Understanding New Target Audiences

The Challenge

Helping an online design platform understand the needs, attitudes and behaviours of potential target audiences, to build upon recent growth and encourage trial.

In the complex and fragmented category of online design, a new market entrant had created disruption and was experiencing significant growth as a result. But in order to keep this momentum going, the brand needed a much deeper understanding of what non-users really needed when it came to designing online, and how their specific attitudes and behaviours played out within the category. In essence, the brand needed real human insights they could leverage in future comms to meaningfully connect with these new audiences.

The Approach

We took a three layered approach to the problem. We first spoke to online designers across a spectrum of design capabilities in the US and the UK, to get under the skin of why they designed online in the first place, and where they felt most comfortable doing so. We then spoke to a series of platform users, adding another layer of insight, to get a sense of what those “in the know” really loved about the platform. Then to top it all off, we explored the platform’s benefits, features and RTBs, to help clarify which elements best aligned with audience needs and would be most powerful in attracting new users to the platform.

The Impact

In addition to giving much needed richness and depth to the team’s understanding of their non-user target audiences and how best to communicate with them, the insight springboards and brand guidelines we developed have since been used to inform the brand’s overall marketing framework for 2023.