How do you think you would feel if you were told that the Marketing teams of Zippo, Hot Wheels and Castrol didn’t care for you as a consumer? Why on earth would they NOT want to care about you? Come to think of it, why WOULD they?
Not all marketers would want to care for all kinds of consumers. That, would be a BIG waste of time. And highly inefficient too. Because there is no such thing as an infinite marketing budget. And a smart marketer would want to use it only to address a select section of IMPORTANT consumers rather than the whole Universe! That, would be more focussed. That would help him cater to the needs of that segment of consumers really well. That segment is what the Marketer would call his Target Audience. An audience he would CHOOSE to address in his marketing efforts. Rather than being everything to everybody (which would end up being nothing to nobody), he would want his brand to mean SOMETHING to SOMEBODY! To cater to 20 consumers well he would happily sacrifice the remaining 80!
That’s something you ought to do as well, as a personal brand. Like the brands mentioned above, you too need to have your ‘Target Audience’. Not everyone you interact with in life should be part of your Target Audience. That would be YOUR Universe. A Target Audience has to be CHOSEN. And when you choose something, you necessarily have to give up something else.
A Brand chooses a Target Audience because it has the highest chance of success with that Target Audience. And it stands to gain immensely when that Target Audience engages with it. Who would you as a personal brand gain immensely from? In the Marketing world, Brands are a means to business profitability. In the personal branding world, your personal brand is a means to achieving your own individual goals. Those goals may be monetary or non-monetary. Either which way, if there is somebody or some group of people who are likely to take you closer to your goals, they are good enough to be included in your Target Audience!
Let’s say one of your short-term goals is to become Head of your Department in the next 3-4 years. Questions you would want to ask yourself are.. Who would take the decision to make you Head of Department? Who all would influence such a person to take that decision? Which people would actively help you and your work be visible to all these influencers? Which people’s lives would be positively affected in your own journey to your goals? ALL these people should be part of your Target Audience. Sure, some people would behave differently from others. They would all have broadly similar or different value systems from yours. Doesn’t really matter.
What does matter is that there is something about you that appeals to all of them; that they all value. And which will make them WANT to facilitate your growth. You need to find out what that is. You need to understand their mindset, their beliefs, their needs. What is it that motivates them, keeps them going, what problems do they face and how do they tackle these problems? You need to understand how they behave with other people competing with you. And how in turn these competitors of yours are engaging with them. More importantly you need to be clear about what it is that you can do to help them, serve them so that they in turn propel your growth.
You must assess how you are communicating with them currently. Are you visible to them? Are you reaching out to them? Are you building a relationship with them? How would you know? Have you ever cared to find out? Have you sought feedback about yourself from them? What do they think about you and perceive you as? Do all of them have the same perceptions of you? Are they different? How widely do these perceptions differ? Why?
There may be various sets of people who might matter to you, who are all part of your Target Audience. Which of these are more important than others? Why? In what way are they different? Do they need special focus from your side?
Sounds like a truckload of questions doesn’t it? It is likely that you may have answers to all these questions. Or you may have answers to none. That is not the point. The point is to be aware that such and more questions exist and that finding the answers are all part of the personal brand development journey.
In the previous part we discussed how it is critical to first define your own role in life. Which in turns shows you how colourful your landscape is. Can you see now how this has a direct bearing on your choice of Target Audience. The wider your landscape, the bigger the role you define for yourself, the larger your Target Audience, the more the segments therein! If you are a teacher, your Target Audience may consist only of your students OR your students and other teachers OR students, teachers and the principal OR all of these and the Ministry of Education! Depends on how wide you have set your playing arena.
If you were a non-smoker, Zippo wouldn’t give two hoots about you. Neither would Hot Wheels if you were a grown-up nor would Castrol if you didn’t own an automobile. Part of the game! Similarly why would you want to worry about people outside your Target Audience? Don’t be disrespectful but don’t get stressed out over what these people think. Your focus, your energy, your priorities have to be directed towards your Target Audience and only your Target Audience.
Who all could be part of your Target Audience? Your spouse. Your family members. Your friends circle. Your peer group in general. Your neighbours. Your club members. Your boss. Your office colleagues. Your employees. Your business associates. Your customers. I’ve even seen management form opinions about employees on the basis of what canteen staff felt about certain people!
When you choose your Target Audience make sure you are objective about it. Don’t choose a particular segment because you don’t want to leave them out. Because whoever you choose, you will have to be committed to. And make an effort to mean something to them. For example, don’t include your family in your Target Audience just because you don’t want to neglect them in your efforts. You need to play to WIN, not play NOT TO LOSE! If they are not going to play a role in facilitating your success, out they go! They are an important part of your life, they may even be dependent on you. You don’t have to neglect them. But they may not necessarily be part of your Target Audience.
You and only you can decide who YOUR Target Audience can and should be. Because only you know what your Universe is. Only you can sense what role (if any) people in that Universe are capable of playing in your life. Nobody else can decide that for you. Nobody else would have a clue about it. And if you apply your mind and take the effort, working out your Target Audience will be cakewalk.
There’s no point in creating a strong personal brand if you don’t know who you’re creating it for. After all brands exist only in the minds of their consumers. Whose minds do you want YOUR personal brand to exist in? Which people in your life do want your brand to bond with? Define them today. Tomorrow they will help you define your future!
In case you want to share who your Target Audience might be with myself and readers of this Blog, post it as a comment on this article. Not only will you get clarity about yourself, you might just set an example and inspire other readers as well!
{ 0 comments… add one now }