What is a marketing target group?

You want to know who your offer and communications need to reach. That requires a target group that everyone on your team understands in the same way. A label such as ‘business owners’ or ‘marketing managers’ gives you a starting point, but leaves many questions unanswered. Which organisations do you mean? Who makes the decision? And when is your offer relevant to them?

This article explains what a marketing target group is, how to define its boundaries and how to record it on a target group profile. It also explains how Neurofactor’s concept of an associative target group introduces a different grouping criterion.

A marketing target group is a defined group of people or organisations you direct your marketing towards because you want to reach and serve them with a particular offer. Selecting this group determines where you focus your attention and resources. This definition aligns with the concept of a target market. OpenStax, §5.5

On the target group profile, make that choice explicit: who belongs to the group, for which decision and under what conditions? The group’s name is a short label; its segment composition describes the boundaries.

The concept of a target group in marketing is connected to the development of market segmentation and target market selection. An early scholarly publication on this subject is Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation as Alternative Marketing Strategies by Wendell R. Smith, published in the Journal of Marketing in 1956. It documents the historical discussion of market segmentation as a marketing strategy; it does not establish who first used the Dutch word ‘doelgroep’. Smith, 1956

In 1968, Russell I. Haley described benefit segmentation: grouping people by the benefits they seek from a product. His proposal shows that segmentation went beyond descriptive characteristics of buyers at an early stage. Haley, 1968

This matters when comparing marketing target groups with associative target groups. The distinction lies in the grouping criterion, without reducing marketing segmentation to age, gender or income.

A market segment is a part of a market identified by shared characteristics or needs. Market segmentation is the process of forming these groups. OpenStax, §5.1

Targeting means choosing which group or groups to direct your marketing towards. An identified segment does not automatically become your target group. OpenStax, §5.5

In our target group profiles, we also distinguish between the group you want to serve commercially and the people you want to reach with a particular message. Consider an organisation as a potential customer and a purchasing manager as the recipient of your information. Record both when that distinction matters to the decision.

Marketing segmentation can use geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural characteristics. Location, age, values, lifestyle and usage behaviour can therefore help define a group. A marketing target group does not have to consist solely of people with the same observable characteristics. OpenStax, §5.1

For a practical target group profile, select only criteria that matter to your question. A job title may help you find research participants, while involvement in a purchase may be necessary to establish whether someone can answer your research question.

You can assess the group against five established criteria: is it measurable, accessible, substantial enough, differentiable and actionable? OpenStax, §5.4

At Neurofactor, we translate this into a simple practical check for the profile: could a colleague use your description to decide whether a new participant belongs to the group? If not, its boundaries are not yet explicit enough.

Within the Neurofactor methodology, we use the following working definition:

An associative target group is a defined group of people whose decisions are guided by similar associations within a specific choice context.

A marketing target group establishes who you direct your marketing towards. For an associative target group, the shared associations that guide a choice are the specific criterion used to group people together.

Within this approach, people in one marketing target group may belong to different associative target groups. An association pattern may also cut across roles or age groups. These are possibilities to investigate, rather than findings to assume in advance.

Mentioning the same words is not enough. Two people may both value ‘certainty’, while one means predictable pricing and the other means personal support. Investigate what an association means and what part it plays in the choice. A shared word alone does not demonstrate a shared decision pattern.

This working definition is Neurofactor’s methodological formulation. The historical sources in this article support the discussion of marketing segmentation; they do not validate this particular model of associative target groups.

The steps below are our practical approach to working with a target group profile.

Fictional illustration - not a research finding.

Suppose you want to investigate how medium-sized businesses choose a new CRM supplier. ‘Marketing managers in SMEs’ is a possible starting point, but it is not a complete selection description.

A more precise description would be:

Marketing leads at Dutch B2B service companies with 20 to 100 employees who are involved in selecting a new CRM system within twelve months. They compare suppliers and recommend a choice. Senior management approves the investment. Independent consultants acting solely on behalf of clients are excluded from this research group.

The company size and time frame are chosen research boundaries in this example. They are not universal standards for defining a good target group.

You can then investigate whether different association patterns exist within this marketing target group. Some people might associate ‘a good CRM’ primarily with clarity and peace of mind, while others think of growth opportunities and sales capability. Until studied, these are hypotheses. Only when the pattern and its relationship to the choice are sufficiently supported can you assess whether a separate associative grouping is useful.

Keep the short label separate from the complete selection description. For the fictional CRM example, the profile would look like this:

In the profile’s management information, also record whether this is a marketing target group, an associative target group or a proposed grouping that still needs testing. For an associative target group, document the association pattern, choice context and supporting evidence as well.

A label such as ‘certainty seekers’ is therefore not a complete description. You need to explain what kind of certainty is meant, what supports the grouping and which decision it applies to.

Start with explicit boundaries: who do you want to reach, for which decision and using which criteria? Use the target group profile to make that selection understandable to others.

If you then want to group people by similar associations that guide their choices, record and investigate that criterion too. This keeps your commercial selection distinct from what you have established about decision patterns.

Want to define your target group more clearly? Discuss the decision you want to understand and the information you need to investigate it.