Branding For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Finding a Niche You Can Fill: Researching Your Market

In This Chapter

• Identifying your customers

• Researching and analyzing your market

• Finding new brand opportunities

No matter what you're branding or whether you're building a new brand or revitalizing an existing brand, your effort has to start with market research, and here's why: Unless your budget is limitless (and we've yet to see one that is), you can't possibly try to talk to all the people who may have some interest in what you have to offer. You have to target both your message and your market.

Targeting your market involves figuring out which people are most likely to want what you're selling. You have to find out who they are, where they are, how they're best reached by media, what kinds of messages or offers will motivate them to buy, and, when they're ready to buy, what kind of buying and customer experience will make them satisfied and loyal to your brand.

If you have ESP or you're a genius with a crystal ball, you can guess at the answers. If you're like everyone else, you need to do some research, and that's what this chapter's all about. It helps you create a profile of your ideal customer and then determine your customers' purchase motivations, their preferred purchase channels and experiences, and the reasons they choose one brand over another in your category.

In the process of this research, you find your market niche — the select group of customers who share unique interests and needs that your offering ...