Marketing is a process that is based on communications and activities to build a

Marketing is a process that is based on communications and activities to build a marketing strategy. It attempts to persuade individuals and groups that a need or desire can be satisfied through a particular product or groups of products. The idea is to both get and keep the customer. Finding the right customer is a process that includes selecting groups of the population with the highest potential to purchase the product or service. To increase the success of a marketing strategy, companies use the three-step approach: Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. This approach is effective because it acknowledges that not every single person will buy a company’s offerings. The benefits of this process is to find the best matched customers, increase profits, reduce wasted marketing cost, increase competitiveness, increase profits, and to provide better communication to specific targets. Segmentation: a division of the market sections from the total population to find potential customers who have similar attributes. Target Market: a selection of customers (segmentation) with a specific marketing campaign or strategy aimed towards. Positioning: the company’s offerings and brand promoted within a target market in a specific place or way. Segmenting is the process of breaking up the entire universe of possible customers into distinct groups. A market segment is a group of people who share similar needs and desires, as well as similar characteristics such as age, income, education, or lifestyle. Segmenting helps marketers understand the behaviors, wants, and needs of customers in a given group and identify ways to market to those individuals based on their unique characteristics. Marketers identify the market segments that are most likely to buy a company’s offerings and then focus on those particular probable buyers. By studying the factors that impact the buying decisions of this group of probable buyers, markets can determine the marketing strategy that will deliver the most value to the segment. Segmenting enables marketers to divide a large group of potential customers into smaller groups to better understand their needs. There are four main categories when evaluating marketing segmentation groups: Geographic, Demographics, Psychographics, and Behavior. The more information marketing research can find for each target market in each segmentation area, the more targeted your marketing strategy becomes. Geographic Used for every strategy, the location or locations of the targeted market. Where are you going to sell your products and where are the buyers? Attributes Local, Regional, National, States, Cities, International, Countries, Determined by area size of City, State, Country Market Density Climate or Terrain Description All marketing will include a Geographic location or many locations. Each location will either be similar in strategies, based on the segmentation section, or will need a different marketing strategy created. Geographic segmentation can be done at the country level, state level, across statistical metropolitan areas, or even between different neighborhoods with the zip code data that is available. Demographics: The most common forms, easily found, information people-based differences. Who are you trying to reach and sell to? Attributes Age, Gender, Sex, Ethnicity Marital status, Family size Family Lifecycle Education, Social Class Occupation, Religion Description Demographic information is fairly inexpensive and easy to obtain. For many products, demographic segmentation helps to define the target market and positioning. Many credit card companies target college students because they know this demographic has great earning potential after graduation. This earning potential may translate into increased purchases, which can translate into increased profits for credit card companies. Psychographics: Characteristics of the target market based on lifestyle. What makes them interested in your product or service? Attributes Activities, Interest Attitudes, Opinions, Beliefs, Desires Personality and Values Lifestyles Motives Description Psychographic segmentation separates consumers with similar attitudes, beliefs, interests and activities. Companies selling bicycles would want to target similar interests, biking magazines, biking clubs, biking websites, biking associations. Accurate psychographic data can improve the efficiency of marketing communications and help to position a product strategically. Behavior: Characteristics on how they interact with your brand or service. How do they use your product? Attributes Benefits and expectations Usage rate and Status Patterns, Occasions Brand Loyalty Readiness to Purchase Description It may also make sense to target consumers on the basis of their usage patterns. Old Spice cologne is made for men, but parent company Proctor and Gamble frequently targets women for its communication. Why is the? It’s because P&G understands the usage pattern for its product. A large number of its sales come from women who purchase the brand as a gift for their significant other or for their male family members.