Segmentation, targeting and positioning

The formula -segmentation, targeting, positioning (STP) - is the essence of strategic marketing." (Kotler, 1994, p. 93).
Segmentation, targeting, and positioning together include a three stage process. Firstly, choosing the value, the strategist "proceeds to segment the market, select the appropriate target market, and develop the present value positioning.

Segmentation of the market is to split the customer market into different sections or groups with the same needs and wants. A company will put markets into different segments with similar characteristics, so that they can target these specific segments and create something which that particular segment would want, e.g. the iPhone even though practically everyone wants it, it may have been targeted at the C2/C1/B socioeconomic classes and looking at a target age of 15-30. This is because there’s a large number of games for the younger people as well as the older guys to enjoy as well as having yahoo mail and Google mail. There are also features for time management and productivity apps that maybe targeting middle aged customers, like managers and self employed people.
This wouldn’t be targeting people over the age 50 because most of them have a very limited knowledge on this type of product.














Segmenting the market can be done through four main areas which are geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural. Below is just two types of segmentation.

Geographic segmentation is segmentation through the location of the population. The following are some geographic variables used in segmentation:
• Region: by continent, country
• Size of city: segmented according to size of population
• Population density: often classified as urban, suburban, or rural

Demographic Segmentation includes:
• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Social Class
• Lifestyle
• Generation: Generation X and Y etc.

Below is an example of segmentation through lifestyle shown in a Pepsi advert showing what people will do to get their hands on the drink.




Targeting is a part of the segmentation of the market, with this it targets the most profitable and most used product within the population. After the market has been separated into its segments, the marketer will select a segment or series of segments and 'target' it.






With the image above it shows how a marketer uses a variety of different segments to target many different people with differentiated products. This is typical in the motor industry. Here there are a variety of products such as diesel, four-wheel-drive, sports saloons, and so on.


The above video shows two super cars going at it in a drag race and shows people what kind of great cars are out there just for them to buy.

The Market positioning
Gunter and Furnham (1992) "prescribe that after selecting target markets the
strategist should develop positioning objectives to then develop them into a detailed
marketing mix".

Perception

Perception “… is how we see the world around us” (Schiffman & Kanuk 2003) and how we see ourselves.
I believe that perception is how we perceive the things around us, and how we observe things from different views and angles. there are many different ways on how we observe things and can differ from each individual person. People see things or themselves differently from what others may see. For example the picture on the left shows the new American president Barack Obama looking in a mirror and seeing his reflection as John F. Kennedy (JFK) a former American President (before he was assassinated) was considered a great president and was once quoted saying a very famous line... "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
Barack Obama may want to see himself one day becoming as great as JFK and be like him but others may see him Obama differently (a whole new type of person) who has different beliefs and works differently to achieve them. Also there maybe some people out there who don't like Obama and think he will never be as great as Kennedy.


Below is the trailer for the movie Vantage Point, which shows the views of 8 different people.



the trailer for this movie shows the American President being shot in Spain where he was promoting an international treaty designed to tackle global terrorism. the movie shows the event unfold in the views of 8 different people and how they all perceived the incident.
this shows the perception of people and how everyone sees the same thing but interpret it differently.

First Impressions

The introductory lesson to Understanding the Customers was about the first impressions of people through their personality and the body language they are displaying.


"There is never a second chance to make a first impression". First impressions can take up to as little as 17 seconds for someone to make a first impression about you.


A first impression of a person could be created through how they are dressed (visual perception), there character and body language. This helps to create a person's personality? Character and one should never try to change who they are. You should never try to be anyone else but yourself.

Below is the trailer for the movie Blood Diamond which was released in 2006. The trailer below is one of the main reasons I wanted to watch this movie. On first impressions on this trailer I believed it to be an awesome movie worth watching.




On the first lesson Ruth asked us to draw a shape on a piece of paper as big as we wanted it so we could fit in responses for the questions she would ask us. These answers could be written or drawn on the piece of paper. These questions would be about our family and lifestyle. One of the questions was what is your favorite sport? I drew a stickman kicking a ball. Another was how many siblings are there in your family again I chose to draw instead of write, and so I drew two girls and four boys including me (again Stickmen as seen below).















Once all the questions had been answered Ruth collected in our sheets and handed them out to people randomly making sure we didn’t get our own one back. This was to try and get others to figure out whose sheet they had by looking at what they had said or drawn on the sheet of paper and making a comment on the type of people we are. We didn't really know each other two well at the time so it was difficult to make a judgment on each other. However looking at what it was said about me on my sheet, "Quite, Shy and sporty" I believe this to be right on the mark about my personality and the type of person I am.

In the second part of the lecture Ruth had bought in two students we had never met and didn't know anything about. We were told to look at how they were dressed, and how they were standing and use that to establish what kind of people they were. With the first girl (also known as girl A in the lecture) my first thoughts about her was that she was a lively and outgoing person because she was dressed in bright colors and seemed confident. Girl B on the other hand seemed shy and into fashion. This was because she was (according to the girls) wearing fashionable clothes and was up to date with today's styles.

After a few minutes the class was asked to share what they thought of the two girls and surprisingly most of the class had the same thoughts as to the personality of the girls, in the end we found that what we thought of the girls was actually correct.
It’s funny how people’s minds works and how we can create a first impression of someone by the littlest of things like what clothes there wearing or how they've done their hair. We stereotype a person and create an image of them in our heads within a few seconds of seeing them without even knowing a single thing about them.