Marketing Management - Essay Example

Chapter 8: Think of various product categories. How would you ify yourself in terms of the various segmentation schemes? How would marketing be more or less-effective for you depending on the segment involved? How would you contrast demographic versus behavioral segment Sent but not paid yet. schemes? Which ones do you think would be most effective for marketers trying to sell to you? In today’s gloabalized market, consumers are becoming more and more sophisticated in terms of their needs as well as their purchasing process. With this sophistication of customers, their expectations of product offers are increasing and thus mass marketing is no longer the preferred mode of targeting the consumer. Therefore, more and more companies today resort to differentiated marketing through highly focused segmentation and targeting strategies. Product categories ranging from Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG’s) to Luxury vehicles or Holiday packages to Hospital services are all using differentiation tactics to market their products and services to the desired market segments. Various levels of market segmentation can be observed from Mass marketing to Segment marketing, Niche marketing and Micro marketing. Mass marketing represents no segmentation in one end of the spectrum while micro marketing involves complete segmentation. For segmentation to be effective, the market segments should be Measurable, Accessible, Substantial, Differentiable and Actionable (Armstrong & Kotler 2000). Segmenting can be done on the basis of geographic, demographic, psychographic or behavioral factors. If I were to be classified under above segmenting factors, for example for a personal care product category such as men’s face lotion, following will be the resulting profile. Geographical : US Demographics: Age :18 –35 years Gender : Male Marital Status : Mainly Single Psychographics Rugged, and carefree men who prefer outdoor life, sports and adventure. Living life to fullest. Behavior Patterns Occasion : Daily Benefits Expected : Maintaining and protecting skin User Status : Mainly Potential users + existing users The effectiveness of the product’s marketing mix depends upon whether it conveys the desired message to the consumer and whether it finally prompts the potential consumer to become a customer. When the marketing mix is combined in a such as way to project the correct image in the mind of the consumer and offer a right price as well as be accessible to customer depending upon his lifestyle, the effectiveness will increase. For example, being a collage student, the income levels are low and thus price factor should be average. Accessibility should be easy as single male collage students tend less to do regular shopping at supermarkets and may opt to get personal care items on ad hoc basis from drug stores etc. Advertisements are crucial which should position the product to tally with the psychographic image. While demographic segmenting considers factors such as Age and stage in life cycle, income level, social class, gender, life stage and generation, the behavioral segmenting is based on factors such as usage occasion, buyer readiness, usage status and rate, benefits sought and loyalty status. While schemes such as Sent but not yet paid may work well for new products being launches and main marketing objective being creating trial, I personally would interpret such a scheme as being a hard sell and fell alienated towards the product. Chapter 10: Identify other negatively correlated attributes and benefits not included in Table 10.2. What strategies do firms use to position themselves on the basis of pairs of attributes and benefits? Positioning means creating an image of the product in the minds of the buyers. The marketing company develops this position for consumer goods and services and it is critical for marketing success (Reis & Trout 1981). To ensure that consumer choose the company’s product from available alternatives, the first step it to gain a position in the consumer’s mind. Effective positioning can be achieved through communicating the desired image of the product to the consumer through an effective promotional mix. In order to develop an effective positioning strategy, point of differences should be identified and conveyed. Positioning task involves three key steps of identifying a set of possible competitive advantages upon which to build a positioning, selecting the right competitive advantages which the firm can credibly support and finally communicating and delivering the chosen position to the targeted market segment (Kotler & Armstrong 2000, p.207). Companies can choose from a range of differentiations to establish its positioning strategy. These, includes product differentiation, service differentiation, people differentiation or image differentiation Considering product attributes, which can be announced as unique selling points, there are negatively correlated attributes, which should be presented separately, or the relationship between the two attributes needing redefinition to ensure the positioning massage’s effectiveness is not adversely affected. For example, when high quality and low price, which are negatively correlated attributes, are being presented the communicating of the low price can be done separately as a promotional offer or loyalty discount while high quality and exclusiveness can be communicated through the other marketing communications. Few such negatively correlated product attributes can be as follows Speedy Vs. Reliability Pre Cooked Convenience Vs. Freshness Rugged Vs. Classy Trendy Vs. Classic Economical Vs. Exclusive Considering above, one can note that marketers can identify many such product attributes which are negatively correlated and should be tackled carefully when positioning messages are created. For example, if a vehicle maintenance center is marketing it self, it is important to establish that being speedy does not mean less reliability. In the same manner, a men’s perfume product may be positioned as a rugged man’s choice but may include a man who is classily dressed in a different setting and then engages in rugged outdoor sports, starting and ending his day with the use of particular product. Such a positioning aims to appeal to desire for being a rugged man in both outdoor types as well as those aspiring to be so. References: Armstrong, G. & Kotler, P. (2000) Marketing: An Introduction. 5th ed. Singapore: Person Education Inc. Rise, A. & Trout, J. (1986) Positioning: The battle for your mind. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co. Read More