What type of person are you? What are some of your favorite pastimes? Do you frequent certain areas or businesses? These are the types of questions YOU should be considering when thinking about your target consumer.  As business owners and marketing guru's, we sometimes think too narrow mindedly and forget to think like a consumer.  You could learn a lot about your target audience just by asking yourself questions like "would I be annoyed by that advertisement? Would I toss that mailer right in the trash without thinking twice? Would I read that wall mural if I were in the subway?

There are, of course, many, many ways to market to your target audience, but you always want to be careful that your advertisements aren't going to be invasive.  That's when you'll turn your consumers away.  If your advertisements are interesting, informative, exciting and eye catching, you'll see the best results.  It's also important to remember that there are key times and places to reach your target audience.

Say Jack owns a sporting goods shop that sells everything you could ever need for every sport, for kids all the way up to professional adults.  Jack's target audiences are likely to be big sports nuts.  Jack's advertising efforts should be tailored to that.  One proven successful method is to use .  These murals can be placed in any convenient location, including in cooperating businesses.  Sports fans probably frequent sports bars.  Find several local sports bars and ask if they'd be willing to sell you a wall for advertising space.  Mount a wall mural or wall decal directly in front of patrons as they walk in, or directly behind a TV and you're bound to draw their attention.