What is a Target Market?

A target market is selected by breaking down a total market into sub-markets. Since an organisations doesn’t has the resources or skills to meet all the demands of the people, it decides on certain preferences of the market that it can fulfil. Not everyone in the market likes the same movie, same sauce, same bathing soap, etc. If it tries to serve all the preferences it will never be able to satisfy all the demands or needs in the market. It will become a mammoth task to direct marketing strategies and getting a product created for everybody. Therefore the marketers divide the markets according to preferences.

Target market refers to a group within a market which an organisation chooses to tab for achieving its objectives.

The organisations analyses the information from the market and decides on which needs or demands it can serve by utilising its resources in the best possible way.

For example, children do not ask for products created for adult. A target market refers to a group of individuals who prefer similar products, and respond to similar marketing activities. Each of these target market (segment) differ from each other in terms of needs. No two segments can have the same interests and product needs.

A market is segmented basis –
(1) Demographic variables
(2) Geographic variables
(3) Psychographic variables
(4) Behavioural variables

Basically, target market is selected by dividing groups of buyers with similar purchasing characteristics. Therefore, for a target market to exist certain marketing requirements must be satisfied-

(1) Differences in customer preferences – brand appeal, marketing mix response
(2) Differences should be identifiable to study by the marketers
(3) Organisation should be able to design appropriate marketing mix strategies for each target market
(4) Each target market should meet the organisations objectives.