In the pursuit of viral marketing, it’s easy to make marketing missteps. Good intentions can easily lead to marketing missteps.
When you tightly target your audience, you can avoid marketing missteps. When you know and understand your target audience you’ll be able to create a relevant marketing message without offending your target audience. By tightly target your message, you increase the number of people “sharing” the message with other members of your target audience. When shared often, it becomes a successful viral marketing campaign.
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Identifying your target audience
Sometimes identifying the target audience for your product is easy. Whether it’s sanitary protection or the care and cleaning of “lady parts,” these subjects are sensitive but the target audience is clear. Choosing the right message and then the right channels is critical.
Advertising for the female version of “man scaping” can be particularly tricky. ( Would that be “lady scaping”?) This Schick ad is an example of an ad that is not offensive to its target audience.
This option is subtle and creative. Others have chosen to walk the path of “not subtle and tasteless ” when creating advertising for similar products. They say hindsight is always 20/20 and in the true spirit of the internet, pulling an offensive ad doesn’t fix the problem. Bad behavior often develops a life of it’s own after it is posted online. Being parodied on SNL is just one way your not subtle and tasteless ad can live in infamy.
The problem with “viral marketing” is that once the message is released into the wild – you can’t control it anymore.
When you understand your target audience, you’re less likely to offend them. Many companies have encountered a backlash over offensive marketing and advertising. Thanks to the internet, these marketing missteps can have long lasting repercussions. You can reduce the likelihood of this by getting to know your target audience. If you’re not a member of your target audience, find a group that is to act as your focus group.
[…] However, you must be careful when you’re tightly targeting your demographic audience. It seems to be very easy for your message to take an unexpected “wrong turn” and instead of connecting with your target audience – you’re offending them. […]