Tsoy Marina Evgenievna k. e. PhD, Associate Professor, Head of Marketing Department, Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU)
Shchekoldin Vladislav Yurievich Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Market Theory, Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU)
Children and teenagers as the most branded audience
Global brands represent powerful means of influencing the consumer, reflecting the ideas offered by product manufacturers and marketers, but also the general state of the market in which they operate. Brands can influence the changes taking place in the market, the state of society, in particular, the behavior of consumers of products in this market. In turn, within the society are naturally formed homogeneous groups consumers with relatively similar responses to market changes and marketing stimuli used. One of key indicators determining the behavior of these groups is the reaction of consumers. Some consumers prefer traditional goods and services, others are happy to try something new, which becomes fashionable and popular over time.
An example of such a target group are children and adolescents, who are an attractive, progressive and profitable audience, and, among other things, evolve as consumers, from using pocket money and parents' funds to becoming independent buyers, while remaining loyal to the brands with which, one way or another, they have been familiar since childhood.
When working with a children's target audience, marketers successfully use the fact that children are better and often more positive than advertising-tired adults, respond to marketing incentives and can get more satisfaction not from the quality of the consumed product, but from its brand (popular name) .
Therefore, it is very important to adequately assess the perception of popular brands by children, not only in terms of stimulating and improving sales efficiency, but also in order to form socially adapted members of society who are able to correctly determine the usefulness and necessity of relevant products and services.
Modern approaches to the study of children as consumers in branding
Although children begin to recognize brands at an early age, the impact of branding on children's food preferences has rarely been studied in controlled laboratory settings. For example, Robinson et al. have done research with children preschool age to determine the impact of placing the McDonaid's logo on fast food packaging that was not actually associated with the brand. As a result, food offered in McDonald’s-branded packaging aroused more liking among respondents than unbranded food, with results about the same for french fries and hamburgers, as well as for fresh carrots, which are not included in the assortment offered by McDonald’s at all.
A number of similar studies have found that children enjoy (or seem more enticing) snacks (in other cases, breakfast cereals) in packages with popular cartoon characters on them than those presented in simple packages, regardless of whether whether the proposed foods were healthier or sweeter.
It's possible that popular brands reduce children's and teens' levels of neophobia about a new product, making it safer and more familiar. On the other hand, using well-known brands and favorite characters to promote a product can serve as another value-adding incentive.
At the same time, there is a reverse trend - with the accumulation of real personal experience interaction with brands, there may be a decrease in the degree of brand visualization in the minds of consumers. Therefore, we can conclude that when studying brand visualization, it is important to distinguish between two ways of fixing it in the mind of the consumer: the use of a logo and with the help of a well-recognized visual image(Images).
Another aspect that is important in studying the perception of brands by children is the study of their reaction to various elements of advertising, for example, the presence of inscriptions and images that inspire confidence; warning messages; the use of attention-grabbing and memorable images (“images of vampires”), etc. A similar study was conducted at the Institute for Marketing and Innovation of the University of Hamburg under the guidance of prof. Dr. T. Teichert. It included examining the impact of warning and credibility-building labels in advertising a non-existent chocolate drink to German schoolchildren. As a result, it was found that such inscriptions and messages had a different effect depending on the age, gender and taste preferences of children - the youngest treated the inscriptions adequately and disciplined, middle-class children (12-14 years old), as a rule, showed the opposite trend - the reaction to the inscription with the warning made them want to violate the recommendations. Older children perceived the inscriptions correctly and with an understanding of why they exist and how this could be related to their consumption of this product.
Factors influencing the assessment of the perception of brands by the children's target audience
Today, there is a wide range of different approaches to assessing brand perception by consumers. As a rule, they include the definition in one form or another of indicators that affect the assessment of the brand by the target group.
One of these methods is factor analysis, which allows, by studying the totality of initial indicators of factors based on the definition of equivalence classes, to identify the so-called latent (hidden) factors that determine the behavior of the indicator of interest. An example of a study of this kind, conducted by the authors, is the study of applicants' preferences when choosing a university, i.e., factor analysis made it possible to identify the true causes of consumer behavior, characterized by latent factors.
However, the application factor analysis can lead to a number of difficulties, primarily related to the interpretability of the identified latent factors. In particular, in the mentioned works, some of the homogeneity classes did not receive a correct interpretation, which was explained by the insufficient level of identifiability of the results obtained.
In this study, it was decided to use a different way of assessing brand perception by consumers, which is based on the use of the apparatus expert assessments and the method of analysis of Saaty hierarchies, and also, importantly, on the use of the basic model of consumer behavior proposed by F. Kotler.
Since 2011, a joint project of the Institute of Marketing and Innovations of the University of Hamburg and Novosibirsk State Technical University has been implemented in the person of the Marketing Department and the Department of Market Theory in the field of studying children's purchasing behavior under the guidance of prof. Dr. T. Teichert, Dr. T. Effertz, Ph.D. n. Associate Professor M.E. Tsoi and Ph.D. associate professor V.Yu. Shchekoldin.
The study of brand perception by children and adolescents is based on the experience of German colleagues led by T. Teichert, who developed a coherent system of indicators that allows quantifying quality characteristics brand values. The authors adapted this methodology to the Russian version of the international study, in particular, by modifying the corresponding questionnaires, selection of relevant and well-interpreted concepts in domestic terminology. The latter is due to the fact that a direct translation of the text of the German version of the questionnaires could lead not only to the ambiguity of the questions and the proposed answers, but in some cases even to the respondents' misunderstanding of their essence.
Based on the methodology of T. Teichert, the following factors were identified that determine the perception of the brand by the respondents:
- X 1 - the degree of consumer awareness of the brand;
- X 2 - the degree of visualization of the brand by the logo;
- X 3 - consumer impressions of brand advertising.
According to F. Kotler's model of consumer behavior, factor X 1 is defined as a combination of previous experience of purchasing behavior and marketing incentives perceived by the consumer.
As for the X 2 factor, it can be interpreted as the interaction of various characteristics of purchasing behavior (personal, psychological, social and cultural factors), as well as the possible influence on their values and the dynamics of the experience of previous purchasing behavior. Here it is also important to understand that there are two concepts - "trademark" and "logo", which, despite the similarity of the content, have significant differences. The difference is that "trademark" can be anything geometric figure or another symbol, and the "logo" most often consists of the company name and brand name.
Factor X 3 is largely determined by the cumulative impact on consumer behavior of the marketing incentives used, as well as a number of its psychophysical characteristics (the so-called "emotional component").
The values of these three basic factors cannot be estimated only on the basis of the results of answers to one question of the questionnaire (for example, “Indicate the degree of your awareness of this brand”) due to its high degree of generality. This means the need to build some hierarchical structure that describes the process of forming the values of these factors. A natural way to develop such a structure is the method of analyzing Saaty hierarchies.
To build matrices of paired comparisons of indicators that make up the values of the three basic factors, a group of experts was formed with the involvement of specialists from both sides of the project (Germany and Russia). The result was a hierarchical structure of factors, shown in Figure 1. The values expressed as numerical indicators represent the importance of each of the elements of the structure for the factor higher in the hierarchy.
Rice. one. Hierarchical structure of factors
The following factors were chosen as factors of the lower levels of the hierarchical structure:
for factor X 1
X 11 - the degree of brand recognition;
X 12 - degree of brand awareness;
X 13 - the degree of use of brand products;
for factor X 2:
X 21 - emotional evaluation brand by its logo;
X 22 - score appearance brand products by its logo;
X 23 - conformity of the brand's products to the ideal according to its logo;
for factor X 3:
X 31 - the degree of persuasiveness of brand advertising, which was shown to the respondents;
formed by factors of the third level of the hierarchy:
X 311 - credibility of advertising;
X 312 - the degree of trust in advertising;
X 313 - the degree of reliability of information in advertising;
X 34 - emotional perception of advertising by the respondent, determined by the following factors third level:
X 341 - emotional reaction to advertising;
X 342 - the degree of motivation of the respondent to purchase brand products;
X 343 - the degree of targeting of advertising in relation to the respondent.
In addition, the values of the indicator being assessed (the perception of the brand by the respondent) also have a hierarchical structure, set by the factors of the second level:
Y 1 - subjective assessment of the quality of brand products;
Y 2 - the degree of interest of the respondent in the brand's products;
Y 3 - the degree of approval of the brand products by the respondent.
Based on the presented statement of the problem, it is necessary to study the statistical characteristics of the listed indicators and develop an econometric model that allows predicting the values of brand perception by the respondent based on the known values of exogenous factors X 1 , X 2 and X 3 .
Description and objectives of the study
Currently, about 30 million children (residents of the Russian Federation under the age of 17) are registered in Russia, which amounted to more than 20% of the population. In one of the largest cities of the Russian Federation - Novosibirsk - according to the data Federal Service According to state statistics for the NSO, at the beginning of 2012, there were approximately 255 thousand children (17.5% of the total population of the city) . The difference between this indicator and the average for Russia is quite explainable by the fact that in areas with more severe weather conditions, the number of children in families is on average less than in areas with a warmer and milder climate. Another factor in the emergence of such a situation may be the dominant religious views that influence the processes of formation of family values.
At the same time, Novosibirsk can be considered as good example to study the purchasing behavior of children and adolescents, both in a regional context, and to describe the situation in Russia as a whole. It can be considered quite typical for many cities in Russia, with the exception of Moscow and St. Petersburg, which are distinguished by significant differences in the level wages and quality of life of the population.
A number of global and local brands are represented in Novosibirsk Catering, among which are such international brands as Carl's Jr, KFC, Subway, etc., as well as developing local ones - "Uncle Doner", "Baby Potato", "Russian Pancakes", "Teremok", etc. It is known also that in 2013 McDonald's plans to open 10 restaurants in all areas of the city. In addition, other major players, such as Burger King and Pizza Hat, are also showing interest in the Urals and Western Siberia market.
In the framework of this study, in 2012, a survey of children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 years was conducted in school institutions in Novosibirsk under the guidance of the authors.
When selecting respondents, the idea of a multilevel cluster sampling was implemented, consisting in the fact that at the first stage, the school institutions of Novosibirsk participating in the study were randomly determined, and at the second stage, classes (from 5 to 11) were randomly selected for testing. As a result, 603 general education students were interviewed. educational institutions. Distribution of the interviewed target audience by classes of training is presented in table 1.
Table 1 Distribution of the surveyed target audience by classes
The analysis of the received questionnaires recognized 587 out of 603 (97.3%) as valid, due to the fact that some of the questionnaires were incorrectly or incompletely filled out.
In the survey, children were asked to express their attitudes towards fast food products based on viewing logos and specially designed promotional images, which included both global and fake brands. This made it possible to determine whether the attitude of children to the same products presented by different brands (including unknown ones) will change. The questionnaire contained 27 questions regarding the perception of the proposed brands and their characteristics, while the importance scale ( Likert ) and the semantic differential were used to measure behavioral and emotional response.
When assessing the degree of influence famous brand(McDonald’s), fictitious brand names (fake) in Latin and Cyrillic alphabets were created for children to choose fast food products in order to separate global and local ones: FastyJu and Tinar. At the same time, the respondents were offered the same advertising images with different logo options for each of the brands, which ensured the homogeneity of the study. In each class, children were shown the image and logo of only one of the three brands, which made it possible to exclude direct comparison of brands with each other by children. If respondents were offered all three brands at once, it is obvious that McDonald’s ratings would significantly exceed the corresponding fake ratings, which would not allow revealing the real attitude of children to certain logos and images of brands.
A similar approach to the study of brand perception was recommended by G.B. Achenreiner and D.R. John. Examples of advertising images and logos used in the survey are shown in Figure 2.
The distribution of the studied brands among the respondents is presented in Table 2. Since there were different numbers of students in the classes of the schools in which the surveys were conducted, the final distribution among different brand names was not entirely uniform.
table 2 Distribution of studied brands among respondents
On the basis of the survey data obtained, it was required to determine the presence of differences in the perception of the types of brands by children and adolescents and in the evaluation of the corresponding consumer properties.
Correlation and regression analysis of the brand perception assessment model
The data obtained from the survey was used to build and identify a model for assessing brand perception. The first stage of this process was the study of the influence of the factors identified above (see Fig. 1) on the response values - the Y indicator, which determines the degree of brand perception, for which a correlation analysis was carried out. A visual analysis of the correlation fields (Fig. 3) revealed that they have shapes that are elongated along certain directions, which indicates the presence of a relationship between the variables. The field estimates are the scattering ellipses shown in Figure 3. Moreover, in the case of a pair of variables (X 1 ,Y), it is noticeable that the ellipse has a more spherical shape than the other two, which means a less pronounced linear dependence. According to the values of the pair correlation coefficients, which turned out to be equal to 0.439, 0.648 and 0.673, respectively, based on the Student's criterion, the assumption of a linear relationship was confirmed. Figure 3 also shows plots of diagonal pairwise regressions, along which the correlation fields are drawn.
Rice. 3. Correlation fields, scatter ellipses, and diagonal regressions
The next logical stage of the study was the construction and identification of a linear model of multiple regression in the form:
Y = θ 0 + θ 1 X 1 + θ 2 X 2 + θ 3 X 3 + ε , (1)
where θ 0 , θ 1 , θ 2 , θ 3 are the model parameters to be estimated, ε is the random error of the model, against which the standard assumptions of regression analysis are made (about zero mathematical expectation, homoscedasticity and uncorrelation).
Before proceeding to the identification of the proposed model, let's consider the distribution of the values of the factors X 1 , X 2 , and X 3 depending on the brand type. Figure 4 shows histograms for the indicator X 1 (the degree of consumer awareness of the brand), while the left histogram corresponds to a global brand, the right one to a local fake, and the middle one to a global fake. The same sequence will be preserved in the analysis of other distributions of factors.
Each respondent indicated their attitude towards a certain property of the proposed brand, while using the following designations of possible answers (marked along the abscissa in Figures 4, 5 and 6):
Rice. four. Awareness distributions
Rice. 5. Distribution of brand visualization degree values by logo
Rice. 6. Distribution of consumer impression values from brand advertising
1 - the studied property is absolutely uncharacteristic for a given brand;
2 - the property under study is most likely uncharacteristic for a given brand;
3 - the studied property is possibly uncharacteristic for a given brand;
4 - it is impossible to say anything definite about the presence of this property for a given brand (in the scale of the semantic differential, this corresponds to the answer "I don't know");
5 - the studied property is possibly typical for a given brand;
6 - the property under study, most likely characteristic of a given brand;
7- the investigated property fully corresponds to this brand.
At the same time, in the questionnaire itself, the children did not choose from the listed complex formulations. Instead, they were asked to express their attitude to the property under study on a graphically depicted scale of the semantic differential, in which only the extreme values of the property of interest were mentioned. For example, when answering the question “How often do you eat the products of this fast food brand?”, the most polar categories “Never” and “Regularly” were indicated.
Comparison of the histograms in Figure 4 allows us to conclude that the vast majority of respondents are very well informed about the products of the global brand, while when considering fakes, the situation changes significantly. Despite the fact that both global and local fakes are invented within the framework of the study, many respondents confidently indicated their knowledge of the brand, and only for the global fake, more than 20% of respondents noted complete lack of information about this brand. Such results can be explained by the fact that children and adolescents tend to try to be more knowledgeable than they really are, which leads to an overestimation of the awareness indicator.
A similar trend will be clearly visible in all other factors, because, having demonstrated a high degree of brand awareness, the child is forced to continue to adhere to the chosen line of behavior - to try to endow the fake with certain properties and associate it with some real brands (their logos, advertising, etc.). etc.).
Figure 5 shows the distribution of values of the indicator X 2 .
Here it can be noted that all three histograms have the highest mode with an average value of the indicator equal to 4. The highest degree of visualization is achieved for the global brand, which is logical, since it is well-known and popular, despite its absence in the regional market of Novosibirsk. A distinctive feature of global and local fakes is the presence of a second pronounced fashion, with the value of the indicator equal to one, which means that respondents demonstrate complete ignorance of brands, due to their fictitious nature.
In addition, there is high degree histogram similarities for global brand and fake. This fact indicates that highly competitive and saturated international market fast food may well contain brands unknown to children, and the proposed global fake FastyJu is considered by them as a representative of this particular class. Therefore, the process of visualizing such a brand for a part of the surveyed audience can be similar to the same process for any international fast food brand, including McDonald’s.
Figure 6 shows the distribution of the values of the indicator X 3 .
Again, significant differences in distributions depending on the type of brand can be noted: if for a well-known global brand, the impression of advertising is close to normal (in a characteristic bell-shaped form), then for a global fake it is not at all the case. As well as for the X 2 factor, three categories of respondents are clearly distinguished - with an indicator value close to 1, which means a complete lack of impression from advertising; with an average value close to 4; with the highest value of impression with fashion at X 3 = 6. Perhaps, when answering questions about advertising of an unknown global fake, children had difficulty formalizing their thoughts and impressions, and therefore rushed from one extreme to another. For a local fake fast food, the distribution is quite similar to the distribution for a global brand, which may mean that children are quite receptive to brands of local manufacturers, whose products, as a rule, are more affordable for them (including in terms of price). The difference is noticeable on the left side of the histogram, where there is a second mode, which means that about a fifth of the respondents showed no impression of advertising, which, apparently, is a consequence of the unknownness of the local brand proposed by them.
The final stage of the study was the identification of the proposed linear model of multiple regression (1). The identification results are presented in Table 3, where, in addition to the values of the estimates of the model parameters and the coefficients of determination, the probabilities of rejecting the hypotheses about the significance of the parameters and the significance of the model are indicated (in brackets) (achieved significance levels when checking by the Student and Fisher tests, respectively) or marked, that the parameter turned out to be insignificant, i.e. when the corresponding hypothesis is not rejected.
In view of the fact that all three models turned out to be significant (according to the Fisher criterion), they can be recommended for use in predicting the degree of brand perception by children. The significance of the model for the global fake is somewhat higher than for the other two models, which is probably due only to the fact that the number of observations for this model was about 30% larger (see Table 2).
The parameters corresponding to the free term of the model turned out to be insignificant, and since they accumulate the values of all factors not taken into account in the model and random and systematic errors, it can be assumed that the selected set of indicators (X 1 , X 2 , X 3) is quite sufficient to achieve acceptable results. We also note that in all three cases, the parameter corresponding to the degree of awareness turned out to be weakly significant, which probably means a low degree of influence of this factor on the perception of the brand by children. Note that the value of this parameter turned out to be different in sign for the global and local fakes. In the latter case, the negative value of the parameter 8 will mean that with an increase in the degree of recognition of a local fake, the perception of this brand by children will worsen.
When using models like (1), it is important to be able to rank factors according to the degree of influence on the response. There are a large number of methods for ranking, in this paper we will use the apparatus of elasticity coefficients to solve this problem. Elasticity coefficient (aggregate average), determined by the ratio
where θ 1 is the parameter corresponding to the factor X in the model (1), i ∈ (0,1,2), shows how many percent the value of the response of the model Y will change on average with an increase in the value of the factor X by an average of 1%. Results of calculating the coefficients elasticities for models with parameter estimates from table 3 are presented in table 4.
Table 3 Brand Perception Model Evaluation Results
Table 4 Values of elasticity coefficients
The most understandable and simple situation arises when determining the degree of influence of factors on the perception of a global brand by children: to increase the degree of its perception, factors X 2 and X 3 are equally important, while the influence of factor X is two times less. Indeed, children often choose brands that are "buzz", for example, thanks to the media or the recommendations of friends. The fact that the brand awareness factor is less influential than its visualization and advertising impression can be explained by the absence of McDonald’s in Novosibirsk, but even so, children clearly identify it, thanks to the brand’s active advertising support in the media and especially on television.
A completely different picture emerges when analyzing fakes. First of all, it should be noted that factor X has the weakest effect on the response in both cases, but it has a multidirectional character: with an increase in the degree of awareness of the child, the degree of perception of the global fake increases slightly (3.16%), while for the local fake - decreases (by 6.85%). This means that as the degree of awareness of a local fake increases, the degree of perception of this brand decreases, i.e., the attitude towards it worsens.
As for the X 2 and X 3 indicators, in the case of a global fake, the degree of influence of impressions from advertising is more than one and a half times higher than that of the degree of brand visualization by the logo. With the transition to a local fake, the ratio of the degrees of influence changes - the influence of impressions from advertising still remains more significant, but the difference is reduced to 25% relative to the degree of brand visualization by the logo.
Thus, it can be concluded that in order to increase the degree of brand perception by children in all three cases, the manufacturer or brand holder will increase the impression of children from advertising, which consists of the factors shown in Figure 1. In particular, this advertisement should have a stable emotional perception, i.e. create a strong emotional reaction to the advertisement and be addressed primarily to the target audience of children.
Also, one should not forget that the degree of visualization of the brand by logos is of great importance, where important arguments are the emotional assessment of the brand and the correspondence of the brand logo to consumer ideas about the ideal product in general for the product category.
conclusions
The study of the perception of brands by the children's and teenage audience seems to be quite important, both from the point of view of manufacturers interested in increasing the efficiency of sales, and from the side of authorities government controlled involved in the formation and regulation of policies in the field of education, health, trade and social security. In addition, we should not forget about the interests of children themselves as consumers, who are most affected by numerous marketing and advertising incentives, growing up, they become full-fledged consumers, retaining their habits and preferences acquired in childhood.
The above can be summarized as follows: brand visualization from the logo and the consumer experience of advertising are the most important factors for a popular brand. In the case of a fictitious global brand, children even recognized a non-existent brand: “knew it, heard about it before.” Believing that such a brand already exists, they transferred their impression of its advertising to it, as well as to products.
Thus, if we want to protect children from the unhealthy influence of brands, it is necessary to reduce the degree of exposure to advertising of unhealthy products, such as sugar-sweetened drinks, snacks, fast food products, etc. the federal law"On Advertising" 2006 contains an article on the protection of minors in advertising, which lists a number of requirements and restrictions designed to protect children and adolescents from the undesirable influence of advertising. However, firstly, in most cases it is practically unprovable that advertising has a hidden effect on the child's psyche and thus violates the law. Secondly, these measures are clearly not enough. It is necessary to reduce the volume of advertising of unhealthy products in the media during the showing of children's programs; limit the use of popular characters and cartoon characters for advertising purposes, for example, for a number of children's products, etc.
Titova V.A., Tsoi M.E. Carrying out technology marketing research. - Novosibirsk: Ed. NGTU, 2011. -80 p.
Achenreiner G.B., John D.R. The Meaning of Brand Names to Children: A Developmental Investigation // Journal of Consumer Psychology. – Vol. 13. no. 3. - 2003. - R. 205-219.
Timofeev V.S., Faddeenkov A.V., Shchekoldin V.Yu. Econometrics. - M.: URAIT, 2013. - 334 p.
A business without a customer is a losing business. Starting your own business and peacefully waiting for people to come to give their money is not the most best idea. In view of the high competition in the market for goods and services, an entrepreneur must meet the needs of his consumers. They must be found first. We will give answers to two topical questions: what is the target audience and how to distinguish your client from the general mass of consumers.
The concept of the target audience
Knowing the typical portrait of his consumer, the seller can set certain criteria advertisement and find a potential client. This does not mean that if a businessman does not know how to find the target audience, then his business will face a complete failure. But, what is the cost of advertising campaign will be unjustified and ineffective - a fact.
Types of target audience
Analysis of the target audience led to the conclusion that it is divided into several main types. AT modern marketing When asked what the target audiences are, you can get different and sometimes contradictory answers. The most realistic is the following classification:
- Main and key target audience.
- Wide and narrow.
- Audience by type of target group.
The main target audience of the project
The people who make the decision to purchase a product. The key actuates the decision of the main one. To make it clearer, an example can be given. For children's products, the main target audience is children, and the key one is their parents.
If we say that the target audience, the types of which are based on the coverage of consumers, depends on the breadth of the range of goods, then this will be fundamentally wrong. For example, a wide target audience includes consumers who prefer to drink coffee, while a narrow target audience includes those who drink only black insoluble coffee drink. To know how to determine the target audience, this data will be very small, regardless of the range of products or services.
The audience from the type of the target group is of two types: in the field of business (b2b) and consumption b2c. It is much easier to select a target audience in the b2b area, since all information about the needs of the business is online. If you need to sell products to the end consumer, then you need to find out the parameters of the target audience.
When the need to highlight the target audience is due to the promotion of the site, you can supplement the types of target audiences with one more item - the audience for the purpose of visiting the site. To determine the target audience of the site, first determine for what purpose the user visits it: to study the content or to purchase a product. Having an idea of what the target audience of the site looks like, you can more accurately direct the information and advertising impact per person.
Target audience segmentation
Determining the target audience is impossible without its segmentation. Segmentation of the target audience - dividing the total mass of customers into separate groups according to similar or similar parameters, identifying their needs and forming commercial offer, which can be of interest to these groups.
Segmentation of the target audience helps to carry out cluster analysis. Definition target segment produced by many methods, but the most popular of them is the method of Mark Sherrington. It is most often used in marketing. Books on this subject describe a theory called "5W".
Target audience segments are determined by 5 questions:
- What do we sell (What)?
- Who will buy (Who)?
- Why should a person buy (Why)?
- When should he make a purchase (When)?
- Where can the buyer purchase the product (Where)?
If you figure out what each of them means and what benefits each of them brings, then in the end you will get a clear description of each group of potential buyers. Here is a table based on a classic example from a marketing book.
Studying the target audience will allow you to identify the key segment of consumers, as well as analyze the client base of competitors. Designate the columns of the table with questions from the Sherrington methodology and enter successively ways to segment competitors horizontally. The size of the table depends only on the level of competition in the promoted business. But the more companies analyzed in this way, the better.
A clear study of the target audience will bring your business to the proper level. Target audience research using the 5W method, despite its simplicity, has an undoubted advantage. It allows you to create ads targeted to each group of interested buyers. If the data of the analysis of the selected segment are identified correctly, then the promotion of the product can be built, focusing on the basic needs of the target audience.
How to create a portrait of the target audience
A portrait of a typical buyer will help determine the characteristics of the target audience. To have a more accurate idea of the consumer, define its parameters:
- demographic;
- social and economic;
- geographic;
- psychological;
- behavioral features.
The search for the target audience, first of all, depends on the demographic parameters of the person. They are understood as: gender, age, nationality, marital status, the presence of children and preferably their age. This can also be added to the scope of human activity.
Social and economic parameters help to attract the target audience, taking into account its purchasing power. As basic characteristics marketing books offer to consider: education, salary level, employment, sources of income.
Many convenient services have been developed to search for the target audience. Geolocation allows you to save a lot on advertising. The choice of the target audience should be made in the service areas of the company. Otherwise, the money for advertising will go away, and the product will never find its buyer. The location of the client also affects his needs. For example, in warm countries demand for skis will obviously be extremely low.
The target audience of advertising is directly related to psychological aspects personality. The lion's share of goods is chosen due to the emotional perception of advertising. It can arouse interest, nostalgia, tenderness, and so on. Therefore, the preparation of an advertisement depends on: lifestyle, values, life principles, the presence of idols, unfulfilled desires of a potential buyer.
Behavioral segmentation is the definition of those factors that can describe the motivation for choosing, the moment of purchase and use of the product. Classic books on Internet promotion highlight several basic parameters of behavioral features:
- purchase motivation;
- reason for contacting the company;
- customer expectation from the purchase;
- involvement in the offered goods;
- brand attitude, etc.
When describing the target audience for the first time, it is desirable to use as much information as possible. If you can’t find the right words, you can choose a synonym for each epithet in the description. Sometimes the chosen synonym fits the description of the person more than the original word.
How to choose a target audience?
The rule of thumb for advertisers when framing a potential buyer is to be more specific in the description. The one who finds distinctive features his client, will get to him earlier than an entrepreneur with an abstract perception of the consumer.
If there is not a single difference between one buyer and another, then it is best to make several portraits of the target audience, and not dump everything in one heap. This will make it much easier to identify the core of the target audience. The core of the target audience is the group of the most active and important buyers. This group of people brings in most of the company's profits and has a high level of demand for the products they represent.
Be attentive to your target audience, and it will bring income to your business. The last tip that will make it easier to find the target audience is to get rid of stereotypes when drawing up a portrait of the consumer. Stereotypes live in everyone and their source can be books, films, environment, etc. Part potential consumers may go unnoticed.
The selection of the target audience is the most important moment on which the work of the advertising campaign as a whole depends. It cannot be classified as a one-time event. The parameters of the target audience change along with the needs of the person, which makes them work out before each large-scale advertising campaign.
Hello! In this article, we will talk about how to determine the target audience of your product or service.
Today you will learn:
- What is CA;
- Why is it so important for any business to determine the target audience;
- How to write a portrait of your client.
What is the target audience
Target audience (TA) - a specific group of people for which a particular product or service is designed.
The people included in the target audience are united by a certain need, problem or need, which the proposed product intends to solve. To more accurately determine the needs of the group, it is divided into segments by gender, age, financial position, field of activity and so on.
Not everyone can be a client of a company or a buyer of a product. Each product has its own target audience with unique characteristics.
Example. The target audience of a women's fitness club can be formulated as "girls aged 18-30 with a small income, who want to spend a minimum of time on training (living near the club), attending classes in the evening after school or work and on weekends."
Target audience should be:
- Interested in the product. Auto parts are not needed for those who do not have a car.
- Able to purchase it. A fashion boutique is out of place near a hostel.
- Receptive to marketing pressure. Sometimes adherents of one brand cannot be lured to the side of another even by the most effective methods.
Why define the target audience
A clear definition of the target audience of the product is a logical and therefore common requirement of all marketers. Before proceeding with the creation, you need to describe as accurately as possible a portrait of those who should be interested in it.
The narrower the circle of potential customers, the more effective it will be to work with such a target audience in the future.
The importance of target audience is often underestimated, nevertheless it the starting point any . Even fishermen choose their tackle and bait depending on the fish they want to catch. So it is in the service and trade sectors - the work strategy depends on the portrait of a potential client.
Knowing your target audience allows you to:
- Increase loyalty - customers will come back and recommend the product (service) to their friends.
- Find new customers faster and cheaper. Advertising costs are significantly reduced when the marketer knows where and when to look for buyers.
- Form proposals that meet the needs of the audience.
Methods for determining the target audience
The definition of the target audience begins with a simple question: “Who needs my product (service)?” The answer to this problem will give only the first push in . Further, the question is concretized, clear features are added to the portrait of the buyer.
Approximate questions when compiling the target audience may be as follows:
- How old are my potential clients;
- What gender are they?
- What are their financial capabilities;
- What are they interested in;
- What are their problems;
- What do they dream about?
- What is their style of thinking and communication.
The target customer is identified after a thorough analysis of the market and its segment in which the product is presented.
At first, you have to be guided by the questions “who and why should buy my product?”, But the greatest accuracy can be achieved by studying your existing customers (or customers of direct competitors). To do this, marketers conduct various audience research, observation and surveys of regular consumers.
In English-speaking countries, the popular theory of target audience segmentation is called 5W, according to the first letters of the questions:
- What? (What?). What product or service the customer is purchasing.
- Who? (Who?). What are the characteristics of the consumer, his gender, age, and so on.
- Why? (Why?). What is his motive. It could be profitable price, convenient packaging, uniqueness of goods.
- When? (When?). When the purchase is made and how often.
- Where? (Where?). The client makes a purchase in a store near the house, in a large hypermarket or via the Internet.
There are a lot of methods for determining the target audience. Most often, polls, questionnaires, interviews, and the collection of statistics on the Internet are used. Experienced marketers sooner or later develop their own algorithms.
Preparatory stage - determination of the purpose of the study
The first stage in determining the target audience is preparatory. To more confidently start identifying a client, you need to figure out which direction to go.
The first step on the way is the goal of finding the target audience:
- Definition of the target audience for the existing offer (dependence on the product);
- The choice of target audience for the introduction of a new product or for expanding activities (dependence on the market).
In the first case, the classical scheme operates. There is a product, there are buyers. It is necessary to make a portrait of existing customers in order not to lose them and attract new customers with the same characteristics and needs.
In this case, the order of work will be as follows:
- Comparative competitive analysis of goods.
- Study of loyal consumers (survey to identify the motivation to buy).
- Segmentation of regular and potential customers.
- Drawing up a marketing plan.
In the second option, it is only to be changed or expanded through new proposals. The definition of target audience depends on the market.
Example. Already existing store Toy plans to expand its scope of work. To do this, the marketer needs to identify all possible target audiences and choose the most profitable of them: with the largest check, lowest costs, and high frequency of demand. For example, our toy store might decide what to add to its assortment study guides and workbooks for early child development, including wholesale for kindergartens and creative sections.
The procedure for determining the target audience depending on the market:
- Complete segmentation and market analysis.
- Identification of the most profitable segments.
- Drawing up a detailed portrait of representatives of the selected segment.
- Formation of a further plan of work with the audience.
To identify the needs and other characteristics of existing customers, they can be offered questionnaires or participation in a survey.
Such interviews must include the following questions:
- Gender, age, social and financial status, profession.
- How often are purchases made?
- Reasons for choosing this particular product.
- Where did the customer learn about the product or service?
- Overall rating of the product.
The second stage is the division of customers into consumers and businesses. Not every product has an end consumer - individual. You can also sell and provide services to other businesses.
In this regard, the TA will have to be sought in different areas:
- . The most stable segment. It is easier to correctly determine the target audience of the consumer-business, it is less subject to fluctuations in the future. All information about such clients is in the public domain, which means there is no need for time-consuming searches.
- , where the end buyer is a private individual whose interests and needs are not so stable. Fluctuations in the consumer audience can be caused by changes in politics, fashion, innovation. Seasonality and competition also strongly influence demand.
The last third stage of the preparatory stage answers the question: what task needs to be solved? Which of the business parameters needs to be worked out?
- What to sell? It is necessary to identify the needs of the formed target audience and create a profitable offer based on them;
- Where? It is necessary to determine the advertising and promotion channels that will be most effective for the desired target audience;
- When? The phrase “everything has its time” is true for business as well. Advertising for schoolchildren is useless to run on TV during the daytime school hours. Skis are best offered in winter, and sunscreen in summer. Promotions for alcoholic drinks in the restaurant are more in demand on Friday and Saturday evenings.
We found out how to tune in to the study of the target audience, how to identify the tasks that need to be solved. Next, let's proceed directly to the methods of audience segmentation.
Drawing up a client profile
All potential or existing customers should be divided into groups and described in detail. Only after all the portraits are outlined, you can decide which of them is better to work with, whom to focus on.
For example, a computer games store might have the following customers:
- Fanatics dedicating everything free time computer games, buying up all new items and rare editions;
- Schoolchildren and students who do not have their own income, choosing inexpensive but popular games for donated or accumulated money;
- Parents of teenagers who are not versed in the industry, buying games as a gift for their children, focusing on reviews and advertising;
- And so on, there can be a lot of potential target audience.
A complete description of the target audience should contain:
- Socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, social status);
- Geographical position;
- Psychographic data (for example, the desire to stand out, establish yourself or surround yourself with comfort);
- Hobbies, hobbies and leisure activities;
- Problems and needs.
What to do after determining the target audience
The target audience is defined and narrowed as much as possible. It's time to work on the proposals.
Search for places of interaction with the target audience.
In order to identify the “habitat” of your customers, you must:
- Describe a typical shopper's day. If necessary, you can make separate plans for weekdays and weekends, holidays. Based on the plan, it becomes clear when the client has free time for impulsive purchases, when he is most susceptible to advertising, when his demand for a particular product is aggravated.
- Schedule the client's actions after the need arises. For example, the washing machine broke down. A potential client turns on the computer, goes to the Internet and types in the search engine "urgent repair of washing machines in Moscow." In order to "catch the bait" of this potential client, repair companies.
- Try to anticipate what the customer was doing before the need arose. This is not always possible, but it is very necessary for the timely offer of their services. For example, before a young mother goes to the store for diapers, she will be in the maternity hospital and in the antenatal clinic, which means that you can start offering goods from there.
Proposal formation.
Talk to potential customers in their language. For example, young people are more accustomed to slang, and older people subconsciously reject any neologisms. Men think more concretely, they prefer facts, women tend to react emotionally.
To make a proposal, you must first determine:
- Needs, "pains", problems of a potential client.
- The fears of the client, on the basis of which objections are born.
- Primary and secondary selection criteria.
- Emotions involved.
They strive to look spectacular, to impress not only in life, but also in in social networks(actively use Instagram) - we will conduct the main advertising campaign on the Internet.
The choice is based on the popularity and prestige of the brand. The main fear is to acquire a fake or cheap stuff - in the offer we focus on celebrities, certificates and participation in international exhibitions fashion. We put the emphasis on admiration, fame, delight.
Common Mistakes
In order to avoid annoying mistakes, you need to know about them and avoid these rakes.
When determining the target audience, beginners often make the following mistakes:
- Too wide TA. You can't please everyone, you can't sell to everyone. Women from 20 to 50 years old is too wide for the working target audience. It is a mistake to believe that by limiting the target audience, the seller will lose some of the potential buyers. Random purchases in our time are increasingly receding into the background, so it is not very advisable to rely on them. A large gathering of random people will never give a seller as many buyers as a specialized fair that brings together only interested citizens.
- One-time selection of target audience. Depending on the area of business, its customers can be a relatively stable group or, conversely, changeable. In any case, studies of the target audience and its needs are recommended to be carried out once every 1-2 years. People themselves change, fashion changes, new competitors appear - and the portrait of a buyer of the same product can change from year to year.
Target Audience Selection
As a rule, there are 7 broad audiences that may be interested in living, traveling, working or investing in some place:
Ø Local residents (growth of the local tax base).
o Visitors.
Ø Managers (what is the management of the territory).
o Investors.
Ø Entrepreneurs (place as a possible place of residence and work).
Ø Foreign buyers (place as a source of additional value).
Ø Location specialists (the process of selling and buying a place).
Even within each broad audience, the image of a place often varies greatly. The perception of tourists depends on whether they are "sun seekers" or "travel experience seekers", the perception of managers - whether they are supporters of the development of heavy industrial or more "soft" industries.
Segmentation is most useful if the resulting segments have the following properties:
§ Mutually exclusive (highlighted segments must not intersect),
§ Exhaustive (each potential member of the target group must be part of a segment),
§ Measurable (size, purchasing power and other parameters of the resulting segment),
§ Accessible (easy to reach and efficiently maintained),
§ Significant (the resulting segments are large enough to justify the effort to work with them),
§ Differentially responsive (the segment shows a different response than other segments to different volumes, types and time schedules of marketing strategies).
F. Kotler identifies 3 main approaches to such a measurement:
2.1. Familiarity-favorability measurement.
A) How well the target audience is familiar with the place and how favorably its members feel about it:
1. Never heard
2. Heard something
3. I don't know much
4. I know pretty well
5. I know very well
If the majority of respondents choose the first 2 or 3 categories, the place has awareness problems.
B) Describe (those in the know) how favorable the attitude towards this place is:
1. Very good
2. Not very good
3. Don't care
4. Pretty favorably
5. Very supportive
If the majority of respondents choose the first 2 categories, the place has big image problems.
2.2. semantic differential.
Study of the content of the image of the place:
1. Development of a set of significant parameters. Name the parameters that the respondent would think of, referring to this place. Each of these parameters turns into a bipolar scale with antonymous adjectives at the ends (a scale of 5-7 points).
“What do you think about when planning a vacation?”: about the weather, conditions for recreation and recreation, historical sights and expenses.
2. Reducing the set of significant parameters. Remove duplicate scales, select a small list that does not tire the respondent's attention.
3. Working with a sample of respondents. Respondents consistently rate places. Bipolar scales are presented in such a way that negative adjectives are not grouped on one side (they are rearranged during processing).
4. Derivation of the average value. For each scale, the average value of respondents' perception is displayed, by combining them - we get the average image that this place has in the eyes of this audience.
5. Checking the average deviation of the image. Since each image chart is just a sequence of averages, it does not reflect the real image stability. If the average deviation is large, such an image loses its value, and further segmentation should be carried out (see Table 6.1.).
Table 6.1. Measuring the tourist image of Copenhagen
| Innocent | V | Sinful | ||||||
| Feminine | V | Courageous | ||||||
| Friendly | V | Cold | ||||||
| Romantic | V | Boring | ||||||
| Old | V | New | ||||||
| Safe | V | Dangerous | ||||||
| Clean | V | Filthy | ||||||
| Interesting | V | Boring | ||||||
| Full of life | V | stagnant | ||||||
| Beautiful | V | Ugly | ||||||
| Refined | V | Simple | ||||||
| Natural | V | Artificial | ||||||
| Harmonious | V | conflict |
2.3. Score Cards- "inventory" of the visual impressions of the inhabitants of the city. This technique involves interviewing city residents and collecting information about their impressions and attitudes towards different parts of the city. Then the words and responses are structured geographically. Each part of the city, territory, region or even country is assigned certain characteristics (for example, the most popular or least popular).
Another way to gather data, impressions, or attitudes about a place is to get an expert opinion from a group of people who know the place well (see Figure 7.1).
Once it has become clear what the existing image of the place is, one should start thinking about what image the territory can “build”. To image was effective, it must satisfy the following criteria:
1. Correspond to reality;
2. Be believable (even if true);
3. Be simple (there should not be several images, confusion in goals);
4. Be attractive (should make it clear why you would want to live, invest, work or travel);
5. Be original (different from other general themes).
Table 6.2. Slogans used in place promotion campaigns
When integrated into a strategic marketing plan, slogans can be helpful in reinforcing enthusiasm, driving momentum, and generating fresh ideas.
A variation on the use of an overarching slogan is topic formulation (the underlying assumption for all actions and changes) that will drive specific marketing programs aimed at specific target groups. For example, the Nureyev Clinic does not perform abortions.
Another tool here is image positioning – a place positions itself regionally, nationally and internationally as being dedicated to a particular activity, or as a viable alternative as a location or point of interest to another place that can hold a stronger and more solid position. The challenge here is to create an image that conveys the benefits and unique qualities that make this place stand out from others (see Table 6.3).
Exist 3 tools for creating an effective image.
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