If you have your own fashion brand, likely, you will already have an idea of what type of customer you want to attract – this is called your target market. Knowing your target market will help you focus your efforts on attracting those who have a need for your product and will form the basis of your marketing strategy.
Before you can identify your target market successfully, it is important to define your brands aim and what your product features and benefits are. Once you have this clear you will be able to target the segment of the market who are the most likely to benefit from your products. Here are some tips on how to identify your target market.
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Create a customer profile
Analyse your current customer base and what their behaviours are. Are there any similarities between your best customers? Perhaps they are in a similar age group or have the same interests.
Once you are able to define these characteristics, you should have an understanding of who has the biggest need for your product and who is most likely to buy from you. With this information, you can start looking for new customers with similar characteristics to target.
Choose a specific demographic to target
Choosing a demographic is important, because you don’t want to target the wrong people who have no interest in your product. For example, if your brand is designed specifically for females aged 18 - 25 then it’s unlikely women in their 60’s will be interested in your product or receiving marketing from you.
Targeting the correct demographic will grow your presence with the right customers, save time and money, and increase your return on investment over time. When defining demographics consider the following:
- age
- gender
- income
- location
- interests
- stage of life (i.e. university students, parents, retirees)
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Complete market research
A great way of finding your target market is to talk to them! With social media offering bidirectional communication between customers and brands, it’s easy to find out exactly who your customer is and what they want. You can ask questions and conduct polls and those who respond to the polls are not only your market but could provide you with invaluable information about their preferences and characteristics, which in turn will allow you to define who else you should be targeting.
Review what your competition is doing
There is no harm in keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing. In fact, it’s a good idea to conduct regular competitive shops, to see who their customers are and what characteristics they have - as not only is it likely that your customers are also theirs, they may be reaching segments of the market you are not.
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With a clearly defined target market, it is much easier to reach the right people with your brand. However, it’s important to note that having a clearly defined target market doesn’t mean that you should exclude other markets – just that you are simply focusing on the group of people who are more likely to respond positively to your product and buy from you. What other tips do you have for identifying a target market?
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