Do You Need to Customer to Market It?

During one lunch the topic came up from a non-marketing intern, about how can you market to an audience you don't know. It came in the context that he would be unable to work in Kids Video games because he doesn't know the target market. I responded why would that matter?

While I acknowledge that it is essential for a marketer to know his target market, I do not believe a good marketer needs prior knowledge before accepting a position. One of the first things a marketer should do is identify his target audience and their wants and needs. Sure it helps, but you do not need prior knowledge of the target.

Marketing has very established stages:
1. Identify your target market
2. Identify your value proposition to this market
3. Identify the best marketing mix to reach your target market
4. Evaluate and improve.

By only taking positions with which you can relate, you eliminate a large part of what marketing is and, most importantly, you will be prone to skip step 1 possibly having your perceptions incorporate some detrimental assumptions about the target market.

Bottom line: It doesn't matter if you previous know the market, it matters if you LISTEN to the market.