Learn how to identify your ideal customer using these 10 criteria and checking www.businessforbeginners.ca for examples and practice problems.

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10 Ways to
Identify Your
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IDEAL

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10 Ways to Identify Your Ideal Customer
“Who is your product/service for?”
This group of people (i.e., your target demographic or target audience)
have at least one thing in common – they like what you have to offer.
So, a preliminary question to ask yourself is, if your product or service
solves a problem...

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10 Ways to Identify Your Ideal Customer
Who has
that
problem?

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10 Ways to Identify Your Ideal Customer
Example: Joe’s Steak Shop
Joe closes his eyes and pictures a room with 100 potential customers.
Joe announces, “Hey everyone! Come and buy my steaks!”
Immediately, 5 people leave the room.
Why?

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Example: Joe’s Steak Shop
They are vegans and vegetarians. It doesn’t matter how great
Joe’s steaks are, those 5 people won’t want to buy them.
So, why would Joe waste his time and money trying to
sell steaks to vegetarians?

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Why It’s Difficult To Find Customer Info:
Companies spend a lot of time and money trying to determine
exactly who their customer is and continuously refine their answers
to the above categories of customer information. As this is
information is often considered sensitive, it may not be readily available
to people outside the company. The important thing here is to use
the ten categories above to guide you as you try to figure out who
your ideal customer is or will be.

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Step One:
Close your eyes and picture a room filled with your future customers.

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Step Two - Categorize the group of people
using these 10 criteria:
#1. Age: Pick an age range that represents the group, e.g., 12 to 19 years
old or 25 to 40 years old. It’s not always obvious, but you can estimate and
try to confirm later.
#2. Household Income: You can start with something as simple as ‘high
income’ or ‘middle income’, but this part will require additional research. If
you’re in Canada, this kind of statistical information can often be found on
Statistics Canada’s website.
#3. Gender: Male, female, etc.
#4. Geographic Location: This can be something broad such as all
countries, or incredibly specific, like people living within a certain postal
or zip code.

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10 Criteria continued...
#5. Interests/Hobbies: What does this group of individuals have in
common? This is where interests and hobbies come into play. It may not
be obvious at first but when you start to chat, you realize they’re all
obsessed with yoga, or they all love cooking. The point is that this group
shares that interest or hobby.
#6. Attitudes/Values/Lifestyle: What is important to this group? What do
they believe in? Are they health nuts, for example?
#7. Marital Status: Single, married, divorced, widowed, or dating. Again,
not always obvious, but you can guess to begin with and confirm later.
#8. Occupation: This information is typically gathered over time by
talking to customers, through newsletter sign-ups on your website, or in
surveys and questionnaires.

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10 Criteria continued...
#9. Ethnicity: Depending on what you’re selling, the ethnicity of your
customers can play a role. If, for example, you’re importing a candy into
Canada that up until now was only available in South America, the
Latino community in your region would might be interested in a little
taste of home.
#10. Education Level: Similar to martial status, or age, in that you may
have to guess at first. Something to keep in mind is that education level is
often correlated with household income.

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Final Thoughts:
If you know your potential and actual customer, what’s important to them,
what they like and don’t like, the better you will be able to find them, make
them happy, and keep them coming back for more. Remember, this is just
a first step, as you will have to do some additional research to confirm these
assumptions. Not everyone will want what you have to offer, no matter how
good it is, and that is okay.
See the full post, examples and practice problems at www.businessforbeginners.ca
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