Outline the three major steps in target marketing.
The first step is market segmentation: dividing a market into smaller groups of buyers with distinct needs, characteristics, or behaviors, who might require separate products or marketing mixes. The company identifies different ways to segment the market and develops profiles of the resulting market segment. The second step is target marketing: evaluating each market segment’s attractiveness and selecting one or more of the market segments to enter. The third step is market positioning: setting the competitive positioning for the product and creating a detailed marketing mix.
(p. 165; Moderate)
Explain the four major segmenting variables for consumer markets.
Geographic segmentation divides the market into different geographic units, such as nations, regions, states, countries, cities, or neighborhoods. Many companies are localizing their products, advertising, promotion, and sales efforts or are seeking to cultivate as-yet untapped geographic territory. Demographic segmentation divides the market into groups based on variables such as age, gender, family size, family life cycle, income, occupation, education, religion, race, generation, and nationality. They are the most popular factors because they are easy to measure, and consumer needs, wants, and usage rates often vary closely with demographic variables. Psychographic segmentation, on the other hand, divides buyers into different groups based on social class, lifestyle, or personality characteristics. People in the same demographic group can have very different psychographic makeup. Behavioral segmentation divides buyers into groups based on their knowledge, attitudes, uses, or responses to a product. Many marketers believe that behavior variables are the best starting point for building market segments.
(pp. 166–172; Challenging)
Describe how marketers use multiple-segmenting bases to their advantage.
Marketers rarely limit their