As the traditional target market which is high school students is projected to decrease over the next ten years, we at regional state university need to come with a new idea of our target market. Other potential market segmentation can be considered by using these few methods that elaborated below.
1. MARKET SEGMENTATION
Market segmentation provides businesses with the possibility of customizing a unique set of elements known as the 4P’s (product, price, place, and promotion) for specific target markets. Therefore, it allows them to satisfy their customers’ needs in a more effective way, through a value proposition that is potentially superior to that of any other competitor. Market segmentation refers then to the process of defining and breaking down a wide market into clearly identifiable and homogeneous groups of consumers with similar characteristics, wants, and needs.
Few organizations are big enough to satisfy the needs of an entire market. Most companies are forced to split the total demand into several segments and select only those that they are best equipped to handle.
Experts suggest that a market segment should be:
Easily and clearly identifiable
Measurable
Accessible by promotion, communication and distribution channels
Different in its response to a marketing mix
Stable (not changing too quickly)
Appropriate for the company’s policies and resources
Substantial enough to be profitable
The basis for segmentation is a factor that varies among the groups of a certain market, but is consistent within each group. All markets can be broken down in different ways, and although many of the bases used to segment a consumer market can also be applied to businesses and organizations, the sheer nature of these eventually leads to other specific segmentation bases. Consumer markets have four types of segmentation which is geographic segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioral segmentation.
1.1 Geographic