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Manly Cupcakes and Tips on Finding, Understanding, and Appealing to your Target Market

October 20th, 2010 | Small Business | No Comments »

I was flipping channels the other day when I stopped to watch a man who was promoting “manly cupcakes for manly men” on the Rachel Ray talk show. David Arrick started Butch Bakery after noticing how many cupcake businesses there were popping up around New York City. All the cupcake shops he noticed seemed to be marketing to the same audience. The stores offered pink, sparkly, frilly, pretty cupcakes. Arrick had an idea to create a cupcake business that appealed to a different crowd…men. Butch Bakery offers “manly” cupcakes with flavor combinations including beer, bacon and whiskey. They even have a cupcake that’s decorated in camouflage!

David Arrick had no trouble identifying his target market. He knew he wanted Butch Bakery to appeal to men who wanted delicious cupcakes, minus the frilly-factor. Have you found your target market yet? Have you been successful in appealing to them?

Here are a few things to consider about identifying and understanding your target market.

What purpose does your product serve and who might this appeal to?

What makes your product different than similar products, and who might benefit from the uniqueness of your product?

What are the people most likely to benefit from your product like? Where do they live? What do they do? How old are they? How much do they use the Internet and in what way? How large of an audience are they?

Are you trying to appeal to too large or diverse of an audience? Will your marketing efforts be more effective if you narrow or re-identify your target audience?

Once you have identified and developed a solid understanding of your target group, then it’s time to use this knowledge to appeal to your target group. There are several ways to do this.  I’ve include a few tips below.

Elicit feedback from members of your target audience. Ask them what they are looking for in a product like yours. Ask them where they would look for such a product.

Build a website that will appeal to your target audience. Do your research to figure out what design schemes/colors/content your audience will react the most positively to.

Make sure that the image you are portraying about your products/services is consistent and clear to your target audience. Don’t send mixed messages about what your product is or who it is for.

Manly Cupcakes and Tips on Finding, Understanding, and Appealing to your Target Market
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