Photo by norwichnuts

When you’re marketing your product, who exactly are you appealing to? What specifically do you think would attract them to what you’re selling? Is it possible to  market your product to the largest audience and simultaneously appeal to different subgroups effectively?

Let’s say you’re a baker selling pastries. What could you say about them?

• They look delicious.
• They taste delicious.
• They cost $2.00 each.
• They are made fresh each day.
• They are made with organic ingredients.
• They are made in small batches to ensure perfect flavoring.
• They are made by formerly homeless people that you trained.
• They have 250 calories.
• They are made with fruit from your organic garden, harvested just before baking.
• They are baked with solar-powered ovens.
• They are made in a peanut-free environment.
• They are vegan.
• They can be delivered to your door within 2 hours of baking.
• They can be customized with your favorite fillings.
• They have a low glycemic index.

What’s the most important of these points to your audience? No doubt taste & looks are #1. But everyone says their pastries look and taste fantastic. So now what?

If you’re marketing to vegan restaurants, the fact they’re vegan is #1. If you’re marketing to socially-conscious people, who makes them is very important.

To appeal to a wider audience, have a different marketing message for each of the senses. Each of these senses combine into a larger message, but the individual message stand perfectly well on their own:

• Sight: Instead of showing a photo of a lone pastry, show someone smiling and eating it (or licking it).
• Smell: Describe how the smell of a fresh pastry can transport you to another time or place (a Parisian cafe or your grandma’s kitchen).
• Taste: Your mouth will dance and your diet won’t be compromised.
• Touch: Feel how the pastry springs back in your hands – it’s a sign of just-made freshness.
• Hearing: The only sound you’ll hear will be silence, from the concentrated pleasure of small-batch perfection.
• (Bonus) Mind: Feel good knowing that each bite of the pastry is full of organic freshness and made by people who were formerly homeless in solar ovens.

Finally, if you don’t know why people buy them, ask them. You might be surprised by the answer.