How to Find Your Ideal Consumer

This a fun marketing exercise! Just kidding, it’s grueling and a little boring. But I figured out a way to make it easy for you and I can’t wait for you to discover your ideal consumer! And I know you’re probably thinking, why on earth do I need to find my ideal consumer?

I asked myself that exact same question in my photoshop essentials class. We sat down at our computers and the assignment was to make our business card mock-ups. However, the professor wanted to know who our ideal customer was supposed to be. Umm, how am I supposed to know that? All I wanted to do was deisgn cute things, I wasn’t thinking about selling to a particular person. I thought that if you design whatever you want, people will buy your stuff. But now after I’ve had to do this exercise with literally every business that I’ve started, I finally see the merit in it.

Why You Should Discover Your Ideal Customer:

Yes, you can design whatever you want…but it will probably be a long while before someone buys it. That’s why you need to know who your consumer is. You’ll skip all the months of waiting for someone to discover you. And unfortunately, a big part of designing is also sales. Consequently, if you know how to be a good salesperson, you’ll have an easier time getting capital for your fashion lines and partnering with producers for your items.

Every marketer knows exactly WHO they are marketing to before they start their campaigns. They know who to target their products to and who they don’t want to target to. Finding your ideal customer is a skill you need to learn if you want to succeed in your business.

This exercise works for ANY business that you are starting or revamping. So if you haven’t already done this exercise for your current job (or side hustle)… I want you to grab a cup of cocoa and do this exercise.

Questions to ask yourself:

• How old is your ideal consumer? (put age range here) & What gender?

  • Men
  • Women
  • Children
  • Babies
  • Pets
  • Female
  • Male
  • Teens 13-18 years
  • Young Adults
  • Mature Crowd 50+

• What do they do for fun, for work and what are their hobbies?

  • Paints
  • Netflix
  • Party
  • Travel?
  • Study Abroad
  • Backpacking
  • Outdoorsy

•  Where do they shop?

  • Barneys
  • Target
  • Walmart
  • Rodeo Drive
  • Amazon
  • Nordstrom

• What kind of clothes do they wear? Think about athletic wear, leisure, dressy and everyday

  •  Athletic wear
  • Prom dresses?
  • Wedding Dress?
  • Jeans and shirts?
  • Slack and business suits?

• Where do they work?

  • Business Owner
  • Student
  • Homemaker
  • Retail
  • Freelancer

The more you can write down about your ideal consumer, the easier it will be to design for them, find them and market to them. This is a step that is often skipped over. But it is a HUGE marketing tool that we use in business. Finding your ideal consumer will position you light years ahead of the competition. For example, if you’re trying to market to Millenials and Generation X and younger, you need to know how to reach them. There’s a great article on Forbes about finding your consumers in this digital age.

Get a drink and take your time with this step.

Once you’ve made a list of everything you want your ideal consumer to be, why not make it into a moodboard? That way you have a visual every time you need to get in the mindset of your consumer. You can read this article about Making Moodboards that will help you in a few easy steps.

Ready to start designing for them? Do you need some colorways to help kick off your new designs? I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to that! You can follow it for free inspiration daily.