The Pros and Cons To Target Marketing

When you start a business you typically begin it by identifying what your target market is. You need to know what your target market is so that you can easily start offering products to people that are actually interested in them. Market research is a great way to help you find out who your target market is so you can start to make the right decisions and to make an impact in your industry. However just because you have identified a target market doesn't always mean that this is who you are limited to. There are many other smaller markets known as niche markets that you need to consider as well. These smaller groups can earn you a great deal of revenue so you need to take the time to look outside the target market and get to know all the groups out there. Let's explore more on the pros and cons to target marketing.

What is target marketing?
Before we dive into the pros and cons we have to consider the simple question of figuring out what target marketing actually is. When you are using target marketing you are advertising to a special consumer group that is "likely" to buy the products that you sell. This group has been identified through marketing research methods and other things. The point of it is to know that you have an audience to rely on that will purchase your products no matter what.

When you do some market research on your target market you will normally find that this audience is guaranteed to purchase your products no matter what happens. However they may start to dwindle over the years if you do not change up your products or provide them with new products and things. It is important that you consider doing market research surveys often in order to find out what you can do to help keep your customers interested in what you have to offer and to focus your efforts on providing new products to your market.

Elements in target marketing
As you break down your target market you have to look at the following categories:
- Gender
- Age
- Income
- Social status
- Location

These are some broad categories to choose from that will help you in identifying your target market. You do need to make sure that you are looking at how you can break down the various target market into smaller categories that can help you to find new customers to get in touch with.

Cons to Target Marketing
When you are breaking down your market you do need to be aware that your target market is not the only thing that you can turn to. Sometimes companies only limit themselves to this market and they do not branch out. It is important that you work on getting surveys and other things that can help you to branch out and learn that you have new customers out there.

Initially target marketing is usually a good thing to start with but you have to make sure that you are not limited yourself to this market. One of the things that you need to work on as you are doing some market research information is by working on finding out which products that your customers want to have combined together.

Some of the changing elements that you want to work on when you are looking at finding your target audience is by looking at their income. Income can change and with the recovery from the recession and many customers dealing with tighter budgets, you have to be careful about losing income. This is why you have to build up reserves.