How To Choose A Target Market

“Drop a teaspoon of [thief detector dye] in to a swimming pool, and all the water in the pool will become permanently bright purple. But if you drop it in the ocean, no one will notice.” 

This comes from Seth Godin’s book This Is Marketing in his chapter about the smallest viable market. He encourages entrepreneurs and marketers to find the smallest target audience for their product, that still spends enough (viable) to make the business grow. 

In the age of Facebook ads, it’s really tempting to market your cool product to the coolest twenty-somethings with the hippest interests in LA. But this like a drop in the ocean, because everyone else is doing that too. You might reach a few people in Los Feliz, a handful in Korea Town, some in Santa Monica, and a couple in Long Beach. But these people will never run into each other. They’ll never create a community or any groundswell.

A much better choice would be to find an underserved location. Who is marketing to thirty-somethings in Boise? This is more like a drop in a swimming pool. Make a dent here and you’ll gain some groundswell to go to Denver, then Seattle, then LA.

By focusing on small audiences within underserved locations and niches, you can make an impact with your product much faster than if you went straight to the most popular places. 

Happy marketing!