Message to Market Match - Targeting your Target Demographic

The other day I was driving around looking for some neat shops in the neighborhood that might benefit from online marketing (who can't, right?) and stumbled across some signage that was really surprising, not in that it had a typo (which happens more often than you'd imagine) or that it was in disrepair (a big problem with the Florida sunshine), but that they completely missed their mark.

Remember that your "brand" should be consistent -- all of your messages you send to your audience need to align with one another, lest your audience become confused about who you are.  Branding comes in the form of websites, logos, newspaper advertisements, phone book ads, coupons, mailers, etc.

Signage mismatch - Message vs. MarketTake a look at the following window lettering/signage for an exercise place down the street from me.  The name of the company makes sense "Get Fit" - good so far.  They even narrow their target market fairly well - "Women's Personal Training" - absolutely commendable.

But WHOA MAMA!  What's up with those huge bulging biceps?  I haven't conducted a formal market study or anything, and I'd love to hear the opinions from women who read my blog.  But, my initial reaction as I showed this around to close friends has been that of initial alarm or shock.  That's not necessarily a good thing when trying to attract new clients.  Men who want to be beefy might be attracted to this or gals coming in to hit on their trainer.  Maybe this is an attempt to leverage "sex in marketing", and I'm just missing it.

I have a hard time coming up with a worse image to use, really.  Maybe a picture of pie or cookies, or someone sitting on their duff in front of a television would be worse.

What might have been better?  A silhouette of a slender-figured woman, perhaps?  Dumb bells? 

It's important to talk to your target market in terms that they understand to sell them what they already want to buy.  A lot of the women in the area are stay-at-home wives who generally keep themselves in pretty good shape.  Maybe they're looking for motivation, someone to keep them on schedule.  Maybe there are frequent health and fitness goals of this audience that could be catered to in their logo.

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