You can't please everyone: Why it's important to determine your target audience

Posted on October 11, 2010 @ 8:00pm by Patrick Shannon

Whenever I consult with a potential client, one of the first things I ask is what portion of the audience they're trying to appeal to. Sometimes this question is met with perplexion. "Don't I want to get everyone to visit my site?" Indeed it does make sense on paper: more people visiting, more potential sales...right?

But it's like the message portrayed in the Aesop's fable of The Miller, The Son and the Donkey, which is "he who ends up trying to please everyone, pleases no one." In most cases, a product, service or situation will appeal to one portion of an audience, while another will be completely indifferent to it. If you try to design to market something without a clearly defined direction and carefully think things through, then you're setting yourself up for a lot of problems later on.

For example, let's say you're marketing a brand new toy. Where do you focus your efforts? Clearly not on single guys like me: I don't have kids and you'll more likely find me in an ACE Hardware than a Toys R' Us. The teen and college crowd have long outgrown toys and have school books and supplies to worry about buying, so airing spots between episodes of The Jersey Shore is probably not the best use of your advertising dollars, either.

But you already knew that. It's a TOY after all...so our audience is clearly children. But not so fast.

For starters, what age group are we talking about here? Three year olds don't play with the same toys that a nine year old would. Next, is this toy going to appeal more to a boy, a girl...or even both? Most importantly, WHO is REALLY purchasing this toy? Unless a kid has a really generous allowance, it is usually going to be the adults with children to buy for. Yet if this toy doesn't fit THEIR values or expectations - whether educational, age-appropriate or whatever that may be - then it doesn't matter how many commercials pop up during children's programming...NO SALE.

The same logic applies to ANYTHING marketing-related from billboards to even websites. While we want as much traffic and attention as humanly possible, it is incredibly difficult and rare to create something that appeals to ALL ages and genres.

Remember the fable above: try to please everyone and you'll please no one. Focus on those who are interested in your product, and don't worry about what other audiences will think.