer segment would think that this brand is authentic. As a result of this consumer target decision, we have now evolved the entire brand positioning so it is perfectly positioned for success. It was such a productive exercise to undertake as the brand now has greater clarity and new sense of direction for the future. If your brand is not performing to the level you’d like it to or you really need to choose one consumer target to focus on, I think it could be a really useful exercise to either a. quickly review the 6-point checklist

or b. do a little extra investigation and complete the mini workbook. It’s only 3 pages of large type and lots of space for answers!

Either option may help you identify any specific gaps or challenges that might be causing this lack of performance, so you can develop an action plan to correct. And as always, if you need some advice on how to complete the workbook or make a big decision, I’m here to help guide you in the right direction.