Understanding the target audience is essential for marketers because it helps them to create campaigns and advertising that will be most effective in reaching and resonating with their desired audience. It's the first step in any marketing strategy and sets the foundation for everything else.

• Marketers use research surveys and other methods to collect information about their target audience. They might ask questions about demographics, purchasing habits, and interests, for example.

• Marketers use this information to create audience personas, which are fictional representations of their ideal customers. Personas help to give marketers a better understanding of their target audience and how to reach them.

• Personas are created by analyzing data and combining it with qualitative information, like customer interviews, to create a fictional representation of their ideal customer. For example, a persona might be a 30-year-old working mother who is interested in healthy cooking, and who is looking for quick, easy recipes to make for her family.

• Marketers use these audience personas to make their advertising more effective. For example, they might create a series of ads that appeal specifically to working mothers, and use language and imagery that is likely to resonate with that audience.

According to a marketer "If you don’t understand your target audience, it’s like shooting in the dark. You might hit something, but it’s likely to be by chance rather than design."

Examples of audience personas include:

• An advertiser wants to target an audience of fitness enthusiasts, so they create a persona of a 25-year-old male who enjoys weightlifting and is looking for a gym membership.

• A marketer wants to target an audience of working mothers, so they create a persona of a 35-year-old woman who works full-time, has 2 children, and is looking for ways to make meal prep easier.

In conclusion, understanding the target audience is crucial for marketers and it's the first step in any marketing strategy. Marketers collect information about their target audience using research surveys, and use this information to create audience personas. Personas help to give marketers a better understanding of their target audience and how to reach them. Marketers use these audience personas to make their advertising more effective, which results in better ROI and increased customer engagement. "If you don’t understand your target audience, it’s like shooting in the dark. You might hit something, but it’s likely to be by chance rather than design" according to a marketer.