You will be able to write a target customer description that changes what you say and where you say it.
Ask a tuition centre who its customers are and you will often hear "parents in Singapore with children in primary school". That is true, and it is no help at all. It doesn't tell you what to post, where to post it, what time slots to offer or what to say in an ad. Every other tuition centre in the country could write the same sentence.
A target customer description is useful only when it changes what you do. If you could swap in a competitor's name and the sentence would still work, it is too broad.
Most people describe customers with demographics: age, gender, income, where they live, family situation. These are easy to write down and they matter for some decisions, such as where to put a flyer or which platform to advertise on. But demographics alone rarely explain why someone buys.
Two mothers, both 38, both living in a four-room flat in Tampines, both with a son in Primary 5, can want completely different things. One works from home and wants a centre that pushes her son towards the top of the class. The other works shifts at Changi Airport, gets home at 7pm, and needs someone to make sure her son's homework is done at all. On paper they are the same customer. In practice they would choose different centres, respond to different messages and look in different places.
What separates them is their situation and the problem it creates. Situation is what is going on in their life that makes them need you now. Problem is what goes wrong if nothing changes.
Write the target that way and it becomes something you can act on. "Working parents in Tampines who need a tuition slot after 7pm" is a target. You know where they live. You know what they can't do, which is get a child to a 4pm class. You know what to offer, which is evening slots. You even know what to say: something about late classes for parents who work late, rather than another line about excellent results.
Compare that with "parents in Singapore". Same industry, same service, but one description tells you what to do on Monday morning and the other doesn't.
Situation and problem work for any business. A home-based bakery's target might be "parents planning a first birthday party at home who want a cake that looks good in photos and arrives on the day". A financial adviser's might be "people in their early thirties who have just had their first child and realise they have no plan if something happens to them". In each case, you can picture a specific person and guess what they would type into a search bar.
The usual objection is that narrowing turns away business. If Priya, who runs a maths centre in Tampines, markets only to working parents who need evening slots, won't she lose the parents who want afternoon classes?
Mostly, no. Nothing stops an afternoon parent from enrolling. What changes is who recognises themselves in the message. A broad message such as "quality tuition for all levels" is easy for everyone to ignore, because it doesn't describe anyone in particular. A narrow one makes the right people stop and think "that's me". They are the people most likely to enquire, enrol and stay, because the offer was built around their situation.
The narrowing also saves money. Ads can be shown to fewer people, posts can be written for one reader, and a parents' group in one estate becomes worth more than a broad campaign across the island.
You can serve more than one target. Priya might have working parents who need evening slots and, separately, parents of PSLE candidates who want intensive revision in the months before the exam. Both are fine targets. What doesn't work is one message trying to speak to both at once.
Each target needs its own message, and often its own channel. The evening-slot parents might be reached through a neighbourhood Facebook group and a clear note on Google Maps about late classes. The PSLE parents might respond to a short series of revision tips sent before the exam season. If you have the time to do one target well, start with one and add the second later.
When you write your own target in the activity below, think of a real customer you have served who you would gladly serve twenty more times. Start from their situation on the day they first contacted you, and work outward from there.
Write your target customer in two sentences covering who they are, the situation they are in, and the problem that makes them look for help.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).