A Wider Perspective

After a week of midterms and assignments, I allowed myself to unwind and indulge in a guilty pleasure – watching beautiful people find love on television.  I’ll be the first to admit I follow the Bachelor series perhaps a little to closely.  But through all this television drama and romance, I managed to pick up a marketing trend – the importance of the target market.

The Bachelor/Bachelorette aims at an audience who want to watch a fairytale ending to a love story.  The dates they go on are filled with romantic surprises and the women are always prim and proper while the men are true gentlement.  On the fifth season of the Bachelorette, fans were introduced to Wes Hayden – the notorious bad boy of the show.  He was a blooming texas musician, who came onto the show to gain fame and fortune.  He played the heart of the Bachelorette who gave up everything to find love.  He made it to the top 4, all the while having a girlfriend and left the show saying “I’m in Spain..and ever’body’s gonna know ma name”.  Fans of the show hated on Wes as he didn’t fit the gentlemanly ideal that they are expecting from the show.  He was labeled as reality tv’s greatest villain!

However, half a year later, the Bachelor came up with a spin off called the Bachelor Pad.  In this show, popular rejects from the Bachelor and Bachelorette were placed in a house together to compete for money and perhaps find lust along the way.  The show was a “trashier” take on the Bachelor.  Wes was on this show as well, and wooed girls with the same song he used on the Bachelorette.  However, because of different expectations, he became a fan favourite quite quickly!  Viewers found him dreamy and swooned over his bad boy image.  His music career skyrocketed afterward as well!

So the importance of your target market really DOES make a huge difference! Not only in selling products, but in selling yourself..or someone else.  Nonetheless, lets end the post with the song that notorious Bad Boy Wes Hayden broke and won millions of hearts with: