Target Market MISTAKES!

So we know that target marketing is important, and that knowing who you are selling to is vital. So what about this ad?



Who are they selling to?
I'm guessing NOT women, maybe to men. But is this ad truly offensive, or is it this side of a fart joke funny?

Personally I think its funny, but not in a good way, in a "Wow, that's SUCH a bad idea that it's hilarious!"

Target Marketing Mojo

Does this body wash make you more manly, or is it to, well, girly?
What about this one, the ultra macho Axe body scrub.

Interesting that the Axe is a higher price than the Dove, maybe it means that men are buying the Axe more than the Dove.
But what about brands that don't have strong marketing campaigns? They still have their products on the shelves, but they generally cost less. However, Irish Spring cost the same as the Dove product.
So which company knows their target market better? Dove, marketing manliness as soft ans strong skin? Axe marketing cleaniness as rough and edgey, or Irish Spring, which doesn't market aggressively, but relies on a strong constumer base and reliablity.
In this case, I'd put my money on Irish Spring.
Just for fun, let's compare a Gatorade commercial against a Mountain Dew commercial.
VS.
The tarket market of Gatorade is athletes and people who want to be athletes or feel like athletes. The Target market for Mountain Dew? College Kids, 20 and 30 somethings who like to think they are edgy.
So you are what you drink! At least Marketers hope that we believe that...

Has Target Marketing got a Bullseye on you?

Most of us know that companies talior marketing to fit the people they want to buy their product. But are we aware of how present it is in our lives?
There is marketing in ads, but what about marketing in the grocery store?
Marketing is so much more than a well place advertisment or a catchy commercial.
Target Marketing is knowing who your customer is, what their needs are, and what will persude them to purchase your product.
Is your market teens who have extra cash and think they will live for ever? Maybe you can sell them coffee by playing up the thrilling effects and the adult qualities of your coffee product.
What about the market of retired couples whose children have left home? if you want to sell them they same coffee product, you might try marketing it as a luxury, a peaceful moment of rich and fine coffee, and a product that gives them the energy to do the activies they enjoy.
Instead of selling cookies and snacks in big boxes and bags, Nabisco has reformated its cookies and snacks in tiny "100 Calorie Packs" to appeal to calorie and weight concerned customers.
This shows that Nabisco knew it's target market, and knew what would persuade them to buys cookies instead of apples!
Another example of Target marketing done at the product level is what I like to call
Ceral Box Marketing."
This is when the product is intended to appeal to children, and be used by children, but has to be something their parents will approve of. Most ceral boxes have cartoons on them, but they also have nutritional information on the front of the box.
While the kids are attracted to the bright colors and cartoon characters they know and love, the parents feel that they are providing good nutrition to their family. This marketing stragedy has been effective for over 50 years.
Ceral companies charge a hefty fee for this marketing stratedgy.
The same ceral in different boxes by different companies cost a completely different price.
Coca Pebbles cost over three times as much as the Malt-O-Meal brand!
So if you pass over the cheaper bulk ceral for the expensive Coco Pebbles, you've been Target Marketed, and the hit a Bullseye!

Marketing Business 2 Business

As individual consumers, we don't give too much thought to how companies that produce what we buy market to other companies.
But how do my favorite brands end up in the grocery store?
Who builds the parts for cars before they are cars? I'm pretty sure it's not elves.

They only make shoes and cookies...
And mostly importantly, where do mannequins come from?
First, Grocery Stores.
Why is it that WinCo has organic food, and Safeway has national brands like Nabisco and Kraft?
The answer isn't hard; it's because each brand uses their market research to try and figure out WHERE consumers are going to buy their product, and they market their product to that place. Safeway buys all of the stock we see, and sells it to consumers for a higher price.
This is one example of a Business selling to a business. Another is a factory selling cars parts to a major manufactuar like Ford. Ford doesn't make all of it's parts in the factories that assemble the cars, but buys many of them from other companies. It's the job of marketers to know what Ford needs (do they need headlights or brake pads?) and market these products to the company that will buy them.
Finally, manniequins. When you walk into any retail clothing store, you see them. Sometimes they look like very large dolls, sometimes they don't have heads, and sometimes they just look like gray aliens. But have you ever wondered where the retail stores get them?


I have!
There are many factories that make nothing but manniquins, sell them to clothing stores. But what they are really selling are the tools for the retailer to market their clothing items. So they need to sell the idea that their particular style of manniquin is what the retailer needs.

Businesses sell to businessess all the time, but consumers often don't think about it. However, it is important that we do, because knowing what is being bought can give us insight into what EXACTLY we are being sold, whether it is a food, car, or an image.

Consumer Choices

Why did I buy that pair of red high heels?
I didn't really need them, and certainly had no place to wear them.
But I bought them because of how they made me feel: beautiful, powerful, fancy-free, expensive, and generally like a better version of myself.
How can a simple pair of shoes wield such power?
It's partly because how I was raised to think of high heels, and partly because I like to think those things about myself: like to think I'm beautiful, whimsical, fancy-free, and attention worthy.
SO I willingly forked over the price of the shoes so I could put them on and feel dangerous and wonderful.
Am I the only consumer who spends money to buy something intangible?
Hardly!
People are constantly buying things to give them intangible qualities or feelings. It's my opinion that this is the biggest reason that people buy anything beyond the basic neccessities of food and shelter.
And even those have become sellers of intangible things. Drink the right water and you're intelligent for choosing it,
eat the right snacks and you're healthy.
There are a host of other reason why consumers choose what to buy, such as reseach, information, word of mouth, curiousity, social pressure, and sometimes, need. But I do think that a large number of consumer choose what to buy based on who they want to be. I even believe that a person could figure out not only what they consider to be important, but could find out what they want from life, if they sat down and looked at everything they bought.

Market Research: What do people want?

What DO people want?
Money, time, sex, food, friends, probably more sex, entertainment, safety...the list goes on and on.
But what are people willing to pay for?
This is the ultimate question the marketers need to find out. To find the answer, they have to conduct what is called Market Research, and collect data about what people already buy, which people buy it, and conduct studies where they ask certain groups (usually their target market) what they think of their products and their competitors product.
Remember when people used to stop you in the mall to ask your opinion on seemingly random stuff? Market Research.
How about when people hand out free stuff along with your purchase?
Market research. They want to see if your demographic (the people who bought what you just bought) are interested in their product.

Now for some flair and piazz: Market Research can be entertaining to the consumer!
Have you been to a fair or expo and seen Pepsi vs. Coke booths? At these booths they let you taste test two unknown sodas, and find out which you like best and why. This is fun for the consumer, spreads awarenesss about the product, and gains valuable insights for the reaserch and development teams.
Knowing what people are interested in helps you predict what they will buy and when. A fun example is this video, looking at the joys and pains of producing a seasonal product.
If the executive had done his market rsearch (as his employees clearly had) he would have any reason to worry....and we wouldn't have any reason to laugh!

Planning: Market Magic

An important part of Marketing in stratedgy, having a plan of what you are going to market and how. Are you going to market to teenagers or adults without children? Once you've figured out who you are going to market too, (your target market) your need to figure out how to best reach them and encourage them to buy your product.
This job is done by the mid-level marketing managers. They get the broad plan from upper level management (SELL TWINKIES TO TEENS!) and have to figure out how to do it.
Right now a very popular way of promoting a product in by hosting a contest, or making an amusing video: See this video for the Kindle, made by the contest winners.
This video was so successful the markers made several more like it.
I think that the some of the best ads come from peaple inspired by a contest, or people working in the lower levels of a company. It's the job of the mid-level manager to find these people with good ideas and give them ways to express their vision. Video contests is the current way to do this, and has been wildly successful.
When repositioning their product to a new market focused on college-aged women and young professional women, Kotex held a contest and the winner made this popular video.
It has been very effective in setting the tone for the repositioning of the product.
Commercials that came after where simialr in tone, though lacking some of the magic of the first one.

Bottom line: videos are effective, and holding a contest may both help you gather market research and great marketing ideas.