Target Market

Targeting your market is essential in the business world because not everybody is going to buy everything. In order to be successful you have to narrow the audience that you are trying to reach. This approach saves time, resources, and most importantly money. Once you find your specific customer you will know what they want and you do not have to spend time and money on trying out ideas that may or may not work. This aspect of the business world will make things run more efficiently and productively because you will know what areas want and what they do not want. This makes it easier to satisfy the customer because they will be certain that they will be able to find what they need with this particular business without any doubts.

It will also help you as a supplier to learn about what the people need in the various areas that are being sold to. If you are searching for a specific audience, you must research those places and find out exactly what they may need in that area. For instance, it would be backwards to open up a ski shop in Las Vegas, Nevada because the consumers do not need ski clothes in their everyday life. It is essential to learn the consumers lifestyle in order to provide their necessities.

This is why surveys like VALS surveys are so beneficial to retailers. This is because the personality and activity questionaires are so important because retailers are able to see what people are into nowadays and also to find out what the consumer need is. These questionnaires also help retailers find out what the consumer's motivation to spend. I found the VALS questionnaire to be extremely accurate and I do agree with the eight different segments of consumers.
Abercrombie and Fitch's target customer is a male/female, ages 16-22, who likes nice things and likes to have the prep look. This corresponds with the VALS segments because that consumer would fall under the achiever category because their image is important to him/her. He/she is also motivated to demonstrate their success to their peers. This is the appropriate segment because innovators category is for finer merchandise than Abercrombie and Fitch.