Targeting Guide #8:

Don’t confuse your current customers with your target customers.

No one can execute a marketing plan perfectly.  Perhaps you have a product or service offering that appeals to customers who are not your target customers.  Possibly some of your distribution attracts customers who are not your target customers.  Or you have an offering that’s priced too high or too low for your target customers.  Regardless of the reason, your brand is going to attract buyers who are not your target customers. 

Consider this graphic, the set space represents all the buyers of a given product category.  The larger circle represents your brand’s target customers, the customers that you are after.  The smaller circle is your actual customers.  Note that only a portion of your target bought your brand.  And some of your customers are not your target end-users.  Think of these customers as being accidental buyers.  This is the result of real world imperfect execution of marketing tactics.  The extent to which your current customers are target customers is a function of how close you are to perfect tactical marketing execution. 

In consumer goods product categories, accidental buyers usually don’t represent a problem for the marketer; they only represent that execution of marketing mix tactics could be improved.  In business to business product categories, accidental buyers may mean that an end-user has purchased and is using a product that is not suitable for their application.  This misapplication may lead to dissatisfaction with the brand, or worse, product liability issues.