Target Market (TG)

I was at this woman’s place and just in awe of her accomplishments. The whole house was laden with her accolades and awards bestowed upon her from across the world. She is a marketer having stints with some of the biggest consumer brands. And she quit all that to become a travel influencer, has traveled to 60+ countries, has 500k+ followers on social media with a blue tick on Instagram!

In fact, she saved my number as ‘Sidhant Dating Theorist’ on her phone. Time just pleasantly flew by in her company. We talked about almost everything under the moon, from her fun Coke stint in Singapore to her recent Laos trip.

Anyway, coming to the MBA concept of ‘Target Market (TG)‘. Part of the success of selling a good or service is knowing to whom it will appeal and who will ultimately buy it. A target market refers to a group of customers to whom a company wants to sell its products and services, and to whom it directs its marketing efforts. Not knowing who the target market is could cost a lot of money and time for a company. Importantly, not all products and services are meant for every consumer.

Zara targets men and women aged 18–40 with mid-to-high incomes. Its customers stay fashion-forward and trend-conscious, shopping either for themselves or their children.

We can use the concept of TG to derive several relevant insights about modern-day dating. The dating matrix and DOSE talk about the chemicals of happiness. Each individual has different happiness chemicals as the dominant ones, which may change with age and/or other life-altering events.

The triangular model talks about the three components of love (lust, attraction, attachment). They overlap in some ways, each type releases its own set of hormones. Testosterone and estrogen drive lust; dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin create attraction; and oxytocin and vasopressin mediate attachment.

Delving into 4 chemicals in detail and drawing analogies from the concept of TG.

Dopamine: People who are high on the dopamine scale tend to be curious, creative, spontaneous, energetic, restless, enthusiastic, impulsive, and mentally flexible. These are the explorers and the risk-takers (personally and in business). They are good at idea generation and can’t tolerate people who are boring.

These people seek out others like themselves.

Oxytocin: People who have high oxytocin activity are more sociable and eager to belong. They’re quite traditional in their values and less inclined towards exploration. These are builders and guardians. They’re calm, cautious, controlled like to make plans, persistent, concrete thinkers, detail-oriented, structured, fact-oriented, loyal. They prefer loyal people over interesting or exciting people.

Generally, these people are drawn to others like themselves.

Estrogen: People who are expressive of the estrogen system tend to be intuitive, introspective, holistic, imaginative, trusting, empathetic, and contextual long-term thinkers. They are sensitive to people’s feelings and typically have good verbal and social skills. These people are negotiators. They’re big-picture thinkers, tolerate ambiguity well, have mental flexibility, and have strong executive social skills. They’re highly emotionally intelligent.

These people seek out others who are their opposites (testosterone types).

To start, people driven by the testosterone system express toughness, directness, decisiveness, skepticism, competitiveness, emotional control, inventiveness, experimentation, exactness, analytical thinking, and assertiveness.
They tend to be good at rule-based systems- engineering, computers, mechanics, math, and music. These are the rank-oriented directors.

Typically, these people are drawn to those who are their opposites (estrogen).

From these revelations, a number of interesting insights can be drawn. Firstly, the concepts like ‘opposites attract’, ‘men are from Mars; women are from Venus’, etc., are most relevant for those driven by the latter two hormones (testosterone, estrogen), and not everyone. Secondly, some relationships are just not meant to work out because of the above-mentioned governing dynamics. Stop falling into the trap of sunk cost fallacy and blaming yourself or your partner for the fall. Thirdly and most importantly, observing acutely and archetyping a potential partner to figure out their dominant chemical driver is in your TG can be highly beneficial. You’ll meet around eighty thousand people in your life out of the more than seven billion there in this world. Remember, your time in this world is limited, but people aren’t.

That brings me to the one who validated my ‘dating theorist’ tag. Is this the end of the quest? Will we journey through life together? Maybe not. I chase dopamine—evident in my unconventional lifestyle and low LTV dating patterns over the past decade. Circumstances shaped this, not just choice. She, too, thrives on ways of getting dopamine; quitting a stable job at Coke to travel the world proves it. She did fit my TG? Yes—but dopamine takes different forms. Some chase it through intense careers, some through fame or exploration, and others through addictions. She gets her dose from her travels and career. Personally, though, she seeks oxytocin—emotional stability I can’t offer. Staying in touch would only make non-exclusivity harder. So, despite the connection, we said goodbye. After all, the dating theorist ran more field tests than theory.

Later,

Sidhant