Millions and millions of consumers. Billions of their dollars that they could spend in YOUR place of business. The question is, who are these consumers? Where do they shop? What do they eat? What is it that they want, exactly? That's where market research comes in. Figuring out who they are and what they want is one of the first steps in defining your target audience. The target audience is the targeted group that marketers aim to sell their products. Who is the ideal customer for your place of business?
A well-defined, clear target audience is absolutely imperative in today's business world. Target audience marketing provides you with a way to connect with your customers. If you know who they are, where they shop and how they live you can better cater to their needs. It's much easier to hit your target if you know exactly what it is. You need to know everything about them! Having an idea of an "ideal customer" is a way to identify what market you are catering to. If you understand who the ideal customer is, and what it is they like to do, you can find better ways to market to this segment, or how you can help them to appreciate your store more.
The VALS survey is a way to put consumers into a specific market segment. You can cater to these certain segments better if you know all that they fundamentally stand on. When I took the quiz I was labeled as an experiencer and an innovator. An experiencer is someone motivated by self-expression. Image is very important because it is an expression of their tastes and personality. Innovators are successful sophisticated and take chage people. I completely agree with the results of the survey. These two labels described me very well, and helped me to better understand myself!