Given that I work in a college counseling department whose mission is to promote student development and success, our target market would be college students interested in earning certificates, associate degrees, or transferring to a 4 year university or trade school. Without a doubt, there are other populations that come to the college for various reasons, but they are a small percentage, and typically already have an understanding of why they are there, such as retirees interested in personal development. Additionally, there are the students who are only in college to satisfy somebody else, such as their parents. Oftentimes these students don't have a goal, and aren't interested in the services offered. Therefore, we want to reach the students who have the desire and drive, but may lack knowledge of the resources, tools, or path to achieve their goal.
As I proceed through this week's assignment, I already see that using a non-traditional business for the purposes in our class will prove to be more of a challenge than I had hoped for. As our assignment prompt states, in thinking about how knowing more about our perfect customer might help in the coming weeks, I encounter conflicting ideas. Not being entirely profit driven, but more focused on student success, a perfect customer would not actually be a customer, because they would already possess the tools and knowledge to achieve success. This would be a student who knows perfectly well their educational goal, which path to follow to achieve it, and has no need for support in achieving their goal. However, this is not a reality when describing the majority of our student body, much less anybody in our society. In a way, our perfect customer will be an imperfect customer. We target current and prospective students who may need assistance choosing a career path, or has test taking anxiety, or who is looking for inspiration or motivation and can't find it elsewhere. Our mission is student success, and therefore our target audience will be students who aspire to be successful, but lack the tools, resources, knowledge, or motivation to achieve it.
So you have many potential people who need you, the idea behind identifying "who they are and what makes them who they are" is how you reach them, to get them in to receive your services, even if they are free.
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