Page 2 - Defining the Brand and Target Market

Categories that should appear on page 2

1. Brand
2. Marketing Campaign
3. Target Market
4. Lifestyle Demographics

Page 2 - Example

This is an visual example of how I might layout page 1.

 

1. Define your brand in one short sentence

What do you want people to think about when they see your client’s new logo, direct mail piece, web site or advertisement? When customers think of strong brands, they usually think of short phrases or single words. The stronger and clearer the brand, usually the more focused the message (brand) is in the minds of consumers. Here are strong brands and the words people associate with them:

• Harley-Davidson - rebellion and freedom on the open road
• FedEx - overnight shipping
• Taco Bell - Mexican fast food
• Nike - high-performance athletic shoes
• Subway - eat fresh, and freshly made sub sandwiches
• Tide - clean clothes
• X-games - extreme sports games
• Krispy Kreme donuts - tasty glazed donuts
• Starbucks - gourmet, high-end coffee
• Coke - cola (especially in the South)
• Mercedes - luxury car
• Porsche - luxury sports car
• Red Bull - energy drink
• Timex - value-priced, durable watches
• Hersheys - chocolate candy bar

The list of strong brands goes on and on. Your goal with the brand section of this page is to write down 2-3 words that you want people to think of whenever they see your logo, colors, packaging, web site, retail store, products, etc. You must choose 2-3 words that your customers will think of consistently when they interact with your brand. These words will set the direction for your entire brand identity. Everything you design will reflect your client’s brand and message.

2. Marketing and/or Advertising Campaign

This is your message to the target market.

What message do you want to communicate to your target market? Your marketing campaign may be the same as your brand words—this is common. Or, it may communicate the brand and a second message like a new product, new fund-raising effort, new flavor of product, new service, case studies showing the success of the new reading programs, etc.

For this section, write one sentence that tells your client exactly what your marketing campaign is. One sentence will force you to get rid of the extra words and just tell the client, in simple words, what the campaign is about. Simple sentences bring clarity to your communication.

Examples:

1. Subway's is always running a marketing campaign that reinforces their brand words: Eat Fresh! subway sandwiches. Their marketing campaign is the same as their branding campaign. However, Subway also runs secondary marketing campaigns like their long-running weight-loss commercials with Jerod.
2. The NFL consistently markets their strong brand of professional, fan-loyal football. However, they experiment with niche marketing campaigns that target women fans with feminine products like pink team apparel and women's team lingerie.
3. If your Bank’s brand words are: Internet banking. Your designs and campaign should reflect internet banking. Maybe a cutting edge, wired, computer-age-driven design style. OR photographs of customers using computers at home, showing the ease of their lifestyle because they can bank from home.
   
4. If your Renewable Energy organization’s brand words are: 100% Renewable Solar Energy. Your designs and campaign could feature warm and fuzzy photos of cute animals benefiting from the reduction of pollution in their environment. OR your design style could have a lot of white, open space that symbolizes the clean air that comes from solar energy. OR you could use photographs of beautiful, scenic landscapes, with the sun, warming the earth with its clean rays.
   
5. If your Cultural Center for the Arts brand works are: Sharing & Exploring New Cultures. Your designs and campaign could use many different colors to symbolize multiculturalism. OR you could use photos of people with different ethnic backgrounds. OR draw your own art that has several hand prints on different colors to symbolize all of the different artists and performers at the cultural center.
6. If your Children’s Literacy Program brand words are: Investing in Our Future. Your designs and campaign could show photos of eager, optimistic children, in a classroom, benefiting from the wonderful reading education they are receiving. OR you could show the results of the “investment in our future” by showing successful students of the program graduating from college or high school. OR working productively in our society.
   

Tip: Your brand words should be a benefit that your customers will want. Be sure to brainstorm your brand's “benefits” on page 3.

3. Target Market

Who does your client want to reach with their brand and campaign message? You must know who you are “speaking” to before you can design something for them. Mountain Dew targets young people who live a fast, active lifestyle. The design of Mountain Dew’s logo, packaging, advertising and commercials “speaks” to their young, active target market. Everything designers and marketers do is based on speaking to these Mountain Dew drinkers and connecting them with their lively, green beverage.

You should learn as much as possible about your target market, and begin to understand what their lifestyles are like. Many students choose to market to their own generation because they can use their peers and friends for information and inspiration.

Let's start by defining your target market using the following categories:
(Review the Generational Marketing information below for this information)

1. Sex (male, female, or both)
   
2. Age Range (choose from: 0–14, 15–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, 65+)
   
3. What generation is the majority of your target market from?
   
   • Generation Y (Nexters, millennium generation)
     
   • Generation X
     
   • Baby Boomers
     
   • Silent Generation (Traditionalists, Veterans)
     
4. Characteristics of target market’s generation (List 5–10):
   

4. Lifestyle Demographics

What kind of lifestyle does your target market live? Let's further define your target market by completing the twelve questions below. They will give you and your client a more detailed picture of your target market’s lifestyle.

The information you need is in the data table PDFs below. I downloaded them from the U.S. government on www.census.gov. (Free of charge, except for the taxes we pay). Click on the American FactFinder link, it has amazingly interesting and helpful data.

Tip: If you are only targeting females or males, and the data chart doesn’t separate male and female numbers, just take half of the number. It is mostly accurate to do this on the demographic categories we are studying.

1. Total American population of target market:
   
2. Racial make up of target market:
   
   • White:
     
   • Hispanic/Latino:
     
   • Black/African American:
     
   • American Indian/Alaska Native:
     
   • Asian:
     
   • Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander:
     
   • Other Race:
     
3. Percentage of target market that is married and living together:
   
4. Percentage of target market that is single:
   
5. Percentage of target market that graduated high school:
   
6. Percentage of target market with a Bachelor’s degree or higher :
   
7. Median annual income:
   
8. Percentage of target market that are homeowners:
   
9. Percentage of target market that has a computer in their home:
   
10. Percentage of target market that has internet access in their home:
11. What products do they like to buy with their disposable (extra) income:
    (You answer this questions to the best of your knowledge. Use the web to search, or ask people in the target market for inf0)
    
12. What do they do for fun and entertainment? What are their hobbies:
    (You answer this questions to the best of your knowledge. Use the web to search, or ask people in the target market for inf0)

Make sure that all of this information appears on page 2 of your booklet. Try to design it so it reads clearly, but isn't too boring or appear too text heavy.

Generational Characteristics

Here is an excellent report that compiles characteristics of the four main generations. Read though it to learn how you may reach your target market with your message most effectively.
Download it here: gen_mktg.pdf (166k)

More generational marketing info:

Generation Y

Born: 1980–1995.

Age: 14–29

Other names: Nexters, Echo Boomers, Baby Boom Echo, Bridgers and the Millennium Generation.

Medium of choice: Internet

Characteristics: Blunt. Optimistic. Computer and Internet savvy. These are the cyber kids who grew up with the Internet, and speed and access to information is something that they are accustomed to. Pragmatic. Cynical. Racially diverse. Education is “in”, and it is seen as a life-long process. Self-esteem is high. Less religious than their parents. 1 in 3 is not Caucasian. One in four lives in a single-parent household. Three in four have working mothers. They are more tolerant and open-minded to racial, religious and sexual diversity. They are less tolerant of abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and environmental damage. Very coddled, fawned over. Assaulted with multi-media from an early age. Grew up in a world of mass-marketing and a advertising-saturated society. Technology is valued and is used asa tool for multi-tasking.

Look like new versions of grandparents—want to keep parents in tact. Brave and courageous. Traditional values. Strengths: optimistic, confident, social, moral, diverse, multi-task very well. Prefer word-of-mouth peer endorsements (internet viral advertising) to slick ads, (Ex: Mountain Dew/caffeine). They like clever humor, the raw truth and straight facts—less gimmicks, Sprite’s, ‘’Image is nothing. Obey your thirst’’ reached them. Do not like image or “feeling” ads. They do like personal advertising that comes to them, in their own “worlds.” They like bright colors, cool designs and cool products (iPod, cell phones, clothes, ring tones, etc.).

What others say about Generation Ys:
Veterans - Polite, smart, they have good manners, smart little critters but watch too much TV
Boomers - Cute, need more discipline from parents; need to learn to do it themselves
Xers - They are spoiled; what do you mean, what’s an album?

 

Generation X

Born: 1965–1980

Age: 29–44

Other names: Post-Boomers

Medium of choice: Cable TV and the Internet

Characteristics: Fiercely independent. Technology savvy, skeptical of advertising and marketing, believe in personal style rather than designer products, many are entrepreneurs, and they easily transition from job to job. Detest incompetence. Less religious than their parents.

Affected by their parents divorcing in large numbers. They want a work/family balance in their lives. They want time to raise their children now, and not be absent like their parents were. Desire immediate and honest feedback in life and work. They will not rely on institutions for their long-term job or financial security. Entrepreneurial Spirit: Xers believe in investing in their own development rather than in their organization’s. While others may see them as disloyal they are cautious about investing in relationships with employers because experience has shown that these relationships are not reliable.
Spend a lot of time in front of the computer and are comfortable with e-commerce, so high impact internet marketing influences their purchases. Xers like informality, don’t like false comments; highly tuned BS meter. Don’t insult one’s intelligence -- just tell it like it is, don’t play games. Don’t explain -- just tell them the bottom line. Tech savvy, like to be challenged. Impatient, cynical. People skills are not great. Like to, “Try it your way and let’s see what happens.” “The worse thing that could happen is that it won’t work.”

What others say about generation Xers:
Veterans - Xers are not educated; don’t follow procedures
Boomers - Xers are slackers, rude and lack social skills; spend too much time on Internet and email
Nexters - Cheer up!

 

Baby Boomers

Born: 1946 and 1964.

Age: 44–63

Medium of choice: Network television

Characteristics: Less religious than their parents. First divorce generation. Pursued personal gratification at high cost to others­—divorce, changing jobs, lack of seniority. Need to be liked. Need to know we are okay. Not budget minded. Not comfortable with conflict. Process ahead of results - likes to discuss. Overly sensitive to feedback and don’t handle bad feedback well. Very judgmental and self-centered. Give them information—they like to be “in the know.” Expectations were high—Time Magazine names BabyBoomers the “Man of 1967”—we would end racial inequality, cure the common cold. Raised on extreme optimism and hope of their parents.

Boomers started the “workaholic” trend. Boomers value peer competition and can be see by others as being egocentric. While they don’t like problems, if you give them a cause they will fight for it.

What Others Say about Baby Boomers:
Veterans - Baby Boomers talk about personal details they should keep private, they are self-absorbed
Xers - Baby Boomers talk the talk but don’t walk the walk
Nexters - Baby Boomers say they are cool, but they work way too much.

 

Silent Generation

Born: 1927–1945

Age: 62–81

Other names for silent generation: Veterans, Traditionalists

Characteristics: Generous. Their parents were affected by the depression. Don’t BS them—just be straight. Traditionalists values are influenced by the experiences of their parents whose values go back to the 1800s. This generation experienced the Great Depression and World War II, both of which shape how they view the world. Traits: security, loyalty, dedication, trust, law and order. They like consistency and uniformity. They also like attention on a grand scale -- but not gifts. They value handwritten note—not an e-mail. Conformers—believe in logic, not magic. Appreciate tradition and past. Veterans need advance notice on changes -- like an upgrade to software. Veterans are uncomfortable with conflict.

Traditionalists are the private, silent generation. Don’t expect members of this generation to share their inner thoughts. Members of this generation often feel that their career identifies who they are. Social Order: Other generations may view this desire for social order and placement as bias, prejudice or even racism or sexism.

What others say about Veterans:
Baby Boomers - think they are rigid, technical dinosaurs, narrow thinkers
Gen Xers - think they are too set in ways
Gen Nexters - think they are good leaders, very brave

 

GI’s, Builders

Born: Up to 1926

Age: 81+

Other names for GI’s, Builders: Veterans

Characteristics: They set up today’s society & church. They are loyal. Duty is important. Many are dying.

 

Census Data Table PDFs

1. For questions 1 & 2: population_by_age.pdf
2. For questions 3 & 4: marital_status_by_age.pdf
3. For questions 5 & 6: education_by_age.pdf
4. For questions 7 & 8: income_home_owners.pdf
5. For questions 9 & 10: computer_internet.pdf

 

References for generational characteristics and census data tables:

1. From the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association Office of Diversity
   http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/
   intergencomm.htm
2. MANAGING STAFF FROM THE BOTTOM UP, Notes from the Finance Committee’s May 13, 2003 Presentation, By Mimi Krumholz
3. http://www.census.gov