Who Are Your People?

You’ve defined your purpose – the ‘Why’ that drives you and your business forward.

This clarity will attract those who identify with your mission, and repel those who don’t.

Like-minded people will gather around your purpose like those who gathered around the campfires of old to listen to their favourite storytellers.

These people are your audience.

Your audience

Your audience is the community that will be loyal to your brand, allowing your company to stay relevant and prosperous.

In the age of the internet people now gather around:

• Ideas
• Hobbies
• Lifestyles
• Political beliefs
• Community goals
• Occupations
• Educational goals
• Professional goals
• Products and services

Deep down we all want to ‘belong’ somewhere or to something. If you provide that ‘thing’ they can belong to (product, service, community etc) then they will gather round and usually stick around if you keep them engaged.

Demographics, psychographics, and shared beliefs

Marketing today is about knowing your audience and engaging them – not trying to convert the disbelievers or the people who disagree with your purpose.

Building an audience that is loyal to your brand is a process of identifying your people based on shared beliefs, affinities, and interests, not just clustering by demographics or mapping with psychographics.

Consumers today look for more than just a product or service that will solve their problem. They want to belong. Since there is no shortage of choice, they look more for shared values with a supplier – a way of thinking with which they identify.

So your core values are at the heart of your positioning in the marketplace, even if you do use demographics and psychographics to begin your process of segmenting the people who will become your unique audience.

As you break down broader audiences into smaller groups that you target with a more personalised approach, your community begins forming.

‘Mass’ gives way to ‘meaningful’

Leading advertising agencies are now persuading their big budget corporate clients to go the route of finding their people through purpose-driven marketing.

Advertising used to be about mass appeal – throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. Now it’s strategically aimed at ‘the people who belong’ – those special people who make up your audience. These individuals will identify with the core values of the company, and respond when those values are communicated in the product or service being advertised.

One example of this type of ad currently running on both broadcast and social media is Vrbo’s “Only Your People” ad.

The ad begins, “The thing that’s different about a Vrbo vacation…”. They immediately appeal to those who believe what they believe – that vacations should be about spending time with loved ones, not strangers. Not everyone will buy into this concept, but enough of “their people” will so that a Vrbo vacation will become one of the most sought after by their demographic.

Our People at Qoob Agency

Our people are business owners and entrepreneurs that are driven by purpose and want the most direct path to their people. We specialise in designing marketing communications that speak directly to our customers’ unique audiences wherever they are – both on- and offline.

If you need help or advice with any aspect of your marketing in these increasingly complex marketplaces, please do get in touch with us.