Whether you’re a global brand or a local Vanuatu company the basics of your marketing will start with the same task – identifying your audience. This may sound logical but you’d be surprised at how many times this basic first step in marketing is skipped, forgotten or overlooked, both here in Vanuatu and abroad.
If you were writing an email, you’d normally start with the ‘to’ line, and the same applies to your marketing plan. Identifying who is your target audience and then, and only then deciding how you can reach this audience with your marketing strategy.
In Vanuatu we may have a smaller overall market but the segments within can be defined as easily as they can anywhere else. Those of us who live here in Vanuatu all know that our market includes some very distinct groups that are often mutually exclusive – some very obvious examples include the Vanuatu expat community, the Vanuatu Chinese community, the Ni Vanuatu community, the Vietnamese community etc. Using nationality or ethnic origin is one of the more obvious definitions of ‘a market’. But there are many others – youth, senior citizens, rural populations… each of these markets have unique factors and it is these that influence your marketing plan.
Coming back to the ethnic definition enables us to understand how marketing may be specialized to attract this group with a very simple and smart example. In Vanuatu’s ‘china town’ the local telecom company has been applying this strategic marketing approach well. Their billboards in this area are fully in Chinese. Yes you heard that right, no English or any national language is present on the advertising, only Chinese characters. This will appeal and ‘catch the eye’ of the native Chinese speaker and also when done right is highly attractive as it indirectly acknowledges the Chinese culture and heritidge as represented in their national language. A very smart move!
Contact Pandanus Consulting, to learn more about identifying your audience and applying this to your marketing plan.
At Pandanus Consulting we are multi-taskers and can support: Projects – Communications – Events – Advertising – Branding- Graphic Design and more.
Get in touch whether you’re in Vanuatu or overseas!