What is target?

Target is a term of the English language that is not part of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE). However, it is often used in our language with reference to an objective, goal or target.


The notion is often used in marketing and advertising. In this context, the target is the intended recipient of a service or product and its corresponding dissemination campaigns.


It is important to mention that the target is an ideal construction that is developed from market studies. Suppose a brewer wishes to launch a new variety without alcohol. After making an analysis of the market and the tastes of consumers, the company determines that the target of the product will be women between 30 and 50 years. This means that the new beer without alcohol is more likely to interest this group of society, and that advertising will be aimed at captivating the social sector.


Determine the target, also called target market, is very important to optimize resources. If a company wants to impose a new treat, it is more likely that it will try to attract the attention of the children since they are the traditional target of this type of product. In case this issue is not taken into account, it may invest in advertising that does not even reach the potential consumers of the candy.


One of the main faults of market research and, consequently, of the estimation of the target, is the interference produced by prejudices, within which those associated with machismo always stand out. Among the most common examples of this phenomenon are the associations of sport to men, from cooking utensils to women and from toys to children; just look at the real world for a second to find women athletes, men who love cooking and adults who invest their entire salaries in toys.


Despite the many and very impressive advances in technology, the human being has not evolved socially enough to be in balance, and that is why modern life is so difficult and stressful. This is evident, for example, whenever a multinational company that billions billions per year asks in its surveys if a certain product attracts more male or female public; behind the innocence of these two terms hides the annulment of millions of people, since its meaning in this context is "heterosexual men or women".



The search for the target for a product or service is not always optimal, but this does not prevent large companies from continuing to enrich themselves; However, if all implemented an open vision and adapted to the times, the benefits would be many and for all. One of the factors that is slowly collaborating with a change for the better is the Internet, since it gives the public the possibility of raising their voice. Through social networks, anyone who feels excluded from an advertising campaign, or who finds their content offensive, can report it without much effort.


On the other side of the spectrum are those few companies that bet on a revolution through products or services that aim at an unexpected target, or that "create" a new target, placing in the same group people who until then have never been They had found in an advertising campaign.


Target, finally, is the name of an American chain of stores, a stadium in Minneapolis and a town in France.