An Overview of Demographics

Understanding the demographics of your target market is absolutely essential when running a business. This is where you begin to determine who your target market really is. Attempting to sell things to people who’d clearly not have a need for your product is simply a waste of time. Which is exactly why you need to put some serious effort into discovering who your target market really is. 

How old is your target market? Age is a crucial thing to evaluate when your establishing who it is that will exactly be interested in your product. Different age groups will have needs for wildly different kinds of products. Attempting to sell dentures to teenagers is not going to be an effective business model. Trying to sell skateboards to 65-year olds is going to be an impossible challenge. You’ll probably never see a day where a company like snapchat begins its spike in popularity by targeting 50-year olds. Age is a crucial factor that can make or break your marketing strategy. Identifying the kinds of problems and interests that each age group may have is a key to success. Evaluate your product and target the proper age group or else you’ll always be struggling to find customers. Also, remember that sometimes when selling things to children that it might be their parents that you need to target since their going to be the ones purchasing the product. Kids will usually harass parents to get them the things they want, and think are cool but it’s a much easier sale when the parents are aware of where to purchase said products.

What gender does your target market consist of? Statistically speaking men and women tend to have vast difference in interests. Discovering whether your product is best suited for men, women or both will significantly increase your chances of success in business. For example, let’s say you’re running a blog about the NFL you will have much more success when focusing primarily on male viewership. Yes, there are women who enjoy the NFL and you’d want to attract their attention as well, but you’ll find far more progress while targeting men. Whereas, cosmetic products will be far easier to get women to buy and use. Some men will buy cosmetic products for themselves and people they give gifts to, but you’ll be able to sell far more lipstick to women rather than men. 

What’s the relationship status of your target market? Do you have a product that people in a specific type of relationship won’t be interested in? Attempting to sell single people on a romantic getaway is not going to be an easy task. Couples are far more likely to do something like take a trip to Paris than a single person would be. If you’re trying to operate a dating app it’s not a good marketing strategy to target older couples. Ensure your product is not being targeted to peoples whose relationship will interfere with them wanting to consume your product. 

How much income does your target market generate? Certain people simply don’t have room in their budgets for a lot of products. A cook who only makes $20,000 a year is not going to be able to buy something such as a luxury car. A person who makes $300,000 a year probably isn’t going to buy a cheap product when a more expensive and higher quality version of said product exists. That doesn’t mean people with high incomes don’t like cheap products though it’s just that they can afford the highest quality of product so ensure you’re better than the competition. To be able to target every income level you need the highest quality product while also being able to make said product available at a price that people who don’t make much money can afford.

What kind of education does your target market have? A high school dropout probably isn’t going to have the same interest in reading that someone with a bachelor’s degree does. Someone who went to school for art will be more likely to buy paint than another person who took math-based programs in college. English majors are more likely to buy books, writing materials and software. A person that went to school for accounting probably isn’t going to need your budgeting app. Excellent marketing strategies can be developed by catering to people based off types of education and levels of education.

What does your target market do for a living? Certain occupations will tend to lead people to purchase specific kinds of products. Lawyers wear suits and make loads of money which is exactly why if you’re in the suit, tie, pocket square, or cuff link business it’s a good idea to target lawyers. If you sell high quality scissors it’d probably be a great idea to contact every single hairdresser and barber humanly possible. A housewife will have very different purchasing habits than a marketing director will. If you have beautiful looking property than there’s probably an Instagram influencer who’d love to take a picture there. A person who’s unemployed could probably find more use in a resume writing service than someone who already has an amazing job would. Knowing a person’s occupation can also help you discover what income level they’re at and how educated they are.

Does your target market own or rent their home? For many businesses this is super crucial information to have. Let’s say for example you are in the furnace business it is of the utmost importance whether or not people own or rent their home. Advertising furnaces to people who rent their homes would be a gigantic waste of time and money. You’re just simply never going to buy a furnace, hire roofers or get somebody to put up dry wall if you rent your home. Home repair is usually the responsibility of the landlord therefore it’s super rare for someone who rents their home to go and purchase home improvement products. 

Notice that there are common themes within demographics that tend to coincide with one another. Certain demographical traits are correlated with one another. For example, if you’re a doctor than that means you probably went to multiple post-secondary institutions, make over $150,000 a year, own a home and are over the age of 26. Whereas a 36-year-old dishwasher would probably not be highly educated, have a lot of money or own a home. Of course, with anything there is always going to be exceptions to any assumptions that may be made. However, a lot of the time you can put together a demographic profile for a person by only knowing one or two traits that they possess. As you get more experience with identifying target markets, you’ll begin to see more and more patterns.