How To Build Differentiation with Target Audience

The Relationship Between Differentiation and Target Audience

Your brand’s Differentiation shows its uniqueness in market, versus other products and services out there. To drive your brand’s Differentiation through your Target Audience, you need to have a deep understanding of what it is your target wants and needs, and whether you or any other brand in the category is currently meeting their expectations.  

To increase your Differentiation through your Target Audience, consider the following: 

1. Are you targeting different people to the competition? By doing a full competitor analysis, you can uncover exactly who your competitors are targeting in the market, and where there are opportunities for you to set your brand apart by going after a totally untouched, new target. Start by looking at their market positioning, their pricing and what people are saying about them on social media and in ProQuo AI’s Conversations. If you are vying for the same group as the competition, you’ll need to think about identifying and broadening your audience to include people that no one else is currently talking to. 

2. Are there any cultural trends you can align your brand to? The rise of veganism or the increasing importance consumers place on sustainability are just two examples of trends which are changing the way people interact with brands. By segmenting your target audience psycho-graphically or behaviourally, you can begin to understand their mindset, their values and what is important to them. Your new product development roadmap should be aligned to specific customer segments, and your target audience segmentation will, in turn, surface opportunities for innovation and differentiation.   

3. Should you shake up your media strategy? Brands are able to differentiate themselves by targeting and communicating with people in unexpected ways. Perhaps there’s a social platform through which you can explore tactics to surprise and delight new audiences. Or is there a brand partnership or collaboration which would open up your brand to a whole new audience? 

What should you do next?

• Conduct a full competitor analysis to uncover gaps in the market for you to refine your targeting strategy.  
• Segment your audience according to their mindset (psycho-graphically) to form specific customer groups and to inform your media strategy. Facebook Insights, Google Trends auditing your social media engagement are just a few ways to understand more about your audience. 
• Test and refine your hypotheses on social to start with, and once you’ve honed your audience, begin to test the boundaries and explore new avenues for differentiating your brand. 

How to determine if it’s working.

• You’ll see your Differentiation score grow as you break into untapped audiences with your existing and new product launches. 

• Keep a close eye on your social engagement and what people are saying about you online as you pivot your media strategy and targeting. 
  
  
  Guidance from:
  Katie Wrightson | Head of Content, ProQuo AI
  
  Katie has spent her career working in communications. Whether it's for Sainsbury's, charities or in agencies, she knows where brands should talk to people, and how.