A target market is the answer to "who are we trying to win?" For subscription businesses, the answer dictates every downstream decision — what the product looks like, what the price tier is, what the brand sounds like, what channels you invest in, and which customers you politely let go. The clearer the target, the sharper every decision that flows from it.
What a good target market definition includes
- Demographic attributes — age range, gender (if relevant), income, household composition.
- Geographic boundaries — countries, regions, urban/suburban, shipping feasibility.
- Psychographic profile — values, lifestyle, interests that align with the product.
- Behavioral signals — purchase patterns, category engagement, subscription affinity.
- Explicit exclusions — who is not the target, equally as important as who is.
A definition that says "women interested in beauty products" is not a target market. A definition that says "women aged 28–42 in U.S. metro areas, household income $60k+, who follow at least one beauty creator, value clean ingredients, and currently spend $40–80 monthly on personal care" is.
How subscription businesses pick a target market
- Segment the broader market. Identify natural groupings within the category.
- Score each segment. On size, growth, product fit, willingness to pay, your ability to reach them, and competition.
- Choose the highest-scoring segment(s). Commit to one focused target rather than averaging across many.
- Document the target. Write down who they are and who they aren't — and refer to the document in every product, brand, and marketing decision.
Common target-market mistakes
- Targeting "everyone." Produces generic marketing that converts no one.
- Targeting by aspiration, not reality. "Premium customers" who don't actually exist in your data, while you ignore the actual buyer base.
- Avoiding exclusion. Refusing to name who is not the target makes the target meaningless.
- Never revisiting. Target markets evolve as the business and category evolve. Revisit annually.
For concrete examples see example of target market; for the framework see market segmentation and target market.