Marketing
Principles of Marketing, Junfeng Pan
1. Market segmentation Midea has considered several segmentation variables (mainly including city size,
generation, and occupation) to segment the Chinese microwave oven market.
Midea divided the market into two broader segment: householders in primary cities, and tertiary cities. The primary city markets has already been saturated, while there were a considerable number of potential customers in tertiary cities. On the other hand, in China, those people who work as a office worker or professional are more likely to buy a microwave oven. They are busy at work, so they do need a convenient heating tool to facilitate daily cooking. And these people are generally at the relatively higher social class and earning a stable annual income, so that they may be willing to and also have the ability to improve their family’s quality-of-life. In order to improve the living standard, they may hold the concept as: ‘buy the best’. Midea also has considered customer generations. In China, 80’s generations generally received higher education than their older generations, but they are unfamiliar with cooking. Therefore, these young people are easier to accept advanced cooking tools, and may lay a higher perceived value on those high-tech products. 2. Marketing targeting Midea applied the segmented marketing strategy. The company offer the low-price microwave oven to satisfy customers who are earning lower income or do not regard with the advanced functions. As for those customer who has a decent job with stable annual income, Midea offer them advanced products with higher prices. And for those customer who want to improve living standard and experience new-tech, Midea offer
1
Principles of Marketing, Junfeng Pan
them the most expensive products which has one or more high-tech functions. 3. Differentiation and positioning The Chinese microwave oven market was suffering the price war. Some strong company adopted the penetration
1. Market segmentation Midea has considered several segmentation variables (mainly including city size,
generation, and occupation) to segment the Chinese microwave oven market.
Midea divided the market into two broader segment: householders in primary cities, and tertiary cities. The primary city markets has already been saturated, while there were a considerable number of potential customers in tertiary cities. On the other hand, in China, those people who work as a office worker or professional are more likely to buy a microwave oven. They are busy at work, so they do need a convenient heating tool to facilitate daily cooking. And these people are generally at the relatively higher social class and earning a stable annual income, so that they may be willing to and also have the ability to improve their family’s quality-of-life. In order to improve the living standard, they may hold the concept as: ‘buy the best’. Midea also has considered customer generations. In China, 80’s generations generally received higher education than their older generations, but they are unfamiliar with cooking. Therefore, these young people are easier to accept advanced cooking tools, and may lay a higher perceived value on those high-tech products. 2. Marketing targeting Midea applied the segmented marketing strategy. The company offer the low-price microwave oven to satisfy customers who are earning lower income or do not regard with the advanced functions. As for those customer who has a decent job with stable annual income, Midea offer them advanced products with higher prices. And for those customer who want to improve living standard and experience new-tech, Midea offer
1
Principles of Marketing, Junfeng Pan
them the most expensive products which has one or more high-tech functions. 3. Differentiation and positioning The Chinese microwave oven market was suffering the price war. Some strong company adopted the penetration
References: 1. Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Principles of Marketing, 13th edition, Tsing Hua University Press. 2. Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Consumer Behavior, 9th edition, Tsing Hua University Press. 3. Russell S. Winer, Marketing Management, 1st edition, Tsing Hua University Press. 4. William G. Zikmund, Essentials of Marketing Research, 4th edition, Tsing Hua University Press. 5. Kenneth E. Clow, Donald Baack, Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications, 4th edition, Tsing Hua University Press. 4