TARGET GROUP ANALYSIS: WIN CUSTOMERS WITH THE RIGHT DATA

GOALS OF THE TARGET GROUP ANALYSIS

Conducting an audience analysis before you start your business is an intelligent strategy. It guarantees you long-term stable sales and the success of your startup idea. Because only if you know the values ​​and wishes of your target group can you develop suitable marketing concepts for the new product idea. Therefore, there is no question that a target group analysis is an essential step towards success for you as a founder.

BEFORE THE TARGET GROUP ANALYSIS COMES THE DEFINITION OF THE CUSTOMERS

Every successful business strategy is based on a clearly defined target group. Without a target audience, your efforts to generate revenue are in vain. You will receive reliable data about specific people and their purchasing behavior if you also conduct a target group analysis. Their findings are essential for later market research in your area. This is the only way to put together an appropriate marketing mix and decide which advertising measures suit your company and your target group.

The definition of your favorite target group is the basis for the market segment in which you want to be active with your business idea. Basically, the more precisely you create your target group analysis, the better you can tailor your products to potential buyers. This is how you can successfully position yourself in the market. If you always keep an eye on your target group, this will positively affect your sales. The more you know about your target group, the easier it is for you to influence their purchasing decisions.

WHAT DATA DO YOU NEED FOR A TARGET GROUP ANALYSIS?

It is essential to determine demographic criteria such as age, gender, and marital status in a target group analysis. It is also relevant to collect information about your target group’s motivation to buy and assess their attitude towards the price.

A few years ago, research of this kind was time-consuming and expensive. But today, there are modern online tools that are also useful for startups or new companies with a relatively meager budget and that deliver precise analyses. There are even free offers on the Internet that help you analyze your target group. However, always make sure that these online offers are up-to-date.

A target group analysis helps you identify factors that influence the purchasing decision of potential customers. This, in turn, shows you where product adjustments may need to be made so that you can better meet the needs of your target customers.

The following questions provide crucial answers:

• What time does the product need to be available?
• What properties does it have to have?
• Is there room for improvement?
• Where does the product have to be available?
• Through which channels does it need to be discoverable?
• What does the target group want?
• Where are the problems?
• Can they be solved?
• Who are the influencers?
• What role do price, quality, and customer service play?

IF YOU KNOW YOUR TARGET GROUP, YOU WILL ALSO FIND CUSTOMERS

If you know your target group, you will have an overview of their motivation, wishes, and needs. As a result, you will be able to communicate with her much easier. Using this customer information, you can easily create your business plan with it, for example, because a detailed target group analysis influences marketing and thus requires a budget. If you have planned this in the overall financing of your business startup, you will not have any problems later with the implementation of marketing or advertising. A target group analysis is part of the presentation when it comes to convincing potential financiers of the innovative power of your business idea. Two aspects of the target group analysis play a prominent role:

Perceive and increase customer satisfaction

If you want to achieve sustainable success as a founder, you have to make your customers happy. Because customer satisfaction is the foundation of your company and, at the same time, a guarantee for future growth. Writing a professional target group analysis helps you to understand your target group and later to be able to react to trends and changes in good time. Those who analyze also notice problems and can proactively respond to requests. Such an approach also convinces banks and investors.

This is how you can acquire new customers.

If you determine a target group, you will automatically recognize matches between your service and your desired customers. In this way, you create the conditions for acquiring new customers or converting them into regular customers in the short term. Before you approach them, use your knowledge of how potential buyers and clients tick and what added value they expect from your offer.

TARGET GROUP ANALYSIS: METHODS AND IMPLEMENTATION

If you are looking for answers, you have to ask the right questions. On the Internet today, you will find numerous tools and providers that will help you with data collection and content analysis. For example, you can conduct a target group analysis via social media and platforms like

• Facebook
• Instagram and
• Twitter

use as analysis tools. “Google Analytics” also supports you in determining data for your new business idea. ‍

Tip: Because those tools raise tricky privacy issues, you need to be careful to behave in a legally compliant manner.  

Of course, you can also collect data yourself and use online surveys on Facebook to survey purchasing behavior e.g., e.g., from B2C customers. Direct contact in the form of short interviews is also efficient. Just go out into the pedestrian zone and ask people you think could be part of your favorite target group. The Internet is also an excellent source for preparing a target group analysis or a template. Online you will find comparative statistics and studies, and you can even get a quick overview of current trends online. Because the competition never sleeps, it is certainly interesting to see how the competitors are positioned online.  

But no matter which method you choose, your goals should always form the basis for an initial target group definition. Therefore, ask yourself what you can offer your product before considering who could use it.

In B2C marketing, for example, you address end consumers directly who are supposed to buy your product idea. A target group analysis generates their characteristics, characteristics, and behavior according to the following criteria:

Demographic Characteristics

For customer-centric marketing, you need the following customer data:

• social status: education, job, income
• personal life background: sex, age, marital status, children
• geographic factors: city or country

Psychographic Criteria

This refers to characteristics of people’s personality and lifestyle that affect their purchasing behavior:

• interests and activities
• preferences and opinions
• values ​​and attitudes

Characteristics of purchasing behavior

A target group analysis with a questionnaire helps to categorize potential customers and their purchasing behavior. The following criteria are relevant:

• Media use for information search
• Shopping behavior – online or locally
• shopping frequency
• Brand behavior and purchase volume
• Price behavior regarding discounts and price changes

For example, a target group analysis gives you all the details about the buying behavior of your customers. You get insight into their lifestyle, why they buy a particular product and how often they do it. In this way, you can determine the appropriate channels for distributing your goods or service and build solid customer service.

TARGET GROUP ANALYSIS IN B2B MARKETING

If you start your business in B2B marketing, your target group is narrower because, in this case, your customers are companies. These must also respond to the individual wishes of their business customers. A target group analysis or a checklist for this is correspondingly short. Criteria for characterizing these unique customers are, therefore:

• company size
• phase of development
• industry affiliation
• Regional demarcation

By the way: There are numerous tools from various providers on whose websites you can carry out a target group analysis.

RECOGNIZING THE NEEDS OF THE TARGET GROUP: PERSONAS HELP

If there is a large target group, e.g., B. in B2C, the so-called “persona concept” helps you narrow down your Kienteer. The aim is to design an ideal customer for you who, in your opinion, will benefit most from your products or services. A target group analysis on personas helps you tailor your offers and products to these desired customers. Personas are fictional characters that assume demographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics. Important key questions for narrowing down the target group are, for example:

• What are the interests of this ideal figure?
• What are their goals and desires?
• What are the problems?
• In which media channels does she move?

It is best to create several personas to describe all the prominent representatives of your target group sufficiently. Each persona belongs to the analyzed target group, but each one stands for alternative skills, goals, and desires. According to experts, so-called buyer personas are the better target group because they can be described in more detail and enable a specific customer approach.

RESULTS OF THE TARGET GROUP ANALYSIS

You guessed it already. Without a target group analysis, your efforts as a business founder will come to nothing. After a detailed target group definition or research, you know what your products or services offer. It may also make you aware of what you should still adjust or improve.

Because a target group analysis gives you knowledge about the preferences and problems of your potential customers, you will find out when and at what price your innovation should be available on the market. So if you know the wishes and habits of your target group, you can easily use their buying behavior to your advantage. This is how you successfully meet the challenges of corporate management.