Market Segmentation Concept - Essay Example

It is an observation from the history of commerce that marketing has always played a fundamental, yet very significant role in the success of any business. It refers to a process that involves communication and delivering products to its consumers that is of substantial need and value to them, thus, creating a long-lasting relationship with their customers. Marketing strategies come under design on basis of sales techniques, business communications and developments. While talking about the marketing of any product, one of the most important aspects that come under focus is the targeted fraction of the population sharing one or more similar traits, desiring products that are of matching interests for them. This marketing phenomenon of grouping the people is known as Market Segmentation. When speaking about market segmentation, the primary step before the segmentation takes place is the determination of the needs of the customers for which extensive market research is essential. When one identifies the needs, masses then come under segregation into groups. In particular, segmentation can be based on various forms, out of which gender, price and interests are of immense importance. Segmentation plays a prime role in facilitating the manufacturer to build the product to satisfy the demands of customers. If the segmentation is done efficiently, it will help in achieving huge gains compared to the budget set for marketing that will eventually result in the success of the company (Croft, pp. 66-72, 1994).

In addition, “the basis for market segmentation depends upon the type of product that a company is offering and may vary for business and individual customers. Segmentation can be possible in accordance to geography, demography, psychograph and behaviour, and the variables such as climate, region, population and population density come under geographic segmentation” (Cahill, pp. 35-59, 2006). For instance, the needs such as transportation would be different for consumers living in urban areas as compared to consumers residing in rural or mountainous areas. Demographic segmentation is governed by factors including age, gender, education, occupation, earnings, and family size (Weinstein, pp. 25-95, 1994) of the population; for example, standards of restaurants are set considering the financial statuses of the people. Individuals are also grouped depending on their lifestyles, attitudes, values, interests and activities (Weinstein, pp. 25-95, 1994) are a part of psychographic segmentation. It also refers to the hobbies and activities individuals are involved in their leisure time. In particular, behavioural segmentation comprises of usage rate, benefits sought and degree of loyalty/loyalty rate. This can be well explained via an example of a mobile phone; people not only use this technology for its principal use that is to make calls but also uses it as a device for entertainment and other features (Weinstein, pp. 25-95, 1994).

            With reference to the market segmentation and portraying a particular product for a group of individuals brought together, one of the important products that are of high importance in this era of technology is “A BlackBerry mobile phone”. According to some of the research studies, it has been an observation that this hi-tech versatile phone with a wide variety of applications in it has traditionally and explicitly been designed for business people who needed technology that could even work with wireless connectivity or internet connectivity whenever needed. Therefore, the demographic market segment should include the individuals of the business community ageing from 30 years to 50 years. The target audience with reference to geographical segmentation would include the developed countries like the U.K. where the technology is of growing demand (Croft, pp. 75-83, 1994). Initially, it was not a common cellular phone but due to the recent popularity of the phone through its colourful applications and access to more social networking programs including blackberry messenger, has caught the attention of the youngsters. Therefore, the demographic segment has now been altered.

On the other hand, when looking at the commercial radio, one of the highlighted features of radio is its reach ability to a large number of customers at a very low cost. Commercial radio station specialising in dance music and celebrity news/gossip, in general, targets an audience where technology is not much developed. Furthermore, with respect to geographical and demographic segmentation, radio stations would target people living in suburban areas where celebrity news and gossips are considered to be one of the basic entertainment sources especially amongst the housewives that range from 34 years to 47 years (Croft, pp. 56-60, 1994). Moreover, rock and dance music carries popularity amongst the youngsters; therefore they are the appropriate target listeners of the commercial radio.

Chocolate is a luxury that nobody can resist. But, the segment caters to the people of small and middle age group particularly children and young generation. Since Swiss chocolate has always been in news for its high price, therefore the target market for this kind of chocolate would be elite class people.