So, if I want to understand my audience, I'm required to know about 3 things (I'll sum it up for the grasshoppers):

Topographics, which tell me about the competitors I will find and how the customers navigate the environment.

Demographics, which tell me about the customers' attributes (age, salary, etc).

Psychographics, which tell me how the customers buy (the steps they take to reach a buying decision).

My simple question is this: where the heck can I learn all that information? I can't expect to find surveys about every subject I'll be required to write for.

Do I research the competition? What if they're wrong? (Or must at least one of them be right?)

How do you do it?

David, I can't speak for anyone else, but its been my experience, no one knows more about the clients product or service, than the clients themselves.

Therefore, I always ask my clients to provide as much information as possible, including information about their competitors.

My clients are usually happy to do this.

If I need additional information, I ask the client to provide that as well.

As a result, I have to do little to no research.

Dale King

As Dale said... your customer (most of the time) can give you the answers you need. Get a good copywriting questionnaire. Design your questions to get thorough answers. If the answers aren't complete enough, don't hesitate to ask the client for more info.

Aside from the questionnaire, I begin my research with forums and magazines. Just like this one, forums always have posts such "how can I....?" or "can you help me...?" Check the "stickys". Magazines always have problem-solving, how-to articles. These are great places to pin-point the emotional hot-buttons of your target audience.

Hi Shona, I really enjoy reading your posts. Thanks for all you contribute on this forum.

The comment above made me reflect on one of the basic tenants of psychotherapy as I have a background in psychology. People really are (generally speaking,) the experts on their own issues and needs. A good open-ended question in a counseling session can work wonders. I suppose the same is true for discovering what's going on with your clients as well.

There is probably a tendency to think you know what people want before they ask for it in this profession. You've reminded me of an important principle here; know your customer.

Thanks for the insight.

You can often do quite a bit of market research, and find out incredible tidbits, online. This is often necessary to supplement the research a client gives, or if you are asked (heaven forbid) to do the research.

Example: not that long ago, I was the senior copywriting for the release of a medical product. It was like an ace-wrap, but contained elements that heated up. The distribution channel (also important to know!) was going to be Walmart, the big general pharmacy store with RX in its name (having a memory block, here), Riteaid, etc.

Okay, so our goal was to make the product stand out, from others, in the pharmacy section where other wraps are. This included creating POS packaging, working with another writer on the branding, and all that fun marketing stuff.

I decided to do some research of my own into the marketplace and buyer demographics/psychographics, and discovered something that was very interesting. Nearly 65% of the folks who buy athletic and ace wraps at local pharmacy stores are...women. And over a third of them ask their pharmacist for advice on the best brand.

So, I realized right away an important fact, that no one else had discovered: I would have to write very targeted product information and sales sheets for the pharmacists who would be making these recommendations to our potential customers, in addition to the direct consumer sales copy.

Yes, it's good if the client can hand you the research. But it doesn't help if you also don't mind doing a little digging yourself...

Dale, Shona, jbillh and sheriw:

Thank you very much for your answers.

Cheers,