Choose both a target market and a target product

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For your marketing to be effective, it requires both a target market and a target product (or service) - a single offering that gives you the highest chance of becoming part of the customer's life.
  • Target market - that one group of customers within the broader market where you have the greatest chance of success.
  • Target product - that one offering amongst everything you sell that gives you the best chance of an initial sale.
Once you've made the initial sale, you are in bed with the customer and the game changes. Achieving this initial sale requires focusing on who you want to sell to and what you want to sell to them. Target market and target offering. 

Do [you]...want [this]...

I keep coming back to the 4P's of marketing: Product. Place. Price. Promotion. It is easy to get stuck on the promotion "P". Yet, the other, less obvious Ps have the bigger impact on driving business growth, starting with the product.

Just think how McDonald's does it - they choose a specific offering to promote and attract buyers - this month, where I stay, it is the Chicken Big Mac. Once they have you hooked, you end up spending much more on extras. What they promote (a smallish, irresistible offer) and hope to sell (meals for you and your kids with Oreo McFlurrys) is intentionally not the same thing. 

So, tip, promote a specific product to to your chosen customer for maximum impact. Think carefully about what product you want to do marketing for to open up sales for everything else. It's called marketing strategy.


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I'm the founder of Firejuice, a marketing strategy and management consultancy focused on entrepreneurial companies in Africa. 

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