Who's Your Target Market?

Steve Jobs' targeted marketing seems to interest people. I'd like to explore his thinking a bit more.

Let's use the iPhone in particular, and Macs in general, to discover some of the information we need to know about our target markets.

Unless we're inside Jobs' head, we can't know for sure what he's thinking. Unless we personally know everyone who has bought an iPhone or Mac, we can only speculate there, too.

Let's speculate. It seems that Apple products are sold to rich people (rich as in disposable income) who also may like to purchase things for status purposes. Macs also sell to creative types - photographers, videographers, writers, musicians, artists, etc.

People having to decide between rent and electricity don't buy computers, and people living paycheck to paycheck search for the cheapest multi-purpose everything. They don't buy Macs, iPods and iPhones.

People with more than one car buy Macs. People that need the simplicity of Macs buy Macs.

Business people buy PCs. People whose main business is updating their MySpace pages or playing with Facebook buy Macs.

People who like to be on the cutting edge of something new and cool buy iPods, iPhones, and Macs. They have to have no need for opening and editing Microsoft docs, and no need for 95% of the software available. If I had a nickel for every time my Mac friends remind me, "I can't open that document" or "I can't use that software, I'm Mac-crippled...", I'd be rich.

Now that we've defined Apple's target market somewhat, can you see why it doesn't matter that only 5% or less of the computer market is theirs? Apple's products are sexy, cool, and therefore highly desirable, and they have big price tags. There is no way I could pay $600 for a phone, I don't care if it also serves the purpose of an iPod, Blackberry, and who knows what all else.

Who does pay this much for a phone? Someone who not only has a use for all the features, but can pay for it with one day's work, or less.

Or this person's teenage kid who gets whatever he wants from mommy and daddy.

So there's Apple's target market - computer non-geeks, artsy types, rich people and rich people's kids.

Who's your market?