Segmentation and Target Market - Essay Example

Segmentation and Target Market Paper Introduction The basic component of Market segmentation is the market-based strategy. Marketsegmentation can be defined as dividing the customers on the basis of their different descriptive characteristics, purchase behavior and their distinctive customer needs. When a company categorizes its markets into small sectors, it is actually targeting the market by catering the demands of each of the sub sectors. The companies usually end up securing big competitive positions in the market if they successfully satisfy the fundamental requirement of the sub sectors. There are four criteria that help the company to measure the effectiveness of their market segmentation. These criteria are substantial, identifiable, stable and accessible. The segment should be substantial so that the segment is enough in size, in order to make the effort associated with segmentation worthwhile. In identifiable the segment should be quantified as well as defined. Stable means that the segment should be catered by the company within the given time without increasing its investment cost. The segment should be easily accessed by the help of the company’s distribution channels. Market Segmentation Strategy of Apple Psychographic Apple’s branding strategy focuses on the emotions of its customers and potential customers. The brand personality of the company is all about imagination, lifestyle, innovation; liberty regained, innovation, passion, aspiration dreams and hopes, as the company provides power to its customers through technology. Apple’s brand personality is all about simplicity and removing complexity from the lives of its customers. It offers its customers, people driven product designs offering innovation in almost every aspect. Apple Incorporation is considered to be a humanistic company continuously in the urge of building a heartfelt connection with the customers. The customer franchise and the brand equity embodied by Apple are quite strong. The successful retail stores of Apple give its customers the direct experience of the company’s brand values. The visitors visiting the Apple store experience a stimulating and non-pressuring environment, where they are allowed to discover the world of Apple in detail and try its products. The retail staff of Apple is trained to be informative, helpful and enthusiastic without being pushy or brash (Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning and the Product, 2012). Demographics When we observe Apple it can be seen that its demographical segmentation is successful because it is developing products for every age and people belonging to every occupation. The company is distributing its products in different cities and the PCs offered by Apple can be categorized on the basis of age and family size. For example Apple provides more games and entertainment for the children in their computers, whereas for professionals the computers have latest software installed in it. The demographic segmentation of Apple Incorporation is based on dividing the American Market by age, income, gender and ethnic background. In the report presented by American Life Project and Pew Internet about 22 million of adults own an iPod, 13 percent of the men own a player, whereas the ratio of women is only 9 percent. There are about 16 percent of the African American and Latinos who own iPod. When the customers of Apple are divided on the basis of their age who own any of its product; 6 percent are about 50 years old, 31 percent customers ranges between the age of 35-49, 31 percent of them range between 15-24, whereas 3 percent of its customers range between 25-34 years. Geographic The retail stores of Apple are located in some of the highly populated cities of the world. The company makes its global presence through its official website in more than 80 countries. Apple has successfully established its business all across the world in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Japan, etc. Apple has recently implemented its vertical growth strategy, which is based on expanding its retail store. The company besides its retail stores also sells its products through different dealers, internet and through the third party. Behavioral Apple provides sufficient product knowledge to its customers by advertising its products through different search engines. Apple possesses a strong brand image in the minds of the audience. The response rate of the company is quite high as many customers who are searching for unique design and innovation in features turn to Apple. IPhone 6 was launched by Apple after considering the changing behavior of its customers and their attitude towards the rapid technological changes. It was designed considering the expectations of the customers from their multifunctional smart-phone. Innovation and new features are the factors that appeal to the customers and influence their behavior. The new technology offered by Apple through its products combines different features extracted from different products and offers it in a single light weight and handheld device. Through its phones Apple is actually providing its customers with the availability of internet in their hands. They can use hundreds of application, send and receive emails, find maps and do web browsing. The users of Apple’s products experience the sense of sophistication and software power which they have never experienced before in any device, completely redefining their experience. Apple influences its customers by providing the differentiated products by the help of its behavioral segmentation. By doing this Apple has successfully grabbed 17.3 percent of the shares in smart-phones market. Apple also provides the MacBook, iPhone and iPad users with an easy way of accessing their Microsoft Exchange email. This added feature made the company’s product more attractive, as it allows integrating their device in their work. After the launch of iPhone about 40 percent of the mobile users changed their phones after being influenced by the new and innovative features offered by Apple, emphasizing on the strong brand switching capability elaborated by Apple’s new product. Apple has successfully established its perception as an innovative company in the minds of its customers, which has helped the company in creating a strong customers loyalty base. It was the result of the loyalty of Apple’s customers that about 52 percent of the users of iPod also bought iPhone as soon as it was released (Segmenting and Targeting Markets, 2011). Apple Target Market Apple mostly target teenagers, college and University going students, business people, adults and young children. Apple offers different products to cater the need of different market segments. The teenagers who are considered to be one of Apple’s target market use iPods for a number of reasons. They use it for listening to music, socializing with friends, etc. There are also a number of applications offered by Apple that appeal to the teenagers. This is the reason that the use of iPods is trending among the teenagers. Apple also targets college and university going students, as they use products like iPads, iPhones, MacBook, etc. for taking notes. These products are extremely popular among the students because they provide them with the facility of organizing their notes. All these products offered by Apple are light weighted and therefore they can easily be carried by the students to their schools. Apple also attracts a massive number of business people towards its offering. All of the products offered by Apple such as iPads, MacBook, iPhones, etc. help the employees of different companies in several ways. These products are also used by the employees to increase their efficiency and for communicating with the clients. These products also offer the employees to easily organize their documents and send it to someone else if needed. The products offered by Apple are also quite famous among the kids and young children because of the quality of their touch screen. Parents download learning games on iPods and iPads for their kids so that they may learn something. Adults are also targeted by Apple Incorporation. IPhones are used by the adults for making and receiving calls, getting directions, searching online for places and other things, maintaining their documents and capturing moments by the help of camera. People carry this multiple purpose device with them every day and make their life a lot easier (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning, 2013). Apple’s Target Market Strategy Apple is not just a brand it’s a lifestyle and it is the major constituent of growing culture of consumers who are musicians, artists, photographers, writers and innovators. The firm has strategically positioned itself as the high end brand offering amazing user experience and beautiful hardware design. Apple targets the people of all ages, basically the ones who want to move from the technology which is not being offered by their competitors. Their product lines do offer similar products but they do have different benefits for preventing cannibalization. Apple is following their traditional mass market approach, as their advertisements are not concentrated on certain groups but they try to target everybody with their products. For example all of the iPods ads being posted on their page or website resemble you, if you are able to find yourself in the silhouette. Apple is turning out to be a cult brand targeting and respecting the users who loves innovated in their gadgets. Apple is going back to target the masses as in they are targeting people from all ages, social classes, cultures and colors. The iPod introduced by Apple is turning out to be the symbol of the modern and digital music culture and the iTunes store have eventually became the second largest music retailers. Apple believes in the philosophy of its former CEO - Steve Jobs, that when you create something great then everybody is willing to use it. This philosophy worked for Apple as the company has created the best technology, which eliminates the need of targeting a specific group as their products appeal to masses. Apple offers some amazing products to its customers which include the best kind of software and hardware which draws the attention of different kinds of people present in the market. Software like iLife helps the users to manage their movies, music and pictures and assist them in case they wanted to make a full length films. Software like iWork that are offered by Apple makes one look at Apple’s product as essentials (Apple Inc. Target Market, 2013). Conclusion The target market segmentation of Apple is basically undifferentiated, as based on its target market strategy the firm ignores any specific market segments and goes after a single offer to cater different segments. This is because its products offers a number of features, which helps the company to segment the market on the basis of demographic, psychographic, behavioral and geographic segmentation. References Segmenting and Targeting Markets. (2011). Retrieved December 14, 2014, from http://appleblogr.blogspot.com/2011/05/ch-8-segmenting-and-targeting-markets.html Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning and the Product. (2012). Retrieved December 14, 2014, from https://new.edu/nodes/market-segmentation-targeting-and-positioning-and-the-product Apple Inc. Target Market. (2013). Retrieved December 14, 2014, from http://appleinccasestudy.weebly.com/apples-target-market.html Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. (2013). Retrieved December 14, 2014, from USC Marshall: http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/cb_Segmentation.html Read More