Interests allow you to target your true audience
Defining your audience by physical characteristics means that you’re telling everyone outside of those traits that they shouldn’t be interested in what you have to offer.This is a mistake marketing has been making for years. Think of the gaming industry, for example. When video games first became popular in the 1970’s, it was all about trying to make the same game seem appealing to adults and kids. But later, when the industry started to flail, companies consolidated all their marketing budget into a large single demographic, to maximize sales and effort. The demographic they chose? MalesWith marketing like that, it’s hard for women to feel like welcome customers. Such segmentation has even caused consternation for their target market – according to the “bros” you had to choose between gaming and spending time with a special female. Not very healthy, is it?
The times, they are a changing
This is only starting to be corrected recently – with stats coming out that women are increasingly showing their gaming side. Despite being discouraged.While the gaming industry is huge now, from consoles to PC gaming and mobile, I believe only mobile gaming has taken a true “interests targeting” approach. Games are marketed to people based on game type (mostly), allowing everyone and their pets to play.One could also say that consoles have taken a step in the right direction by acknowledging that such segmentation is slowing growth for them. Instead, they now focus on how they can meet the needs, and ignite the interest, of a whole household. These days, a console is not just for playing games, but can form the heart of an entertainment system – bringing people together, rather than segregating them by superficial demographics.