Focusing Marketing
Strategy
SEGMENTATION AND POSITIONING
What is a Market
Market: A group of potential customers with similar needs who are willing to exchange
something of value with sellers offering various goods or services.
Market: A medium that allows buyers and sellers of a specific good or service to interact in order
to facilitate an exchange.
Market: An area or arena in which commercial dealings are conducted.
Market: A regular gathering of people for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and
other commodities.
Warning: NEVER define a market simply based on the product sold.
Markets
Generic Market: A market with broadly similar needs-and sellers offering various, often diverse,
ways of satisfying those needs.
Product Market: A market with very similar needs and sellers offering various close substitute
ways of satisfying those needs.
◦
◦
◦
◦
What:
To Meet What:
For Whom:
Where:
Product Type
Customer Needs
Customer Types
Geographic Area
Market Segmentation
1.
Naming Broad Product-Markets
2.
Segmenting these broad product-markets in
order to select target markets and develop
suitable marketing mixes.
Market Segment: A relatively homogenous group of
customers who will respond to a marketing mix in a
similar way.
Example: Bicycle-riders Product Market
How Much to Segment
Status or Dependability
Criteria for Segmentation
Homogenous: Similar within.
Heterogeneous: Different between.
Substantial: Big enough to be profitable.
Operational: Useful for identifying customers and developing a marketing mix.
What to do with the Segments
Single Target Market Approach
Multiple Target Market Approach
Combined Target Market Approach
Segmenters
Combiners
To Segment or Combine?
Case Studies
◦ ATI: Pg. 98
◦ Herman Miller: Pg. 99
General Rule!
It is usually safer to be a segmenter – that is, to try to satisfy some customers really well instead
of many customers fairly well.
The issue is still to segment (tailor to a need) or combine(benefit from economies of scale)
How to Segment
Exhibit 4-7: Target Market Dimensions
How to Segment
Exhibit 4-8: Dimensions for Segmenting Customer Markets
How to Segment
Exhibit 4-8: Dimensions for Segmenting Customer Markets
How to Segment
Exhibit 4-8: Dimensions for Segmenting Customer Markets
How to Segment
Exhibit 4-9: Dimensions for Segmenting Business/organization Markets
Qualifying vs. Determining Dimensions
Qualifying Dimensions: dimensions relevant to include a customer
type in a product market.
Determining Dimensions: dimensions that actually affect a
customer’s purchase of a specific product or brand in a product
market.
Case Study: Car Purchase (Pg. 101-102)
Differentiation and Positioning
Positioning: How customers think about proposed or present brands in a market.
KEY CONCEPT: Reality + Perception = Positioning.
EXAMPLE: Coke vs. Pepsi
◦ Most People can not tell a difference in a blind taste test, but peoples perceptions of them may differ
based on branding alone
Perceptual Mapping
Essentials of Marketing
PERREAULT, WILLIAM D. ET. AL. ESSENTIALS OF MARKETING 12E,
MCGRAW-HILL, 2010