(sociology)

(a) describe who you think the target audience is for this ad from a magazine and (b) describe one activity marketers might have done to indentify the target audience for the product or service described in the ad.

for example, you might clip out an ad for toothpaste. the ad might emphasize how good the toothpaste tastes and its many colors. such an ad might be targeting a young audience. an ad which emphasized how the toothpaste control cavities, on the other hand, might be directed towards parents, while an ad which emphasized how the toothpaste make teeth whiter or control bad breath might be directed towards teenagers and young adults.

(details from textbook) a marketing firm doing research for a company which develops golf courses, might try to determine the feasibility of building golf courses in a certain geographical area. the first step would be to identify the target audience by creating a “profile” of the typical golfer. to do this the marketer would interview hundreds of avid golfers, asking them all kinds of questions about their lifestyles such as what they do for a living, how much money they make, if they have families, the age at which they became interested in golfing, and so on. eventually the marketer would identify common traits among these people and create a “profile.” this profile might describe the average golfer as an affluent, middle-aged to senior citizen, male, married with children, who happens to also prefer american-made full-sized cars.
the marketer would then analyzethe census data for the area to see if people who fit the profile lived there in large enough numbers. if the census data showed that they did, the marketer then might conduct a random telephone sample to find out the level of community support for a new golf course. they might also place field interviewers at shopping malls, supermarkets, and other public places to get a better idea of the level of interest. if the marketer determined that interest among the target audience for a new golf course was high and there was little opposition from elsewhere in the community, he or she would probably advise the company to build the golf course.