the watch of time

Anyone with entrepreneurial experience, or at least spirit, can understand the vital role of target marketing. Efficient targeting helps reduce, if not efface, some expenses of time and dollars in getting goods or services delivered to consumers. Launching and building a successful enterprise continues to require some lucky timing and dedicated, hard work. However, in an everchanging environment, no matter what is being promoted, even successful approaches need review and updating.

Repeatedly, anecdotal evidence illustrates there are some core rules of thumb for developing a target market:

• Don’t cast a net too large, making it difficult to identify the most promising base
• Conversely, don’t cast a net too narrowly, which can cut off a viable, wider circle
• Be prepared to have more than one marketing test, so comparative results can be evaluated, taking account of overall appeal while identifying components which are most appealing

As one might expect, there are many other potential pitfalls in developing target strategies:

• If resorting to darts, don’t assume cosmic forces will influence throws at a demographically contoured map in a meaningful way
• Colour uniformity in designs does not guarantee an image of elegance, especially if florescent
• If sponsoring an outdoor garden event, be sure your product or service stands out, but not like a sore green thumb
• Be sure that sampler packs don’t include cast offs from quality control
• When exhibiting at trade shows, be careful about using nostalgic looking promo material draped with faded sepia and a pre-1980s issue date
• If you ‘run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it’, watch which fingers are used if someone actually does
• Be wary of acronyms which may be read like antonyms by potential market segments
• If you seemingly hit a ‘bull’s eye’ with a fad item, pepper the field of vision with as many arrows as possible