Just as important as what we say is whom we say it to.

Defining target audiences.

Direct mail marketers have always known that their success depends as much on list to which they mail as on their offer and creative. Lists with identical demographic and geographic selects and equivalent non-deliverable percentages can generate response rates that vary by 300% or more.

Obviously target audience selection is just as important in traditional mass and digital media.

The Super Bowl was a case in point. The cost of reaching 97.5 million viewers was $2.7 million, a CPM of $27.69. A bit high, but not off the chart. Especially when you consider that commercials in the Super Bowl are virtually TiVo proof.

But... that's $27.69 for every man, woman and child in the audience. Budweiser bought seven of those $2.7 million spots (hopefully a volume discount reduced the $18.9 million list price a bit) to reach male beer drinkers. The CPM versus males –all males – was $46.15. Which is getting pricy. And not all males are beer drinkers. And not all beer drinkers drink a lot of beer. The true CPM(t) – that is, cost per thousand members of their target audience – was probably on the order of $400 for each one of Bud's seven spots.

Who's their true target audience? Heavy beer drinkers. Back in the 1960s the marketers at Schaeffer Beer, a Northeast regional brand, and their agency, BBDO, figured out that the 80/20 rule worked big time in the beer market. Heavy beer drinkers – those who drink six or more 12-oz. beers a day – accounted for more than 80% of total beer sales. BBDO's Jim Jordan created the first beer campaign focused on consumers' need states with the classic "Schaeffer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one." The two-beat structure and a simple jingle made the positioning unforgettable – and highly successful – for years.

Read more at http://www.brainposse.com/.

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