It’s easy to market to the middle-of-the-road. People like yourself. People like the ones you see on TV or hear on the radio. The Aussie, the ocker and the “normal.” But what about the niche? The specific? And the outlier? Who’s reaching them?
Today we’ll take a quick look at a small slice of the research I’ve been gathering on the Darwin market since June 2017 and what some of the findings have been; particularly in niche market segments that are not being effectively reached by mainstream marketing and advertising.
1. Christians
None of us have ever considered Darwin to be a place that takes religion too seriously. But if anything, Darwin is as much a city of churches as Adelaide is, with around 70 church groups located in the greater Darwin region, and area with a population of less than 150,000 people. With that many churches to choose from, and this doesn’t even include those of parallel Christian or other religious groupings like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter Day Saints (Mormon), Islamic, Hindu or Buddhism, you start to see that there has to be a significant number of people supporting that many congregations.There is a dedicated Christian book store in Nightcliff, a dedicated Christian community radio station on 97.7 FM and many faith-based schools, indicating that there is a sizable market for specific goods and services aimed at Christians. Yet who is actually targeted this group? A quick listen to 97.7FM shows that they are probably the most obvious medium aimed at Christian audiences in Darwin. But other than that, most dedicated local marketing activity is carried out via Facebook, where religious interests can be identified and targeted.How do you target a Christian audience? You do it with respect, clean language, no innuendo and relevance. Chrisitans value mutual respect, modesty, good works, clean language and values that they equate with family, respect for elders, child-rearing and a routine of life that is centred around family and an idea that while you live IN the world, you are not OF the world.
2. Those who speak English as a second language
Not everyone in Darwin grew up speaking English. In fact, as a university, tourist, military and gateway city to south east Asia, you only need to take a walk around our local markets, shopping centres and small businesses to see how much multiculturalism has added to not only the flavours of Darwin, but it’s economy as well. There are Greek, Italian and Chinese-language radio services available in Darwin that are largely community-supported. However you can target speakers of English as a second language (ESL) in many of the same ways you target anyone else in Darwin.In a radio or TV, have your script by read at a conversational pace. A motor-mouth-style reading of an ad is ahrd enough to understand for someone who speaks primarily English, let alone someone who is still learning it. On TV, use more photos of your product and less words and titles on the screen. Don’t cram information on the screen, especially in the “lower third” of the screen (that bit at the bottom where so many ads like to cram a tonne of detail.) Less is more in any kind of ad, but it’s even more vital when you want to reach ESL people specifically. With printed and written word, minimise the usual of colloquial terms and ockerisms. Avoid jargon and the use of technical terms where possible and watch yur message get through to more people than ever before.
3. Kids
Considering just how many major companies push toys, food, activities, magazines and beverages at our kids in supermarkets, major TV ad campaigns and through product-oriented cartoons and online games, it baffles me that local Darwin businesses in Darwin haven’t cottoned on to this yet. Perhaps the most motivated consumer is a child. Especially a bored child in front of a TV, a computer, an iPad or social network. There are lots of kids in Darwin and lots of options to keep them entertained. But Darwin businesses tend to aim their kids products and services at adults. Not the kids themselves. Hypothetically, if you’re a toy store, wouldn’t you aim your marketing at kids to pester their parents with “can I have?” questions rather than at sophisticated adults who have already learned to tune-out marketing that is aimed at getting them to buy stuff for their kids.
And while it sounds horribly manipulative (and it is…) to target kids with advertising, consider this; they are already being targeted with countless messages from cartoons, ads during the cartoons, the magazines you buy them in supermarkets, the placement of confectionery at checkouts and the stuff they’re seeing other kids have at kindy, school and what-not.
Want to get the attention of kids? Speak to them though your marketing. On radio, have your ads scheduled at the school set-down and pick-up run time. That’s 7.30am to 8.30am. And again from 2pm to 3.30pm. On TV, it’s morning cartoon time on stations that carry heavy cartoon loads in the morning, like ELEVEN and GO! Saturday mornings are great for this as well. Online, be on Facebook and Instagram and target the 13-18 demographic. If you’re more brave, go for SnapChat, though you may want agency help with this as it’s fraught with danger as msot brands come off as “lame” when trying to penetrate this bastion of teen angst. Google is a little tricky too. Even if you know what kids are searching for, you also need your ad to be relevant to that search. Not an ad for a toy when they are searching for “how to stop being bullied.”
This is just an example of some targets we know. What kind of customers are you looking for?