{"id":31465,"date":"2021-04-16T16:23:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T20:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=31465"},"modified":"2021-04-17T20:38:28","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T00:38:28","slug":"target-demographics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/","title":{"rendered":"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are target demographics? What is the difference between traditional and new demographics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Target demographics are basically segments of the population that you aim to target with the products\/services you sell. There are two kinds of target demographics: traditional demographics (age, sex, income, race, and location) and new demographics (beliefs, skills, interests, and values).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about the two types of target demographics and some tips on how to create products based on your target market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Traditional vs New Target Demographics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As you create your product, determine <em>who <\/em>you\u2019re trying to sell to. To do this, break your ideal customers down into two target demographics: traditional and new demographics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Traditional demographics include age, sex\/gender, income, race\/ethnicity, and location.<\/li><li>New demographics include beliefs, skills, interests, passions, and values.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Traditional target demographics still have a place for some small businesses, especially those with storefronts. It\u2019s often helpful to know the traditional demographics of the area around your storefront because you want to make sure your product or service can thrive in the region. For example, if you know that you cater mostly to women in their 50s, you wouldn\u2019t want to open in a storefront in an area with a younger population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, traditional demographics can be rather vague. For example, catering to \u201cmiddle-class, 20-to-25-year-old men\u201d could mean a variety of things, since men in this group may have diverse interests and preferences. Are they young professionals? Gamers? Athletes? Traditional demographics don\u2019t answer these questions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, new demographics help businesses shape their product based around the wants and desires of their customers.<strong> <\/strong>For example, if you ran a clothing boutique, you could use new demographics to decide that you want to cater to young women in the workforce who are interested in climbing to the top of the corporate ladder. With this knowledge, you could shape your product and marketing by creating stylish, but professional attire that appeals to your target market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Tips to Create Products Based Around Your Target Audience<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When building products around your target audience, consider the following tips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tip One: Jump onto a popular trend that appeals to your target audience. <\/strong>When deciding what you want to sell, look at trends that are popular with your target demographics. These often pop up in the areas of dieting, fitness, technology, social media, and entertainment. For example, you could coach people interested in fitness through a trendy diet plan such as Whole30 or Paleo by giving personalized meal plans and grocery lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tip Two: Ask your audience.<\/strong> Using surveys and interviews, ask people within your target demographic what they&#8217;re looking for in a product\u2014for instance, the issue that they&#8217;d like the product to solve. One of the most straightforward ways to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-create-demand-for-a-product\/\">get people interested in your business<\/a> is to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-sell-a-product\/\">sell them a product<\/a> they already want. When creating your questionnaires, include questions such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What makes ________ a struggle?<\/li><li>What\u2019s your biggest question or concern about ________?&nbsp;<\/li><li>How can I help you with ________?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you have an idea about the products you\u2019re looking to offer,<strong> <\/strong>reach out and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ask-for-feedback-at-work\/\">ask for feedback<\/a> on your ideas.<strong> <\/strong>You could ask people to rate your product ideas based on what they\u2019d find most helpful or if they could see themselves buying any of the products in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note: Be careful about <em>over<\/em>-involving the customer in product design. While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/asking-for-feedback\/\">asking for feedback<\/a> on fleshed-out ideas is helpful, asking customers to do too much work can cause stress or overwhelm them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, if you order a steak at a restaurant, the waiter will probably ask how you\u2019d like the steak done. Your opinion helps shape the preparation of the food and doesn\u2019t require too much work on your end. However, if the chef came to your table and asked you to come back to the kitchen to help with the process, you may feel stressed or frustrated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are target demographics? What is the difference between traditional and new demographics? Target demographics are basically segments of the population that you aim to target with the products\/services you sell. There are two kinds of target demographics: traditional demographics (age, sex, income, race, and location) and new demographics (beliefs, skills, interests, and values). Keep reading to learn about the two types of target demographics and some tips on how to create products based on your target market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,104],"tags":[256],"class_list":["post-31465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-marketing","tag-the-100-startup","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Traditional target demographics include age, sex, income, race, and location. New demographics include interests, skills, values, and so on.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Traditional target demographics include age, sex, income, race, and location. New demographics include interests, skills, values, and so on.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-16T20:23:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-18T00:38:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-16T20:23:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-18T00:38:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/\"},\"wordCount\":672,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The $100 Startup\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Marketing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/\",\"name\":\"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-16T20:23:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-18T00:38:28+00:00\",\"description\":\"Traditional target demographics include age, sex, income, race, and location. New demographics include interests, skills, values, and so on.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats - Shortform Books","description":"Traditional target demographics include age, sex, income, race, and location. New demographics include interests, skills, values, and so on.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats","og_description":"Traditional target demographics include age, sex, income, race, and location. New demographics include interests, skills, values, and so on.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-04-16T20:23:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-04-18T00:38:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats","datePublished":"2021-04-16T20:23:06+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-18T00:38:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/"},"wordCount":672,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg","keywords":["The $100 Startup"],"articleSection":["Business","Marketing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/","name":"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg","datePublished":"2021-04-16T20:23:06+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-18T00:38:28+00:00","description":"Traditional target demographics include age, sex, income, race, and location. New demographics include interests, skills, values, and so on.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/target-demographics\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Target Demographics: Traditional vs. New Stats"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/target-darts-aim-goal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31465"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32695,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31465\/revisions\/32695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}