Know your audience: There’s room for all in marketing

I’m obsessed with a new show on Food Network called Buddy vs. Duff. It’s a weekly showdown between Ace of Cakes star Duff Goldman and Cake Boss star Buddy Velasco – two veterans in the baking world. Each week, they go head-to-head to see who will create the most innovative, creative and best tasting cakes.

Their creations are more than cakes. They are true works of art. But their styles are so completely different that it’s nearly impossible to choose a winner. Duff’s cakes are edgy and innovative. Buddy’s cakes are classical and traditional. Both of them admire what the other does, but they rarely agree on what a cake for a wedding or other special event should look like.

Sometimes marketing is the same way. We look at something another credit union or bank has done and automatically form an opinion. If we don’t love it, we come up with dozens of reasons why the concept is flawed, often forgetting that perhaps we are not the target audience.

Like Duff and Buddy, each financial institution caters to its own specific audiences according to its own brand guidelines. When we conduct marketing audits for financial institutions, we ask for information about target demographics, brand promises and other necessary details so we can make the appropriate recommendations.

 

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