Understanding Target Markets
Overview of the demographics
Targeting is based on customers’ segmentation. Customers in different segments vary in terms of their responsiveness to marketing offerings and appeal (Ciribeli & Miquelito, 2015). One of the segmentation criteria is demographic and it presumes classification of customers according to their age, sex, education level, income, civil status, profession, and others. Segmentation is highly beneficial for any company because it allows to focus on specific customers and develop a customer driven value chain (Bose, 2012).
Apple’s target market captures both females and males aged 20-45 years old, who have upper or middle-class income and are ready to pay for an exceptional experience (Hixon, 2015). With regard to the occupation, Apple’s customers are students, executives and managers. They live in urban areas and have a contemporary lifestyle. Students are aged 20-24 years old. They purchase Apple’s products because they are trendy and make their school work easier. This target audience is mostly unmarried, with no kids, living separately from their families.
Adults, who hold executive or managerial positions constitute another segment within the company’s target audience. Usually, people in this group are married, but have no kids. They have at least a Bachelors degree and enjoy having a good work and life balance. This target audience prefers Apple’s products because they are easy in use, with appealing interface, can be easily integrated with one another, having various features that are useful in daily business routine (Moorman, 2012).
Overview of psychographics
Segmentation on the psychographics criterion considers for customers’ values, attitudes, opinions, interests, personality and other similar factors (Ciribeli & Miquelito, 2015). It may occur that people who are in the same demographic group may have different psychographic profiles. Apple’s customers value different things within the products. They can be broadly classified as aspirers, succeeders and explorers. The former group includes people oriented to extrinsic features of the product, such as image, appearance and others (Young & Rubicam, 2016). The second group of Apple’s customers are succeeders and they buy the products because they believe that they are the best in the market. Explorers also make part of the company’s target audience and they favor the brand because it provides them with a sense of difference, sensation, adventure and indulgence.
Most of the Apple’s customers are strongly loyal to the brand. Having an Apple device is associated for them with a sense of achievement and belonging, as well as self-expression (Johnson, Li, Phan, Singer & Trinh, 2012). Most of the customers are image conscious. This means that they are very concerned about their status and image in society. Having interviewed more that 50 of Apple’s customers, it was concluded that the company’s products enhanced people’s self-perception in 90%.
Apple’s target audience is interested in latest developments and fashion. They enjoy travelling, socializing and being indulged in gregarious activities. According to the conducted survey, 75% of customers consider that they are extroverts. Over 80% of responders stated that they were passionate about visiting other countries and meeting new people.
Most of the …
