I am writing this for you.

This is how I imagine you:

• You are interested in branding
• You are busy and want snackable insights
• You prefer specificity over fluff

This image makes it easier for me to write.

Brands can use a similar approach.

Let's Talk, You and I

A target customer is like a conversation partner.

It is a person that you are addressing with your brand communication and with your product/service.

Why does it help to have a clear understanding of your target customer?

• Understand Values: What is important? What is verboten?
• Understand Preferences: What do they like? What not?
• Understand Behaviors: Where do we meet?
• Understand Needs: What are their jobs-to-be-done?

The better you know someone, the easier it is to interact with them.

The same applies to target customers.

Customer First. Brand Follows.

The business of a brand is to create value for the customer.

Start with your target customer.

Understand them. Service them. Listen to them.

Easy as that.

Bottomline: Build for Your Target Customer

Once you have a set of customers that look alike you start looking for the smallest common denominator:

• Demographic: Age; Sex; Income; Location; ...
• Psychographic: Values; Interests; Lifestyle; ...
• Behavioral: Habits; Trigger responses; Information sources; ...
• Geographic: Country; Urban/rural; Language; ...

Specificity helps.

Know your target customer and build for them.

😃

This post is an excerpt from my online course Fundamentals of Brand Strategy where you learn how to build successful brands.

The self-paced online course contains 5 hours of video material and teaches you how to use the Brand Pyramid.

You can hit me up on twitter. DMs are open.

Short Excerpts from the Course

These posts are short snippets of the course curriculum 👇

• A Pragmatic Look at Branding: What Is a Brand?
• Touchpoints and Brand Strategy: How do We Build Associations?
• Positioning and Differentiation: How to Stand Out as a Brand?
• Brand Vision: What Is the World That Could Be?
• Brand Purpose: Why Bother?
• Brand Promise: How to Communicate in One Statement?
• Mission Statement: How Do You Do It?
• Brand Attributes: How Does the Brand Present Itself?
• Frame of Reference: Where Is the Brand Placed?
• Target Customer: Who Is Your Audience?
• Customer Need: What Is Their Real Job-to-be-Done?
• Value Proposition: What Are You Offering?
• Reasons-to-Believe: What Are Your Proof Points?