Introduction

Most businesses misdefine their market by age, gender, or company size. The real target market is about shared needs, problems, and use cases.

What’s the Problem It Solves?

Companies often rely on demographics or firmographics, but those rarely capture why people actually buy. This article explains why traditional market definitions fail and shows how to find the real traits that unite your true buyers.

Quick Summary

The old way of defining a market by age, gender, geography, or company size doesn’t work for most products. For example, a TV show aimed at “women 19-29” still attracts plenty of viewers outside that group while missing many within it. What matters more is the deeper reason people watch: liking the actors, the writing style, or wanting to identify with that genre.

The same applies in B2B. A product may be designed for small businesses but also gets adopted by teams at Google or big banks. Why? Because those teams have the same needs: speed, security, ease of use, affordability, or flexibility. The real market is not “SMBs” but “people who use WordPress and value enterprise-grade quality at a fair price.” By chasing these shared needs, businesses can attract both small and large buyers without changing their core product.

To define a real target market, companies must look at use cases, workflows, motivations, and values. Tools like the “testimonial test” (would customer B be swayed by customer A’s review?) and frameworks like the Needs Stack help identify who truly belongs in the market. The goal is to build clarity about why people buy, and then design marketing, pricing, and product features to match those needs, not arbitrary categories.

Key Takeaways

• Demographics and firmographics often mislead and limit your targeting.
• Shared needs and use cases define a true market.
• Big companies buy “SMB tools” because teams inside them share the same problems.
• Testimonials from your best customers reveal who else fits your market.
• Focus marketing on specific problems solved, not broad categories like “mid-sized companies.”

What to Do

• Interview your best customers to learn their real needs and motivations.
• Use the testimonial test: check if buyers relate to each other’s stories.
• Map your product to customer workflows and success metrics, not demographics.
• Redefine messaging to highlight shared values (e.g. “Enterprise-Grade WordPress” vs “WordPress for SMBs”).
• Segment markets by use cases, risk tolerance, work style, or tech stack preferences, not just size or geography.

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