You don't need to understand marketing to succeed...

...but you do need to understand people.

Imagine practicing archery wearing a blindfold, or ten pin bowling with your eyes closed. In both cases, being prevented from seeing your target would mean that it’s highly unlikely that you would hit it.

Similarly, doing business without identifying your target market will prevent you from reaching your objectives whether this is increased sales, market share or brand awareness

Now, the term “target audience” or “target demographic” gets thrown around a lot in marketing conversations. But more often than not, it remains a vague term that gets filed away in the back of a business plan somewhere. So let’s refresh our memories: a target market is not just a specific group of consumers at which a company aims its products and services

It is those who are MOST LIKELY to buy from you

Spend some time thinking about them, are they mostly male or female? Are they mostly in their twenties or fifties? Where do they live? What kind of lifestyle do they have? How do they behave in terms of the magazines they read or the television they watch? What are their motivations - to be more healthy, less stressed, more green, better value? And how specifically are you going to help them with that?

Having sorted all this out ask yourslf three questions:

• Is it easy for your target audience to find out about your products and services? For example whether it is by visiting your shop, or finding you online, or seeing your advertisement or signage; or by reading about your business in the press or having it recommended by affiliates?

• Is this target audience already inundated with other products and services that are indistinguishable from yours?

• is this target audience willing to pay a price for your products and services that allows you a reasonable profit margin

What tactics have you used to find out more about the people you need to understand the best?