Target Marketing

The prosperity of our economy is primarily due to the growth and success of businesses.  A business is a commercial or industrial enterprise that is designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers and other businesses.  Creating and starting a business is a very difficult and time-consuming affair, which has many planning and research phases. Each phase has a different role in starting a business and each phase is crucial to the businesses survival.  One of the phases involves researching and establishing a target market.  Establishing a target market is one of the first tasks that must be completed in order to establish a business.  A target market is the people that will most likely invest in the company, buy the product, and take an interest in the company’s present and future.  The target market consists of the customers that are going to use your product and are the people who the company is going to aim its marketing efforts and merchandise at. Businesses usually find the target market before the product is even created so that they can create the product to fit the profile and wants of the customer.  Knowing and finding the target market to your business is very crucial because the majority of advertising and marketing is going to be done in order to meet the interests of the target market. This is because around 80% of all sales are going to be done by around 20% of the customers; and this 20% is the target market.  The target market is the customers or people that the product will directly effect and help. It is the people who will find use in the product everyday and who will benefit greatly from the product.  Finding this 20% is a crucial step to starting a business. 

To find the target market you must breakdown the ideal customer into different characteristics.  You do this because you want to find out where and to whom your product will appeal to the most. This is called market segmentation.  Market segmentation has many parts, each of which must be taken into consideration when trying to find your target market.  The different parts of market segmentation are demographics, geographics, psychographics, product usage, and internet accessibility.  Each of these characteristics make up a part of the target market or ideal customer that will be most interested in the product.  The first variable in market segmentation is demographics.  Demographics is information like age, income, gender, and ethnicity.  Demographics is the background on the customer.  Demographics are very important because you have to know information like age and gender when marketing so that you can meet their interests.  The second variable in market segmentation is geographics.  Geographics is the location of the customer.  This is important because you can use the location of the customer to know where to set up businesses, stores, factories, and even where to market items so that you are efficient with your marketing expenses and transportation/ shipping costs.  The third variable is psychographics.  Psychographics involves the interests and hobbies of the customer.  This is important for a business to know because now the business can use tools and techniques to meet the interests of the customer so that they enjoy the product and enjoy the advertising; and therefore buy the product.  The fourth variable in market segmentation is product usage.  Product usage is how the customer behaves, how the customer uses the product, and how efficient will the product be. This is important to know and understand so that the business can create the product to work how the customer wants it to, and so that the customer enjoys it.  The last variable in market segmentation is Internet Availability.  Internet availability is exactly what it sounds like, it is if your customer will have access to the internet.  This is only a factor if the business is an e-commerce business.  Even still, most countries and areas have internet, especially in the United States.  This is important because a customer must have access to the internet if the business wants to sell its product to them.  Market segmentation is a way to find the target market, to find the information of the target market.

My business, like any other business at its beginning, must find its target market or customer profile using market segmentation. First off, my business is an online tutoring company that uses webcams. My business is going to revolutionize the tutoring world because students are going to feel as if they have a teacher in the room with them, while actually a teacher will be at home and a student will be at home.  In my business I am going to be assigning a certified teacher as a tutor to someone who needs a tutor.  Also my tutors are going to use webcams and chat to communicate with the client. For my business to take off and be successful I must find my target market using market segmentation.  The first step of market segmentation is demographics.  The demographics of my business are very widespread and vast because my business can pretty much spread to anyone in school and can help students anywhere in the world.  If I had to put a number to it, I would say that my business is based towards students in school from the ages of 10 to around 24.  This is around 6^th grade to the end of undergraduate school.  My business can help and affect anyone in these ages because I will have teachers who can aid students in any class they are taking.  In some circumstances, if an adult goes back to school around 50 years old, my business can even help these people. The next variable is geographic.  The geographic of my business ties into internet availability.  This is because my product can be used by anyone who has an internet connection.  It does not matter where the student is located because in our country and in our world all schools pretty much teach the same subjects and in the same way.  In my business, a kid from England can learn math from a teacher in Los Angeles, California.  The next variable in determining my customer profile using market segmentation is psychographics.  Psychographics are the interests of my customer.  Again, for my business this is not as crucial because I am not selling a product, I am selling a feature or process.  For the most part, if students are looking for online tutors they are very worried about their grades. I can market my business to talk about how using my business will improve grades dramatically and will increase enjoyment in school and learning.  This will most likely catch the attention of students who are worried about school and who want to do better.  The last variable in market segmentation is product usage.  The product usage of my business or feature is that my clients may want to use the business anytime, and may need a lot of time with a teacher. I must make my product, feature, or website accessible to students anytime they want and for how long ever they want, so that they are happy.  My target market or ideal customer is someone who is in school, around the ages of 10 to 24, very concerned with their grades, lives anywhere with a computer, can pay a small fee, and wants to learn.