Several times over the past few days I have asked my own clients who they intend to target. What is the actual market? And the answers have tended to be very generic in tone: ‘people from abroad’, ‘those with money’, ‘youngsters’, etc.

And when I ask for a drill down or explanation of what each phrase means, I am greeted with a blank stare and a nervous or childish shrug of the shoulders. Because what has sounded commercially brilliant has not been thought through sufficiently.

For example, let us assume that you want to focus on those people, who are comfortably off. Interesting, but where are they located, physically? Can they be found on social media? What is the age group? Each answer will help to direct you towards formulating your eventual strategy.

These specifics are not necessarily easy for everyone to grab hold of. Not only that, they require validation. That means you will need to find a way to put your product or service in front of a group of potential clients and ask for their opinion.

For example, there is a story of a relatively new humous factory in Nazereth, whose first ton of mix was dumped on the tongues of ordinary (and hungry) tasters. I recently met up with a customer in Jerusalem who wanted to approach an overseas market. I forced him to consider which country, city, socio-economic grouping and much more. Within minutes, he began to appreciate why his advertising to date had not delivered the desired results.

Knowing your client is not a simple art to master. However, this does not allow you to ignore the issue. If you palm it off with sound-nice analyses, this lack of meaning will be converted into an eventual revenue stream that will leave your bank account lacking.