Give it a name
Audience Definition: The Secret to Brand Stickiness
One of the most underrated parts of brand building? Defining your audience.
Most clients start with demographics—age, job title, company size. Useful, but incomplete. What we’re really after is shared understanding. What does your audience have in common? What drives their behavior? Nail that, and you have something powerful.
Naming Your Audience Makes It Real
For a marketing software client, we identified a key user group: marketers who love testing new tools and need to prove impact on revenue. We named them Data-Driven Optimizers. The name stuck. Internally, teams rallied around it. Product, marketing, and sales all started speaking the same language. And most importantly, they built for that user.
The Power of a Character
Then, I saw a fresh take from Clipbook’s CEO, Adam Joseph. Instead of leading with features and benefits, Joseph went straight for a visceral connection:
Every morning at 5 a.m., somewhere in America, an intern named Derek opens his laptop.
We all know Derek.
22 years old.
First job out of college.
The team’s go-to for media tracking and industry updates.
Clipbook was built for Derek. Predictive, comprehensive, customized—freeing Derek from grunt work so he can focus on what actually matters.
Two Lessons for Better Brand Messaging
Go beyond psychographics. When you describe an audience vividly, people see them. They connect. Your message won’t resonate with everyone, but for those it does, it will hit hard.
Give your audience a name. Whether it’s a category like Data-Driven Optimizers or a persona like Derek, naming makes it stick. It seeps into culture, aligns teams, and sharpens focus.
A strong brand doesn’t just identify an audience—it makes them impossible to ignore.
