"Keys for Success Monday" Have You Been Targeting The Wrong Audience?

How you can benefit

Now that advertisers are looking at data in real time, it is clear that the coveted demographic segment that marketers chased over the past 36 years is a myth. It may have been true at one time, but it is not now. How can marketers take advantage of this new information?

• Measure and don't assume. Learn about the tools and metrics available to identify and track your target audience (what I call the “lock”).
• Build a marketing information system to incorporate the most appropriate metrics to monitor, collect, analyze, report, and take action on information from this audience. This does not have to be done all at once, and can be built in stages.
• Look beyond the traditional segments defined by organizations, such as Nielsen, to determine the segments that are most likely to buy your products.
• When Nielsen and the networks develop new metrics don’t accept them at face value.
• If you find inaccuracies in the metrics they use to formulate their advertising rates, use that information to negotiate a better deal with the media in which you want to insert your message.
• Build into your marketing information system ways to measure how well it is working so you can tweak the system to continually produce better results and negotiate for better rates.
• Understand that the big numbers in the US are trending older because of Baby Boomers. This will continue until the segment dies out.
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