TAR comes first:why you should always conduct target audience research before launching a marketing campaign

A product can sell well only if it fits the target audience's needs. But how do you know what those needs are? And how much is the TA ready to pay to satisfy them? That's where TAR, or target audience research, comes in.

The challenge: from zero to complete product positioning

Our client had a very valuable product (a DeFi data aggregator) but no clear positioning, USP, or marketing messages.  

We needed first to find out what the real target audience looked like and what their pains were. Without this TA portrait, any marketing campaign would be a waste of money.

After just 30 days, we produced detailed portraits for 4 TA segments and a marketing strategy for each, complete with attractive sales propositions.

How we did it

1) Goal-setting

Time: 4 days

Two goals: 

• define product positioning; 
• find out what can make a target user subscribe to the service. 

We divided these goals into objectives: 

a) TA differentiation by age, gender, GEO, portfolio size, preferred media channels, ways to select a project, and requested features. As a result, the TA was divided into four segments. 

b) Understanding how the TA views the product's strengths and weaknesses. 

c) Find out what users expect from a subscription. 

2) Screening

Time: 12 days

We polled 300+ (vs the target of 100) of the existing product users using a questionnaire that took just 4 minutes to fill. The users received a small monetary reward. 

Insight: use as many communication channels as possible to reach out to more users: corporate social media pages, email newsletter, banners on the site and in the user dashboard, etc.

3) In-depth interviews

Time: 14 days

BDC Consulting often uses interviews to build laser-sharp TA portraits and identify a product's strengths and weaknesses as users see them – often with unexpected results. 

In this case study, we conducted 20 hour-long interviews (5 per TA segment). 

Insight: a tangible incentive (money, tokens, or merchandise) is the best way to motivate users to participate in a poll or interview. 

Results

After just 30 days of analysis, screening and in-depth interviews, we delivered to the client:

• four detailed TA portraits;
• a clear and relevant positioning strategy in line with the TA's true needs;
• unique selling propositions for each of the four TA segments;
• a complete marketing strategy with a breakdown by promotional channel.

Insights and conclusions

Well-conducted target audience research (TAR) produces five kinds of knowledge:

1. TA's real needs: what users want to achieve;
2. Direct & indirect competition: which tools the TA currently uses to satisfy those needs;
3. Product-market fit: how relevant the product is to those needs;
4. Killer features: which functionality can make the TA buy the product;
5. Pricing: how much the TA is prepared to pay for the product. 

What happens if you don't use TAR?

• You don't know what the TA's triggers are
• Irrelevant or unattractive sales propositions
• Low conversion/subscription/etc
• Wasted marketing budget

Good TAR (be it polls, interviews, focus groups, etc.) always pays for itself in the end because it helps generate attractive and relevant offers for each TA segment.