Diversify Your Product Offering and Target Demographics

It’s common to see businesses obsessed with their “target demographic”. Tunnel vision leads them to blindly chase after a specific niche and pin their hopes and dreams that this ideal consumer will come knocking on the door.

The problem lies in competitive markets, where the target demographic is faced with a slew of options due to a saturated market place. What if APPLE solely focused its product development, marketing and advertising on age 18-24 year old, urban consumers?

Not only would it alienate other demographics, but it would neglect other potential consumers who have a need for their products. APPLE created multiple commercials for the iPhone that showed a close up of a hand navigating through the phone with ease.

If you notice, at the end of the commercial an incoming call is made from an adult. We can see this from the photo tag that is displayed on the iPhone’s screen. Clearly, Apple was targeting an older demographic with this placement. Although many young adults will race out to purchase the iPhone’s latest release, APPLE understands the need to appeal to multiple demographics with the same product.

Another typical scenario is often seen in the nightlife. Nightclubs focus their attention on attracting women to their establishments. This is in hopes that a viral effect will take place, increasing demand from men to attend a venue where a plethora of women exist. I’m not saying this strategy doesn’t work, but solely focusing on women for a night club will be detrimental in reaching several other demographics.

Does your business burn too many resources on a single niche? Are you at high market risk due to dependence on a single demographic? If so, its time to:

A) research a secondary and tertiary market
B) research how these demographics consume
C) connect with multiple demographics

If your product happens to be a video game system you would focus on the 10-18 year old, male demographic. However, you should also create/alter your product(s) to reach the 25-35 year old male demographic that enjoyed video gaming in their younger years. We saw Nintendo achieve this when they released Mario Kart. Mario appealed to an older demographic that consumed video gaming at a much younger age with Mario Bros. The point being, don’t allow fear of untested waters or tunnel vision prevent you from reaching new consumers and experiencing longevity within the marketplace.

This guest post was written by SEO Design Solutions’ VP Mr. Shiraz Madan who consistently refines the focus of our collective marketing and branding efforts through bringing fresh insight and vision to broaden our business horizons. If your business requires a fresh perspective with new eyes, then feel free to contact us at 1 (866) 471-5377 to see what opportunities exist.