Target

The term target is used both as a noun and a verb. As a noun, a target consists of specific individuals or groups that an organization wants to reach with its messages. Used that way, it is appropriate to say that adult, 25-years-and-older, female customers of middle income are a target for an integrated communication message about a specific product or service. As a verb, target means to set sights on that group or individual that the organization wants to reach. Used as a verb, it is appropriate for a political campaign advisor to say, “We will target young voters with college educations with X message.”

The term target is widely used in marketing, advertising, and public relations. It draws on a military, recreation, or hunting narrative where a shooter aims at a target. The goal is to strategically hit the intended mark. As a preliminary step to some other outcome, an organization might work to get a specific message to a target. A nonprofit organization might do that by using carefully selected channels to reach potential donors or volunteers who are sympathetic to the mission and cause of the organization.

Target is generally defined by goals and objectives, with various tactics used to reach the intended audiences. Practitioners should strategically choose their targets to achieve their desired results, keeping in mind that reaching target audiences also is a way to measure one's goals and objectives. To evaluate the level of success in a campaign, practitioners measure quantitative outcomes, such as garnering media coverage or generating inquiries, increasing sales, or receiving service requests. Qualitative measures are also employed, including the message and meaning targets use as they refer to the organization's reputation, the nature of the relationship they have with the organization, or the willingness to agree with an issue position.

Targeting is one way of increasing communication efficiency: putting the right message in front of the right market at the right time. Thus, the source designs a message that is crafted to appeal to the target audience. Then, the source works to get that message through one or more channels that increase the likelihood that the target sees, reads, views, and responds to the message.

Targets feature demographics like age, gender, marital status, income, or religious affiliation. Targets feature psychographics that depend on values, beliefs, lifestyles, and attitudes. A target is also defined by featuring sociographics, such as employment, identifications, affiliations, and cause relatedness.

Targets are determined in a marketing communication context based on the return on investment, commonly referred to simply as ROI that appears to be achievable by getting a specific message to a particular, definable market— group or groups of customers—at a particular time. For instance, if a computer manufacturer has a specific product aimed at college students, those students, as well as the parents of those students, constitute a target market. The company might advertise and use promotions in campus newspapers and magazines to reach students. They might link to websites and social media applications popular with students. They might target reporters whose messages can feature promotional activities and materials in magazines, newspapers, radio, and television frequently used by college students. The company also might target administrators on college campuses. Thus, we think of student customers as primary targets—one that can receive a message directly through media channels—and as secondary targets, one that can be reached through other targeted audiences. These targeted audiences might buy a computer for a student, or they might pass the message to the students that a specific brand of computer is for sale at a special price for college students.

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