Sticking with the same consumer type all the time will limit your sales and business prospects. Also, as the market evolves, your target audience and demographics may naturally change. Here's a few tips on how you can expand your brand voice to ensure it reaches new audiences and demographics in 2023 and beyond.
1. Keep a Close Eye on Your Data.
Your business has to be ready to expand into a different demographic or audience. The way you'll know it's ready is to look closely at your existing customer data. Within your data, there will be areas of differentiation that show where your new audience segment or demographic may be coming into being. Then, all you have to do is move a little further into that area.
This kind of gradual movement, bolstered by data, is a relatively low-risk way to expand. It works especially well with slow-growth strategies that plan on steadier, gradual expansion.
2. Build Customer Personas.
A customer persona is a character or avatar that represents a member of your target audience. For each segment of your target audience and demographic, you need a distinct persona. The more detailed, the better. Using these customer personas will help your marketing team look at your customers as real people rather than broad types. Marketers can connect better with characters or personas than with types or lists of characteristics.
3. Look at Adjacent Market Segments.
When you expand your audience or demographic, it makes the most sense to look at market segments adjacent to your existing one(s). For example, if your demographic has been the 18-24 age bracket, you could look to expand into the 24-35 age bracket to reach your customers as they age out of your current products. If your target audience has been females who need simple skin care routines, you could add a men's product your customers could buy for their partners.
4. Study Your Competition.
It's not stealing to look at what your competition does well and adopt things you think would work well for your brand. People get new ideas from different people and places including their competitors.
You may not be privy to all the data your competitor has on itself, but you can glean a lot from their marketing pieces, like what their bestselling items are and what demographics they're targeting. If you see a competitor doing something that's adjacent or close to what your brand is doing, it could be a new area to try yourself.
5. Learn about New Audiences.
Researching new audiences can be another way to get the data you need when making marketing decisions. How does the new audience overlap with your existing target audience? What needs does the new audience have that you can target with your existing product line?
These and other questions can best be answered through careful research so you're aware of the top areas for expansion. You can also rule out other audiences that won't work well.
Need help creating a CPG brand voice or CPG marketing campaign? Hangar-12 can provide expert guidance and keep you up on all the latest trends. Subscribe to our blog to get the most recent information.