KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

I found a helpful article whilst setting up my brand which helped me understand who it was i'm trying to sell my designs to.

It comes from The Designers Studio (tdsblog.com) they have helpful tips on understanding your target audience:

Step 1: Scrutinize your product

Before you can analyse your customer, you need to understand your product first. That means listing each of its features and the benefits they bring. Once this is done, list the corresponding person whose life would be made easier by that benefit.

The designs The Prawn Shop offers to it customers focus around issues of body image, sexism, consent and gay rights. By identifying what the designs have to offer i was able to ensure i market my t-shirts to people who are interested in similar issues.

Step 2: Study your market

This is where it gets a little bit ‘group project’ reminiscent. You can gather your information in an informal manner or take a more text-book approach; if the result is as thorough as possible. It could be an email questionnaires, one-on-one interview or surveys through internet portals such as Survey Monkey (If you want a better idea on which research avenue to take, read more about these and other target audience research methods here). 

I identified that the age range of my customers is 16-25, as the issues my designs focus on are often spoke about on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. I was then able to create brand accounts on a number of social media platforms, follow similar brands and see how they interact with their customers and also ask potential customers questions via a new feature called 'twitter polls' where people can anonymously give answers to questions you give them on Twitter. 

Step 3: Write out your Customer Description

To get specific with whom your target market is, you’ll have to identify several aspects about your ideal customer. Fashion Business Insider recommends the following attributes:

• Demographics (age, gender, profession, income level, marital or family status)
• Psychographics (values, attitudes, belief systems, pain points aka major areas of frustrations)
• Lifestyle (geographic location, leisure activities, travel)
• Buying habits (brand loyalty, impulse buyer or saver, price awareness, unique features they look out for)
• Customer Needs – remember that needs are stronger than wants and a customer is willing to hand over their money for that thing that meets their needs.

I found this aspect of audience understanding to be the most useful, it gave myself something which i could look back at when making changes to the brand ensuring that all brand decisions being made still appealed to my target audience. 

The Prawn Shop customer description

• 16-25, both male and female, student, low income
• up to date on current social issues
• needs clothes that are comfortable and easy to style, goes out with friends, based in the UK 
• loyal to the band due to the low prices of the clothing; meaning they come back for more