Target Group.

All marketing is aimed at someone. The target group (often called the target audience) describes who: not as an individual but as a group with shared characteristics. For private customers (B2C) these are typically geographic (place of residence, region), demographic (age, household, income), psychographic (values, interests) and behavioural (buying occasion, usage, loyalty). For business customers (B2B), industry, company size, location and the role of the decision-maker are added.

A target group is useful if it makes decisions easier. 'All homeowners in the canton of Zurich' is too broad to derive copy or ads from. 'Owners of detached houses from the 1970s who need to replace their heating' is narrow enough to know what questions they have, what they search for and what evidence they need. An SME often has several target groups; it then pays to define a main target group and serve the others with lower priority.

A target group should be distinguished from a persona. The target group describes a group with characteristics; the persona condenses it into a typical, fictional person with goals, obstacles and prior knowledge. They complement each other: the target group helps with planning channels and budget, the persona with writing and design. A third word that often comes up is segment: a part of the target group or customer list that is addressed specifically.

In online marketing the target group becomes very practical. In search engine optimisation it determines which search terms matter. In Google Ads and Meta Ads it sets region, language and targeting; in account-based marketing it even becomes a list of individual companies. And along the customer journey it shows which content is needed at which stage. Clear positioning always rests on a clearly described target group.