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".
