Do you know whom you’re selling to? Not just a generalization, but do you really know them intimately? If you don’t, your brand messaging will be watered-down and will blend in with all the other marketing noise. Here are factors you must consider in order to effectively market your product and connect with your audience.
This is the third article in our series, How to Build a Strong Gourmet Brand. See the full series here.
1. The facts. Age range, education, gender, etc.—start with the basic data and elaborate from there. Get detailed. You may have different types of groups you’re speaking to, and different personas within those groups, and that’s fine. Just be aware of the different messaging required to connect with each group and persona.
2. Buying behaviors. What do they like? What do they dislike? What other brands do they buy? You need to know where your target consumer fits into the marketplace in order to tailor your communication to their unique position. You need to know their reasoning behind their purchases and what drives them to buy the brands and products they currently buy. Only then can you develop effective messaging that entices them to switch from a competing brand to yours, branch out and try something new, or splurge and buy above their usual price range.
3. Pain points. This is key—consumers buy based on pain, which determines needs and wants. They buy to fill a void. So your marketing needs to clearly and succinctly convey how your product eases their pain—essentially, how it makes their life easier. They may not even be aware of their pain, need or want until it’s brought to light with a solution.
4. Lifestyle. Elaborating on pain points: you need to consider your audience’s entire lifestyle and how your brand enhances that lifestyle. How does your product give them more of what they want in life? Does it save them time? Make them look like an amazing cook easily? How does your product make them feel how they want to feel? You’re looking at the big picture here.
5. Desires. So much of purchasing decisions are made based on desires: a desire to try something new, experiment or explore; a desire to be better at something; a desire to make something in life easier; a desire to feel a certain way. Desires are powerful and marketing that taps into desires breaks through the clutter and creates that essential emotional connection.
Note that not all of your messaging will be literal. In fact, if you are too literal it can easily work against you. Much of effective messaging is communicated on the subconscious level: the feeling they get from interacting with your brand. Feelings are lasting—they may not remember all the details of the package or verbiage, but they will remember how your brand or product made them feel.
