Level2wo

What’s Your Market Specialization?

Marketing is the same everywhere. Um, well, ok, I take that back. Marketing is different everywhere. Well, no, that’s not right either. Marketing means different things to different people–some companies are Direct Mail machines, others are strictly digital marketing companies, creating banner ads and performing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) for their clients. There’s about as many strategies out there as there are marketers, and even more marketing tactics employed by those marketers following the strategy they have decided on as a company. But no matter how many different ways marketers will try to skin a cat, there are definitely a few things that need to remain relatively consistent, no matter what product or service the marketer is trying to market.

One of the most important–if not the most important–thing a marketer must do is have a target market. A target market, loosely defined, is the set of folks plucked or ‘targeted’ out of the full set of people that could or would likely purchase a product or service. Dividing the larger group into these ’segments’ is called market segmentation, and it is a process that is based on demographics (age, gender, socio-economic groupings, geography, etc.).

Breaking down the larger population down into workable segments helps target marketing activities so that you get the best bang for your marketing buck. If you know who you’re going after, you know what their needs and wants are, and you’ll know how to cater your marketing messages towards meeting those needs.

 Here are some Target Marketing Resources:

1. AllBusiness
2. Target Market News (The Black Consumer Market Authority)
3. Net MBA
4. eSmall Office
5. Michel Fortin’s Blog

Courage in Marketing

I use LinkedIn for professional purposes, and someone posted a question on there the other day that was about courage–something to the effect of “What would the effect be if decision makers had more courage.” I related to the question, so I answered it on the site–from my own perspective.

 At Level2wo, we are free to make our own decisions–courageous sometimes, safe sometimes, crazy and perhaps stupid other times. But we make the decisions, because we’re the bosses (after our clients, anyway). But the courage question resonates even now. Why?

It resonates because, I believe, I am a risk-taker, not only in marketing but in life. I am a narcissist, tried and true. Because it gets results. I like making a bang–even when it seems like I am not trying to. In marketing, I think the goal is to get attention–good attention, and sometimes that means being courageous and taking chances–chances that, perhaps, may not be as calculated as they could be. It’s what makes me happy to be my own boss, or to work for bosses–that ‘courage’ or ‘risk’ thing that makes marketing exciting.

Do we put that racy pic on the ad? What about that sexual tension DM piece? How about that in-your-face banner ad? Is that too much? I don’t think so.

I can’t live my life being scared of outcomes, and I can’t do my work scared of outcomes either. It stifles my creativity, and it stifles the highs and lows that drive me to my self-happiness. It’s exciting, and I love excitement. Cubicles, in my opinion, are for knocking down.