who is your target audience?
Wandering around the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas this weekend, I happened to spot two pieces of art that pretty much sum up how some marketers view their audience.
The first is a sculpture by George Segal (special exhibition of his work- very cool), called Liquor Store. It just struck me that, while the man on the stoop is faceless and featureless, the brands show up loud and clear. The brands are more important than the customer. It’s a sad statement, which is the emotion I think Mr. Segal wants to evoke. And it’s doubly sad if it’s your marketing plan – ignoring the audience and trumpeting your brand instead.
The second sculpture is called Bronze Crowd by Ms. Magdelena Abakanowicz, part of the premanent collection and installed in the beautiful outside garden. Ms. Abakanowicz portrays this crowd as faceless, because she believes crowds are lonely things. Again, for marketers, is this what your target audience looks like? Are you segmenting your audience into groups so they all look so homogenous? Maybe that’s ok, as long as you dont think they’re headless/brainless, too!
The point here is to look at your audience as individuals, with features and personalities and personal needs. Not as faceless, featureless “consumers” who only exist to consume your brand!