1. Demographics – a fundamental starting point, critical for segmenting the market to identify the highest potential target groups, usually defined by sex, age, household characteristics (e.g. ownership, years and value), occupation, origin, income, education, etc.

2. Psychographics – those particular psychological and attitudinal traits that can be researched and characterized to better understand what will drive certain purchase decisions – e.g. lifestyle, interests, values, likes/dislikes, preferences, etc.

3. Category/Brand Attitude Drivers – too often marketers define the attitudes of consumers of their brand by using descriptors that really reflect the basic category or “cost-of-entry” drivers. The result is that there is no special attitude in the target customer profile that will be different from what all other consumers in a particular product category expect and perceive, at a minimum. Instead, a target customer definition must go beyond the “obvious” (e.g. “trust and safety” for pharmaceutical brands) and be clearly distinct and relevant.

4. Category/Brand Usage Habits – the current usage is critical to assess, because ultimately all marketing efforts should be designed to modify the attitudes and change the expected behavior of target consumers, so a good category benchmark is definitely needed.

5. Indicative Behavior – it is relatively easy to research and list the most meaningful psychographics, attitudes and usage habits for the target consumer. However, it can be difficult to make this limited definition actionable for new, innovative marketing initiatives unless the creative people developing such programs really understand the exact type of mindset and behavior that characterizes the target consumer. To explain further, assume that a psychographic “label” for the target consumer of a health care product is “cautious medicators”. It would really help if one could visualize evidence of this profile with a specific behavior:

Example: “they take analgesic compounds only after trying other, non-medicating methods of relieving pain, such as lying down, taking a walk in the fresh air, using a heating pad, or getting a massage….”

6. Functional & Emotional Needs – at a minimum the target customer will be interested in the basic functional benefits from a product or service – i.e. “category drivers”. However, the more compelling dimension of a target customer need is the emotional side. It is becoming even more important today to determine precisely how the target customer currently feels about a current product, and even more critical, coming up with an insight that identifies what she/he yearns for that is not so recognizable now – e.g. a heart-felt feeling that would really satisfy the most demanding expectations and distinguish the product/service from competition. Once properly defined, these functional and emotional needs become the basis for re-shaping the specific benefit for the brand positioning of the product/service.