A key component of any marketing strategy is understanding your target audience. After all, your audience is the reason you are developing and publishing marketing content in the first place. They are the reason you are in business period.
Understanding your audience is one thing, but being able to speak directly to their pain points is a whole other matter. I have seen a lot of companies who know exactly who they would like to attract; but are unable to find marketing success because they failed to address the concerns, wants, and desires of the people their most valuable potential customers.
Today, I will be how Subaru finds success in marketing because they have identified exactly who they would like to target and through their television ads are able to speak directly to what motivates them.
Three Examples Of How Subaru Nails Their Target Audience
You do not have to watch many of Subaru?s commercials to understand exactly who they are targeting. Below are three examples of how they are able to address the pain points of their target audience with simple and concise T.V. ads.
Parents Concerned With Safety
As a parent, I know how easy it is to imagine your child being hurt. My little one is far from driving, so this commercial does not speak directly to me. However if you are the parent of a teen who is beginning to drive, distracted driving is probably one of your foremost concerns.
This ad speaks to those concerns by showing parents worried about their children who look to be in accidents caused by their distraction. At the end of the commercial you see a young woman who is saved by Subaru?s DriverFocus Alerts when the vehicle senses she is not paying attention to the road. The feature sounds an alarm which allows the young woman to stop in time to prevent a serious accident.
The true genius of this ad is it can have a generational effect. If a parent sees this ad and decides that a Subaru Forester is the right car for their child, the child then becomes the customer and has a chance to fall in love with the brand and become a lifetime customer. I can speak to this effect because my wife is a life-long Subaru devotee and that was the first car she ever drove.
Dog Lovers
Full disclosure: this ad is not only my favorite Subaru ad, but one of my favorite T.V. spots period. This ad is for Subaru?s new Ascent which was released in 2018.
The caption to this videos reads ?See what happens when small dogs wash a big Subaru.? It features a pack of bulldogs washing Subaru?s biggest vehicle in their lineup. Aside from being packed funny and awesome bulldogs (I own a bulldog so that?s why this is one of my favorites), the visual punchline is that the bulldogs are only able to reach the very bottom of the car which leaves about 80% of it unwashed. The golden retrievers driving the Ascent seem to shrug their shoulders and drive off nonetheless.
This ad does nothing to speak to the actual features of the ascent other than it?s size. It works because it is part of Subaru?s ?Dog Tested? series of T.V. with the same family of golden retrievers driving different vehicles in the Subaru lineup. Dog lovers make up 60% of households in America and this ad as well as the others in the series work to capture their attention and create a greater awareness for the brand and what they offer.
Families/People Looking For Outdoor Fun
This ad works because it contains a little bit of everything. The story behind this ad is a family going on a hike with their two kids. One looks to be a toddler and the other a disinterested teen. Again, Subaru is able to tap into a concern a lot of parents have: being able to connect with their children as they grow and develop into adulthood.
As the family goes on their adventure the teen, by seeing the excitement of her younger sibling and the beauty of being in nature puts down her phone and begins getting excited herself.
By the end you can see the family has connected while on this adventure. They even have a dog.
So this commercial addresses another concern for parents, shows them going on a hike in the wilderness, and shows the family dog along for the ride. Whether you have a family, thinking of starting a family, just a lover of nature, or like doing things with your dog this commercial has a little something for just about everyone.
The trick in addressing the wants, needs, and desires of your target audience is to put them in a place where they can visualize themselves benefiting from your services and/or products.
With these commercials, and others similar to them, Subaru speaks directly to parents, dog lovers, and people seeking outdoor fun by allowing them to picture themselves feeling comfortable that their child is driving a safe vehicle or having a fun outdoor adventure or including your furry loved one in everything that you do.
