If you use regular makefile projects in IDE you usually on our own to configure builds variants
and targets in make. However IDE can help you to automate build of certain specific configurations.
For example if you build for two platforms x86 and arm and it is determined by make variable (which you normally set in 
command line), there are two ways you can automate it in IDE - using Build Configurations and using Make Targets. 

To create new Make Target right click on your project and select Make Targets->Create...
You can give it a name and you can optionally define a make command line. You can build a target using Make Target->
Build...

To create a new Build Configuration use menu Build Configuration->Manage...
It gives you a lot more option than make target. To override make command use C/C++ Build
make tab. You can also change Environment Variables and some other aspects on Build Configuration. By default "Build 
Project" command would build an active configuration (your choice).
You also can build All or Selected configuration from project context menu.

For example I can create "x86-debug" configuration with a make command:
make CPULIST=x86 DEBUG=-gdwarf-2 OPTIMIZE_TYPE=NONE

Make Targets and Build Configuration can work nicely together if you use "default" make command
in the Make Target definition and only redefine the actual "target". It will use settings from an "Active" configuration
.