Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning in Marketing

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Every firm needs marketing, and success depends on an understanding of fundamental tactics like segmentation, targeting, and positioning. You can more successfully contact your target audience and get better results by identifying particular client groups and focusing your marketing efforts on them. We will examine each of these ideas in more detail in this blog post and discuss how you can use them to enhance your marketing initiatives.

Segmentation

The practise of segmenting a market involves separating it into smaller groups of consumers that share similar requirements or traits. Market segmentation can be done in many different methods, such as demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioural segmentation. For instance, demographic segmentation examines elements like age, gender, income, and education whereas geographic segmentation focuses on the location of the target market. While behavioural segmentation focuses on consumer behaviour, such as their purchasing patterns and brand loyalty, psychographic segmentation examines customers' lifestyles, values, and personalities.

The ability to better understand customers and personalise marketing initiatives to their particular demands is one of segmentation's primary advantages. For instance, a business that sells expensive watches can divide its market based on income and focus its marketing efforts on consumers with high discretionary incomes. By doing this, businesses increase the likelihood that they will connect with the clients who are most likely to buy their goods and decrease the likelihood that they will waste time and money on clients who are unlikely to be interested.

Targeting

The next stage after segmenting a market is to target particular segments with targeted marketing initiatives. Choosing which market groups to concentrate on and creating a marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) that would appeal to those segments are the two steps in the targeting process.

Utilizing resources to concentrate on the business divisions that are the most lucrative is one method a corporation may do this. For instance, a business that sells sporting goods might concentrate on market segments that are most interested in high-performance equipment, such serious amateur athletes or professional athletes. The business may make sure that its marketing initiatives will have the maximum impact and return on investment by concentrating on these segments.

Creating a distinctive value proposition that will appeal to your target market is another crucial component of targeting. 

Positioning

Positioning a company's products or services in the minds of its target customers is the next stage after segmenting its market and focusing on particular segments. Positioning is the practise of giving clients a distinctive impression and perception of a good or service. It's crucial because it aids consumers in comprehending how a good or service differs from its rivals and the benefits it can provide.

For instance, a business that sells organic foods can claim that their goods are healthier and more ecologically friendly than comparable non-organic goods. In doing so, they are cultivating a distinctive image and perception of their products in the minds of those customers by appealing to those consumers who are interested in healthy living and environmental sustainability.

Conclusion

Key marketing ideas like segmentation, targeting, and positioning can help businesses successfully reach their target market.

Reference List: 

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing management. Pearson.

Ries, A., & Trout, J. (2011). Positioning: The battle for your mind. McGraw-Hill.

Understanding Buyer Behaviour in B2B Marketing

 What is B2B Marketing?

Selling goods and services from one company to another is known as business-to-business (B2B) marketing. It is a highly specialised type of marketing that necessitates in-depth subject expertise and a comprehension of the needs of the client's company. Companies must comprehend the market environment in order to properly harness market information. This covers the competitors, recent trends, and important clientele groups. To understand the demands and motives of their customer base, businesses must examine consumer data and customer feedback. Additionally, businesses can utilise market research to pinpoint certain client segments and communicate with them specifically.

A key element of any profitable company is B2B marketing.

The Influence of Culture on Buyer Behaviour

When it comes to influencing consumer behaviour in B2B marketing, culture is a significant factor. Values, attitudes, and preferences for particular goods and services vary between cultures. Customers in some nations, for instance, might favour domestic brands over foreign ones or more environmentally friendly products. Customers may be more inclined to buy luxury goods in other nations. Successful B2B marketing requires an understanding of the customer's culture and preferences.

Social Factors Influencing Buyer Behaviour

In B2B marketing, social aspects can have a significant impact on consumer behaviour. The customer's age, gender, marital status, degree of education, income, and other factors may be included in this. These factors can all have an impact on how customers behave while making purchases of goods and services. For instance, a younger client can be more receptive to new technologies, whereas an elderly client might favour more conventional techniques. 

Companies must continuously be cognizant of the shifting cultural, societal, and technological variables that influence their customers' purchasing decisions as B2B buyer behaviour continues to change. It can be challenging to determine the types of products and services different cultures value, believe in, and prefer unless a corporation has a deep grasp of the market. Customers' decisions may also be influenced by social characteristics including age, gender, marital status, education level, and income level. Businesses now have an easier time identifying trends in client behaviour, which can help them develop more specialised and focused marketing strategies.

Using Technology to Understand Buyer Behaviour

In B2B marketing, technology is being used more and more to study consumer behaviour. Businesses can better understand client preferences and behaviour patterns by gathering data through digital channels. Businesses can utilise analytics technologies, for instance, to monitor customer journeys and spot behavioural trends. This can assist them in developing more individualised and focused marketing strategies, which may increase sales and boost client loyalty.

However, there are still many challenges in trying to understand buyer behaviour in B2B markets. Companies must think beyond demographics and consider emotional and psychological factors as well. For example, customers may be more likely to purchase a product if they can relate to it on a personal level. 

In conclusion, effective marketing and sales initiatives in B2B marketing depend on an understanding of buyer behaviour. In order to effectively target and engage customers, firms must take into account the cultural, social, and technological variables that all affect consumer behaviour.

Reference List:

Jones, S. and Johnson, L. (2015). Understanding consumer behaviour: A B2B marketing investigation. Business Marketing Journal.

Bell, D. (2017). The influence of culture on buyer behaviour. Oxford Review of Marketing, 8, 34-50.

Maheshwari, S., & Kumar, V. (2018). Social factors influencing buyer behaviour: A review. International Journal of Market Research, 10, 156-175.

Miller, S. (2020). Using technology to understand buyer behaviour. International Journal of Big Data and Analytics, 12, 146-168.

A deep dive into entrepreneurship

 Welcome back to my blog.

So what is this competition about?

This is an immense international event which is also held at Kingston university and it’s open for all students in any year so it’s a very diverse and broad competition.

The history behind Bright Ideas

Bright Ideas was in fact, co-created nine years ago, in conjunction with businesses to foster a culture of aspiration among students to give them the chance to create their business ideas for a new business, a social project or an application of technology of their choice for any cause or campaign they resonate with, as leader of the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre said in an article “we believe that anyone can have a bright idea, and that bright ideas can come from anywhere, regardless of background”. 

What can this Idea be about?

Causes have been broad in range for example, from taking initiatives to improve climate change and wildlife matters to supporting the homeless and those in need to make a difference for the environment and their communities.

So what is the process like?

There are different stages to this competition from the development of your idea all the way to the grand final and prize date. The competition starts with an online application, which you have to submit by a certain deadline from the day the submissions are opened on their official website called ‘Younoodle’. It’s important to note that you can enter with your idea alone or be part of a team, and since I entered the competition as part of my assignment for my ‘Organisations and Entrepreneurship’ module I had the opportunity to work on a business plan with my team members.

The second stage is to attend a ‘sprint’ session powered by Bright Ideas that is held after the submission date closes in which you are invited to attend a live workshop with your team members and to make sure you get selected for this, you must make sure that your pitch idea is as interesting as possible as numbers are limited.

The final stage is the one where your idea is then selected and reviewed by a panel of professional judges from different faculties and this is to make sure that each idea has been judged fairly from different perspectives from the creative side to the technical aspect to understand if your business idea could essentially come to life and generate a revenue or attract sponsors.

Reference List:

In-cumbria (13^th April) ‘Bright Stars business competition launches for primary schools across Cumbria’ Available at (https://www.in-cumbria.com/news/20062967.barrow-schools-take-part-bright-stars-social-enterprise-competition/) (Accessed: 29 November 2022)

Masood Entrepreneurship Centre The university of Manchester ‘Bright Ideas Competition’ Available at (https://www.entrepreneurship.manchester.ac.uk/develop/competitions/bright-ideas/) (Accessed: 29 November 2022)

‘Bright Ideas Competition 2020/2021’ Available at (https://platform.younoodle.com/competition/bright_ideas_competition_20202021) (Accessed: 29 November 2022)

An insight into international markets in global marketing and international trade

 After researching about this topic further, I wanted to reflect on different international markets in the world and their impact on the way corporations’ market themselves focusing on zones such as the EU market, (or also known as the Eurozone), Asian countries specifically China and India.

Firstly, the EU marketing strategy operates in a competitive way for the Eurozone market. For example, their focus is to have carefree access to goods throughout Europe’s barriers and create a so called “free market.” This is greatly beneficial to accessing goods because it leads to smooth business transactions therefore making the economy thrive and allowing the workforce to not only expand but also compete with different global markets around the globe which promotes innovation. Another key factor is currency used in each of these different economies to keep their value currency on top of their trade advantage for their specific exports. The Eurozone in particular uses the euro (€), which brings certain advantages to consumers within the community that are controlled by the same bank, in this case the European Central Bank (ECB).

The other examples I looked at, was that of both economies of China and India as they are extensive economies with crucial influence in areas such as mass manufacturing and low-cost labour. An example of this is Huawei, one of China’s largest smartphones brand which in 2018 sales exceeded $52 billion for its consumer products making it a remarkably successful business, operating in 170 different countries. This might be because of the Internet boom that happened in the past few years, leading the massive Chinese population to swift from in person to online stores such as Taobao, a huge online retailer part of the largest e-commerce company around the world and its founder, Jack Ma, reported that e-commerce has ‘become a lifestyle’. On the contrary, for the Indian market despite having a large population, its target market still wishes to expand more globally due to lack of growth incomes therefore leading to a high rate of child labour. According to official statistics 1 in 10 children are reported as “neither working nor attending an education institution, girls (4.6 million) outnumber boys (3.9 million).” This leads to a trade deficit between India and China, which rose up to $72.9 billion just this year. However India’s international trade still has potential for growth due to its wide-reaching economy and immense consumer market.

Reference List:

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Harris, L.C. and Hongwei, H. (2020) Principles of Marketing. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Ch 5 & 6

End Child Labour (2021) ‘5 facts about child labour in India’ Available at (https://endchildlabour2021.org) (accessed: 11^th October 2022)

Huawei Investment & Holding Co. Ltd (2021) ‘Corporate Fact Sheet’ Available at (www.huawei.com) (accessed: 11^th October 2022)

Shubham Batra (2022) ‘Uh oh. Data shows India-China trade deficit widening, Indian exports falling for 1^st time in yrs’ Available at (https://theprint.in) (accessed: 11^th October 2022)

An insight in Customer relationships

Dear readers, this is my first blog, and, in this post, I will share my understanding on the subject of Market Research & Gaining Customer Insights as well as sharing examples of my findings.

To market well in today’s industry, it is all about giving greater value to customers such as resolving their problems. And to do this you have to connect your business motive to your brand to attract customers which as a result creates value, as building connections and relationships to your customers is what market research is all about.

An example of this, is how, for instance after learning more in depth about customer insights, I looked at the example of P&G, one of the world’s largest and specialised marketing companies, where their marketing and advertising team relaunched their brand by looking at women’s needs in their lives rather than their cleaning needs by itself and they combined these two factors by doing deep primary research into the lives of these women where one of their connected brands ‘Tide’ were able to make 60% more profit with their cleaning products by linking women’s style with cleanliness as women were their biggest consumers.

A marketing specialist argued that many products in today’s competitive market have a lot of potential, however, it leads to a saturated market which only some brands get right and can expand their products or services to their right customers, which are known as target customers.

For example, this was the case for Apple when they launched their iPod in the year 2001. They were not the first to do so, but the first to succeed in their product launch which at the time became a blockbuster. This was because, they focused on their design to create a compact mobile device for listening to music and they focused their objective on customer’s individual needs which was to make music a more personal experience everywhere customers went to.

I have also learned that to gain precise customer insights, there needs to be extensive research done by marketers to study trends using contemporary technologies in the market to recruit information in great quantities. Nowadays this can be done in a number of diverse ways such as with the help of the growth of social media platforms such as Facebook Marketplace or TikTok shop, in contrary to how marketing information was collected not long ago by call centres, handwritten letters or in person surveys. This leads to my next point, which is how market research can be successful, but only when it provides real marketing research value. For example, having a dedicated team of marketers working on costumer insights to develop different business strategies within a business, such as an MIS looking at the Marketing environment as well as marketing managers and other information users to collect from a wide range of data and create more value for customers.

Reference List:

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Harris, L.C. and Hongwei, H. (2020) Principles of Marketing. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Ch 4