What Is a Target Market?

While it is tempting to try and sell your product or service to everyone in the world, it is not cost effective. You might convince adult men to buy women’s makeup, but it’s likely that the return on your investment would be negative. You are much better off selling makeup to women or, better still, selling makeup to young adult women who are fashionistas.

To profit from your marketing, you must have a target market—a primary group of people you serve. Your primary market is the group of customers who account for a disproportionate share of your sales and profits. They are the ones you can’t afford to do without. You may also have secondary and tertiary markets, customers who are important, but not as important. For example, in the U.S., women buy most of the men’s underwear, usually for their husbands and sons. Wives and mothers are the primary target market for men’s underwear. But younger single men and divorced men also purchase their own underwear. They are a secondary target market. This is important to understand because they have different motives and beliefs, they need different messages, and they are reached through different media.

One of the most important marketing decisions you will ever make is to decide which group of people is your primary target market. You can’t pursue all markets or even just two markets if they are incompatible. For example, if moms like something, teen boys distrust it; and if amateurs like something, professionals are embarrassed to use it. Sometimes you just have to choose—you can’t please everyone. More about this in later chapters.