Two Ways To Fine-tune Your Audience For Better Brand Placement

Post created by Eric Burton | Updated on December 18, 2023

The best way to fine-tune your audience and find your place in the market is by understanding the role of your consumer. Believe it or not, they do not simply want to buy the thing you are selling. They are looking to solve a need, whether personal, for family, or for their community. And usually, these consumers are on a journey, which follows a path similar to this:

The consumer experiences a problem or has a need
The consumer seeks a solution to the problem or need
The consumer experiences a solution found through a product or service

Although sometimes it becomes a bit more of an intuitive journey for the consumer, a business owner should be aware of this process, because it is repeated each time a consumer decides to purchase goods.

What Is A Consumer?

If at this point, you haven’t formed a clear image of your ideal consumer, then now is the perfect time to get to know them.

We define a consumer as the person who consumes an item considered to be a good. For example, let’s say we have a mother of a seven-year-old girl who purchases a chocolate sundae and a popsicle from an ice cream stand. She and her daughter eat the ice cream, effectively consuming the item or good. They are consumers.

That is not to say all goods are meant for eating or literal human consumption. The point here is that consumers make purchases, which is an exchange of currency for goods. When the word good is used in marketing and sales, it is an envelope term meant to sum up the experiential use of a tangible or intangible item. This means a good can be one of three things: a food item, a non-contractual or contractual service, or an item used to fulfill a personal need.

When a consumer comes into your place of business or interacts with any of its touchpoints, they are typically seeking out goods in response to a need. For this, they are again, willing to exchange money, but they will of course need to determine first, whether or not your company has the right solution.

"Needs are problems a person might have, which are solvable with an action [service] or good."

As A Business Owner, How Can I Prepare To Solve Consumer Needs?

Sometimes the solution to customer needs [goods and services] is not all that different from what other companies can offer. To be honest, it is a broad and complicated task to understand your consumer’s behaviors. But a great starting point is taking ownership of the idea that the most responsible thing we can do as business owners is to get to know these consumers as people and to consider them as such. Consumers are people, and people have personalities, habits, motivations, values, and emotions. All those elements are influenced by their environment: society, politics, religion, and personal experiences. If we want to learn how to solve consumer needs when they seek out our business as a solution, then we need to understand the demographic our goods are meant to serve. Here’s how we can start to do that. Three ways in which we can get to know our consumers better:

Setup up a consumer survey. This can provide clues as to what consumers are feeling when it comes to your brand placement, products, or service.
Create a focus group. This enables you to bring a group of consumers into one space and ask them direct questions. A lot of times, they will be willing to talk about their interests, goals, habits, and needs.
Research social media. Sometimes we can gain insight into social behaviors, motivations, values, and desires.

Remember, consumers come from many different communities and backgrounds, have different income levels, and respond to many different topics on the political spectrum. Another great way to prepare is by knowing your product. Understand that the willingness to sell goods does not mean they are meant to solve the needs of every consumer

Photo by Christina@wheintechchat.com on Unsplash.

Evaluate Whether Or Not Your Goods Match Your Consumer

Once you’ve learned more about your consumers and their needs, you’ll have to consider whether or not your goods actually target them. To be the desired buying outcome, your product needs to be functional and desirable to those within a tight niche, or at least within certain societal and cultural parameters. If you find that your ideal consumer doesn’t fit, then it’s time to reevaluate your brand and product placement.

Something you’ll always notice is that goods in your market are plentiful. There may be hundreds or even thousands of companies with the same type of offerings. If you are having a hard time matching your goods to your consumer, it may be that your company is less visible, because it does not fit the target audience.
For example, let’s evaluate the consumer from earlier, the mother of the seven-year-old girl. For the sake of the objective here, she is having trouble with the dietary needs of herself and her growing child while balancing a nine-to-five job. This is what we would call a Pain Point or a consumer’s need.

Like every modern consumer, she begins her research on the internet. While doing so, she finds a few subscription services. In fact, five companies deliver perishable goods to homes once per week for a fee. For her, that doesn’t seem to be quite enough.

But then on her second attempt at research, she comes across a service with something more unique.

This company offers prepackaged prepared meals to their consumers. They even have tailored meals and nutritional planning for children. Getting this service, not only cuts down the time for food preparation but aims food choices directly at the intake and nutrition needs of her seven-year-old. It’s perfect. This consumer has found a company that understands her pain point or need.

In the above example, the company that provided the best solution for the consumer wasn’t a one-size-fits-all service. It was within the specific range of services the consumer sought but offered something just a little more specified for children.

Conclusion

Knowing your consumers could potentially widen the gap between a mediocre service and one that fits well with its consumers. While understanding the strengths of your product is great, being empathetic towards the needs of your audience means your company understands the foundational beliefs, morals, and societal systems at play. This can be far more valuable for solidifying consumer relationships in the long term. If this type of empathy is held at the center of the conversation while developing a product or service, then there’s a greater chance the consumers will form a lasting ecosystem around your company and brand.

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About The Author

Eric Burton, Brand Identity Designer

Eric is a visual identity designer and brand strategist who helps small businesses launch new products and services with content-driven solutions for print and web-based media.

With over five years of experience in graphic design, working in various industries and environments, from manufacturing and non-profit to freelance and collaborative. he enjoys working with executives, LOB leaders, vendors, and printers to ensure quality and consistency across all channels and platforms.

His mission is to create impactful and engaging designs that connect with a business’s target audience to achieve goals such as increasing brand awareness, trust, loyalty, growth and equity.

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2 Ways To Fine-tune Your Audience For Better Brand Placement