Discover the importance of knowing your target audiences.

In previous blogs, we've talked about the importance of centring the customer and how you can best help the customer go through his journey to you. But why is it so important to know everything about your target audience? In this series of blogs, marketing professional Edwin van der Woude of Het Regiobureau takes us into the world of focus groups, and what we can learn with this from the leisure and travel industry. With in this first part of the blog: why focus groups?

"Everyone is welcome." That is often an entrepreneur's answer to the question, "What is your target group?" That's great, of course, that everyone is welcome, but it won't be a successful approach if you consider everyone as your target audience. Why not? Because you can't optimally tailor your promotion and your services to the needs of a specific target group. And why is that not a good thing? Because then people will always choose the competitor who does.

An example: A campsite with no focus on a specific target group. There will be people who are looking for peace and there will be people with children who like to do activities together. Need we say more? The peace-seekers, they don't really find peace. And the guests with children are a bit disappointed with the range of play equipment and entertainment activities anyway. And feel they are a nuisance to the peace seekers. Both will prefer to choose a campsite that better suits their specific needs. 

"Both holidaymakers will choose a campsite that better suits their specific needs."

In a market where supply exceeds demand (as in the case of campsites), this actually happens and, without target group selection, you will eventually run out of guests. And in a supply market, you will also be the last to be chosen and won't get the guests you deserve. If this campsite had focused on one of the target groups and optimally matched the offer, the campsite would survive and even excel!  For guests with children: a wide range of safe play equipment, an arcade (for bad weather), a children's play corner in the restaurant, pedal car and parent-child tandem rental, an extensive animation team and of course all of this incorporated in the marketing communication. Peace-seekers are still welcome then, but perhaps out of season... 

The moral of the story comes down to a time-honoured marketing tile wisdom. Trite, but true: He who does not choose, is not chosen.