How can you identify your target market when you start your business or launch a new product?

1- Identify the added value of your product and the need that your product will fulfill

2- Identify the characteristics of the typical customers (lifestyle, geogrphical locations, education level, age,...)

3- Identify the main market segment.

4. Analyse your current customers to understand who else could be a potential customer

5- What is the target market of your competitors

6- Define who really buys and why. For example parents pay for toys, but kids who choose.

One of the first steps in the business planning process is determining who your target market is and why they would want to buy from you.

 

It sounds simple, but do you really know what you are selling and to whom? Is the market you serve the best one for your product or service? Are the benefits of dealing with your business clear and are they aligned with those or your target customers?

 

If you aren’t sure about the answers to any of these questions then you need to step back and revisit the foundation of your business plan.

 

The following tips can help you be clear about what your business has to offer, identify the right target market for it and build a niche for yourself there.

 

Be Clear about What you Have to Offer

 

Sounds obvious, but more than just a product or service, what are you really selling? Think about it.  Your town probably has several restaurants all selling one fundamental product—food. But I’ll bet one sells drive-thru fast food, perhaps another sells pizza in a rustic Italian kitchen, and maybe there’s also a fine dining seafood restaurant that specializes in wood-grilled fare. All these restaurants sell meals, but they sell them to targeted clientele that is looking for the unique benefits each has to offer. What they are really selling is a combination of product, value, ambience (or not), and brand experience.

 

So, if you are starting a business, be sure you understand why anyone would buy from you. What needs does it fulfill? What benefits and differentiators will you bring to the table that will help you stand out from the crowd? This article offers tips on how you can develop and capitalize on these elements of value: Six Tips for Creating a Customer Experience that Embodies Your Unique Business Value

 

Don’t Become a Jack of All Trades, use Strategy to Focus

 

One of the pitfalls of not defining what you have to offer is that you can quickly become a jack of all trades and master of none and this can have a negative impact on business growth.

 

Think about it from the perspective of a consumer. How often do you see marketing flyers promoting the service of a local handy man who claims to be an expert in everything from drywall installation to plumbing repairs, and so on? Now, this handyman may get some business out of his efforts, but he’d win a lot more if he specialized in doing one or two things well, building a reputation for himself, and fine tuning his marketing message.  This is why you need a strategy: it will focus you.

Identify Your Niche

 

The flip side of being a jack of all trades is finding your niche and playing to your strengths within that niche.  Creating a niche for your business is essential to success. For example, say you want to quit your day job and become a freelance writer. You know there’s a need in the market for a trustworthy, reliable, and consistently good technical writer – and clients are willing to pay a certain price point for that quality and value.

 

Now you could simply advertise your services on an online freelance marketplace, as many do, and hope to pick up any business from any customer anywhere on the map. But by identifying your niche and choosing to attract customers who will value your services, you will quickly build on that niche and be on the path towards business success. 

 

Finding Your Target Customer

 

Identifying and finding your ideal target customer is a process few businesses can afford to get wrong. A few simple steps can help get you along the way and are covered here in this SBA guide: Identifying Your Target Market.

 

Tailor your Business Message to Your Market

 

Now that you’ve identified your target market you’ll need to craft a message that reaches and speaks to that market while reinforcing your brand identity. It should explain what you have to offer, why you’re different, and why anyone should buy from you. For tips on tailoring your message to your market, read: Stand Out from the Crowd - Seven Tips for Creating a Marketing Message that Sticks. The following blogs can also help you nurture and build your small business brand identity:

I will collect all information from the market .

Details of the users.

Details of the dealers.

Details of the major consumers and buyers.

Details of the demand of the product.

1.) Consult your business plan. Look at the goals you’ve set for yourself and analyze the products and/or services you offer. Think about how your products or services fulfill a need or solve a problem for a potential customer. Also, think about how you differ from other companies in your industry—what makes you stand out? Broadly think about who might be interested and who may benefit from having access to what you offer. Figuring out your selling point is the first step in identifying your ideal target audience. Next, think about what information you need to know and why. What do you need to know about your potential customers in order to reach them? As you consult your business plan and decide who you want your audience to be, remember that it is ultimately about the customer. Don’t think about who you would like to sell to, think about who is looking for the products and services you offer.2.) Begin researching. Start with secondary research. There are a lot of existing sources that can help you pull together information about your industry, the market, your competition, and the broad potential customer you have already identified. The best part is that someone has already done the work and, in many cases, the information won’t cost you anything. The downside is that the information may not be focused in a manner that is100% useful for your purposes. Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to do some searching. You never know—the research you need may indeed exist. If you’re unable to identify secondary data that is useful for you and you have the budget to do so, you may want to conduct primary research. This could involve surveys, interviews or even focus groups. Though primary research can be expensive, it could allow you to get answers to questions specific to your business.3.) Develop a customer profile. After performing research, you’ll want to create a customer profile. This is more than a brief statement; it’s an in-depth description of who your typical customer may be and includes demographic and psychographic information: Demographic information: This may include age, gender, location, ethnic background, marital status, income, and more. Psychographic information: This type of information goes beyond the “external” and identifies more about a customer’s psychology, interests, hobbies, values, attitudes behaviors, lifestyle, and more. Both types of information are essential for developing your customer profile. Demographic information will help you identify the type of person who will potentially buy your products and services. Psychographic information goes one step further and nails down why that potential customer may buy.4.) Find out where your audience is. It’s not enough to just say who your target audience is. Find out which websites they visit and which social networks they most frequently check. Are they glued to their email? Are they addicted to apps? The information you put together for your customer profile, combined with knowing where your audience hangs out online or how they use technology, will facilitate the delivery of your message.5.) Monitor and evolve. The work doesn’t end after you’ve identified your target audience. It’s essential to continually perform research to stay current on market and industry trends and your competition. It’s also important to see if and how your current and potential customers evolve. Before you begin marketing to your potential customers, make sure you know how you are going to track sales, interactions, requests for information, and more. All of these touch points are important to record. This information will help you identify trends, patterns, and possible areas of improvement, which will continually help your marketing efforts as your business matures.

Sir I think it would be based on the price of the product. If it is a high priced commodity I would target it at the top niche market. My marketing plan would include glossy magazines and may ignore news papers and radio which has a rural audience. 

 

Also  a commodity that is a top niche product in a third world country can be a mass marketed product in the west. 

You will identify your target market when you start your business through research and survey.

There are many good answers ... there is no need to add a comment at this time

By conducting a market research or feasibility study.

To add to the valuable inputs provided, the other source could be to seek required information from marketing research organisations who have carried out surveys for such products / services in the given territories. 

I agree with Mr. khaled elkholy   good answer. Thank you.

Thanks for inviting. 

Identifying target market should be done much before the product or business is launched. In the market. 

By way of market research you can easily find out your target market but the point here is how to sustain in that market. Then comes the role of product life cycle. Before the product's life cycle gets completed,  the other product should be launched and the important point is target audience should not change. It may include new target market but better hold the original target market as well. Never should one think about the target market only for the product in hand; the thinking should be of the series of products or services you are willing to launch in future and this should not change your target audience everytime.