Targeting Your Customers: Why Marketing to Everyone is like Marketing to No One

Sometimes people ask me, "why shouldn't I market to everybody"?

Because "everybody" is not specific enough. When you market to "everybody," you have to be general enough that "everybody" can relate to all of your marketing strategies. Unless you are a plumber or a mechanic, "everybody" isn't going to respond to your ads. "Everybody" won't be able to use your product. (And even with plumbers and mechanics, "everybody" doesn't own buildings and cars.)

Contrary to popular belief, the more specifically you define your target audience, the more effective your advertising becomes. If your business is a doggy day care, you want to build your brand around common elements that dog owners have. If your business is selling preschool and kindergarten toys, you want to build our brand around elements that moms and preschool teachers have in common. (After all, they will be the ones ultimately purchasing the items.)

Did you know that in the early days of Starbucks, mostly the young, academic, literary crowd hung out at Starbucks to study? Study sessions and book clubs filled the first Starbucks outlet to the max. And in many ways, Starbucks is still thought of that way. You can hardly visit a Starbucks without seeing someone with a laptop and a textbook.

And this was no fluke. Starbucks wanted to be thought of as the trendy urban outlet for students. Actually, they designed their brand around something familiar to literary people: the starbuck sailor from Moby Dick who would jump out of the boat when he heard the songs of the mermaids. (There's coffee in Moby Dick too- how many of you paid attention in high school English?)

Today, people who are not literary frequent Starbucks because of the ripple effect, and most people think "coffee" when they hear "starbuck" rather than "classic novel."

Today, more than just academics and literary people visit Starbucks.

Today, "everybody," including those who do not like coffee based on the new chocolate and smoothie menu, visits Starbucks.

But ages ago, they didn't start with "everybody."

They targeted their audience and ultimately redefined an obscure word. Brilliant.