When choosing your target market, certain criteria are essential to ensure your marketing efforts are effective and efficient. However, some factors are not appropriate or useful criteria for selecting a target market.
What is NOT a Criteria to Choose Your Target Market By?
Common Criteria You Should Use:
- Demographics: Age, gender, income, education, occupation
- Geographics: Location, climate, urban vs. rural
- Psychographics: Lifestyle, values, interests, personality
- Behavioral: Buying habits, brand loyalty, product usage, benefits sought
- Market Size and Growth: Potential number of customers and market growth rate
- Profitability: Potential for revenue and profit
- Accessibility: Ability to reach and serve the market effectively
What is NOT a Valid Criteria?
- Personal Preferences of the Business Owner: Choosing a target market based solely on what the business owner likes or prefers rather than market data and customer needs is not a sound criterion.
- Random or Arbitrary Factors: Selecting a market without research or based on unrelated factors (e.g., choosing a market just because it’s trendy without assessing fit).
- Irrelevant Characteristics: Factors that do not affect purchasing decisions or product relevance, such as eye color or unrelated hobbies, unless directly linked to the product.
- Legal or Ethical Restrictions: While these can limit market choices, they are constraints rather than criteria for selection.
Summary
You should NOT choose your target market based on personal biases, random factors, or irrelevant characteristics. Instead, focus on data-driven, relevant criteria that align with your product and business goals. If you want, I can help you identify the best criteria for your specific business!
