I was watching Tuesday’s episode of the Craig Ferguson show on TiVo the other day and in answer to one of the Tweets/Emails he suggested someone buy his girlfriend a diamond. And this got me to remembering an incident I had when my Mom and I visited Maryland to check out what eventually became my graduate school.

We were going to visit the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History that day and were really quite looking forward to it. I love science and always enjoy natural history museums … I’ve even visited a small one in Suceava, Romania and the one in Madrid, Spain.

Anyway, we stopped for breakfast at a diner near our hotel before heading out on the Metro and met a man and his young son. At some point in the conversation, he recommended that we be sure to see the gemstone and minerals exhibit because, “women love sparkling rocks.”

My mother and I just smiled …. while we cringed on the inside.

You see, neither of us are all that impressed by or interested in sparkling rocks. In fact, I’ve never much been into diamonds, favoring the deep blue of lapis lazuli.

Now why am I telling you all this? Because, as a business owner, you can’t make broad based assumptions about your target market. For example, do all women think that diamonds are their best friend? Do we all love shopping for handbags and shoes? Unless I’m not a woman (and I’m pretty sure I am), they do not.

If you want to connect with your target market on a level that gets them to “know, like and trust” you … or simply just buy from you … you need to understand them. You need to think of them as more than just stereotypes.

Do your research. Find out what your target market really wants … and give it to them, communicating with them using their own words.