In my brand briefs the Living Breathing Target provides a layer of consumer insight many briefs don’t have. The line after the target is Core Desire, a building block in the logic flow that leads to the idea. The difference between Living Breathing Target and a typical target is one of psychographic Vs. demographic. And the difference between the Living Breathing Target and the Core Desire is often depth and context. The target, typically described with a fun memorable name like Weberterians or Kings of the Castle, is a “grouping of people bound by a single shared attitude or belief.” A bit of a macro collective or people. Perhaps a bit cultural.
The Core Desire dives into the consumers “most deeply held desire or belief that the brand can best meet or fulfill.” So it’s more product centric. And don’t undervalue the word “deeply.” Analysis here is often quite instructive.
Great planners get people. Likely, they’ve had psychotherapy or studied it. And I’m not talking school psychology stuff, I’m talking Freudian balls-out therapy. Remember, Margaret Mead while at the Museum of Natural History wanted all employees to experience psychotherapy.
Get inside the head of your target, understand what binds members to others, and you will have wonderful groundwork for your idea. Peacely.
PS. This brief was learned, borrowed and slightly modified while I was at McCann-Erickson in the mid-90s. Its author, as best I can tell, was Peter Kim, then Chief Strategy Officer.
