Alba Discussion 4

Assignment
Take your business/client/brand (the one from the SMART goals assignment), and taking into
account geographic area, tell me about your target audience. This is the target audience for
your social media message NOT for the entire product. You will need to define both
demographics and psychographics. You can look at your target area using either the US Census
or SimplyAnalytics to see what your potential targets might be.
This is the target audience for your social media message NOT for the entire product. To
whom are you speaking with your social media. Remember the narrower your target the more
likely your social media campaign is to be successful. If you speak to everyone; you speak to no
one.
This is the target audience for your social media message NOT for the entire product. (Why do
I keep saying this? it’s the number one reason that people do poorly on the assignment. They
give me the entire target for the brand. You may welcome people of both sexes aged 19-78 in
your gym, but a message for a 19 year old man, will not work for a 59 year old woman.)
Use the same business/brand as you used for your goal assignment. I have provided four
samples below or (even better), you may also use a real local business. By using the same brand
for all your assignments you will find that at the end of the semester you will have a social
media strategy outlined for this business that you can put in your portfolio.
You will need to use SimplyAnalytics to get “the number” … i.e. the number of people in the
target area that match your demographic description. This is worth 15 points, so you can
certainly pass without it, you just can’t get an A on the assignment. I will hold office hours this
week to help people with SimplyAnalytics. Only about 3 people at a time can log into
SimplyAnalytics through our library. That is why you have two weeks for the assignment. If you
wait until the day before it is due, you will not be able to log on. Again, that’s only a problem if
you want an A on this assignment.
Demographics are:
Age
Sex or gender
Generation
Sexual orientation
Marital status
Number of children
Nationality
Income
Education level
Home ownership
Place of residence
You don’t need all of them, but you need some.
Psychographics are attitudes, interests, and opinions. An easy short cut is to find a VALs that
fits. But you can just describe these attributes of your target. ESRI has psychographics, but you
need to pull out the ones that are appropriate for your target.
Use the same business/brand as you used for your goal assignment. I have provided four
samples below or (even better), you may also use a real local business. By using the same brand
for all your assignments you will find that at the end of the semester you will have a social
media strategy outlined for this business that you can put in your portfolio.
Sample Businesses for Social Media and Strategic Branding WITH potential client areas. (To help
you narrow your audience and come up with a real number of potential targets.)
1. Elizabeth Marsh – Candidate for Mayor of Middle South Miami. District is composed of
zipcode = 33134. Precincts 606 and 623
a. (note this is not the real boundary of South Miami, but I chose one zipcode to
make demographics easier.)
b. Candidate’s interest and expertise are education and climate change
c. Candidate wants to raise money, so how many people would you say are
interested in education (for their children) and sea level rise? Be honest with
yourself (and me), not everyone cares about (or believes in) climate change and
a smaller target is better.
2. Mobile Tire Repair and Replacement (you pick a great name) – service area is zipcodes =
33134, 33126 and 33144.
a. New company seeking to establish brand awareness
b. Tire repair and replacement at your work
3. Westchester International Bank – local area zipcodes = 33155, 33144,
a. Established community bank that wants to expand portfolio
b. Wealth management and estate planning
4. Little Royals VPK (Voluntary Pre-K) and childcare. Zipcode = 33134 & 33144
a. LRVPK is a well known high end childcare facility
b. Rebranding to service more moderate income families through state sponsored
VPK
You should then tell me how many of these people described above are in your target area.
This is where you need to use SimplyAnalytics.
Define this narrow target (for the message) using demographics and psychographics. Your
research should reflect SimplyAnalytics or the US Census, and ESRI. Your target must be narrow
with respect to age, socio-economic bracket, and sex, also race/ethnicity if it is relevant.
Lastly, create an audience persona (or buyer persona) which is description of a person with a
name, sex, etc who is your typical audience member. This needs to include a picture. I have
included templates for audience personas in the module. You may follow one of these or you
may do some research on your own to find another style you like better.
Before you start look at the rubric. You can clearly see from the rubric what I am looking for and
how you can lay it out so it is easy to grade.
Demographics
Psychographics
Number
Narrow target
Persona
Your persona must look like one of the templates, or what you would see if you Googled “Buyer
Persona.” But do not copy the templates. I will not except any of those examples.
Rubric
ADV4323 Target audience rubric (2)
ADV4323 Target audience rubric (2)
Criteria Ratings Pts
This criterion is linked to a
Learning OutcomeResearch
What is your research source?
Simply Analytics or Census or
another recognized source for
demographics? VALS or ESRI or
another recognized source for
psychographics?
10 pts
This criterion is linked to a
Learning OutcomeDescription –
demographics
Is your demographic description
complete? (Age, sex, race,
ethnicity, SES, family status,
marital status, and other
pertinent demographic
50 pts
descriptors. If you don’t use a
criteria then why?)
This criterion is linked to a
Learning
OutcomePyschographics
Is your psychographic
description complete using
either ESRI or VALS or another
acknowledged source.
50 pts
This criterion is linked to a
Learning OutcomeHow many
are there?
I want a number. If you’re using
the whole US (i.e. an online
business who targets the whole
US) then make sure you
understand percentage of US
population that composes your
audience and get a number
from there.
10 pts
This criterion is linked to a
Learning OutcomeNarrow
target
Is you target audience
sufficiently narrow?
20 pts
This criterion is linked to a
Learning OutcomePersona
Do you have a persona
10 pts
Total Points: 150