Possibly, the most important element of the marketing trail is how to identify accurately your Target Audience and is often the main culprit when advertising has failed to reach its full potential, for the obvious reasons.

You may have been saying all the right things but to the wrong people, perhaps on the wrong stage (media) and subsequently a large chunk of your precious advertising budget would have gone sailing down your Thomas Crapper.

Identifying the correct Target Audience from the outset is vital to achieve maximum efficiency from your advertising and ensure that we're saying the right things in the right way (tone of voice) and this exercise is undertaken correctly using accurate research (existing qualitative, quantitative and secondary material and perhaps even your own focus groups) and using advertising tools such as MOZAIC and ACORN (demographic analysis) and then reviewed regularly.

The demographic information required to address your accurate Target Audience can be:

Which sex? Perhaps specifically one gender or perhaps both, but if so what is the percentage split?

What age groups? This may be a very specific group (i.e. 18-24 female) or often cover a wide range of age bands, and what is the split?

Where are they? Where do they live? Which towns, rural, urban? Where do they buy? (i.e. home, malls, online?).

How wealthy are they? What is their disposable income? Is it a joint income? (married couple).

Who makes the purchasing decision? Not always the purchaser! (i.e. parent for child and perhaps a man for the car or a woman for the bathroom).

What products do they buy? What are their purchasing habits regarding food, cars, clothes (types and volume).

What social grade are they? In the UK we use NRS Social Grade Definitions that basically specify us all into social slots by status and occupations, from A (higher middle class) B, C1, C2, D to E (state pensioners, lowest grade workers and West Ham supporters).

What are their lifestyle habits? What sort of holidays do they have? Do they go to restaurants, gyms or health spas?
Do they like gardening?

Is there a race or religious issue? Perhaps not PC - but essential information.

This information will allow the advertiser to produce an accurate profile and demographic spread of their Target Audience and subsequently enable the most creatively correct advertising and the most cost-effective media placement possible - and to talk to as many of the right people as possible, on the right stage and in the right way!

YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE MAY NOT BE WHO YOU SAY IT IS!