Question

In week one you learned a market consists of consumers and potential consumers and their desire for specific products. Companies have the tedious task of designing a marketing strategy to place the organization in the correct position within their given market.

For the week three discussions, explain why Target Marketing is an important part of the organizational marketing strategy. Examine how the Target Marketing Process is implemented by companies to narrow down their entrance objectives into a specific market (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning).

Answer 1

Importance of Target Marketing: Basically, a target market segment helps a company set correct market communication strategies for an effective sale.

• Design Specific messages: Setting a target market defines a market segment which allows companies to design or craft messages according to that target and their needs.
• Right audience: It also helps in reaching the correct audience , i.e. the intended audience for which the marketing was done.
• Cost effective: Since the target is already known, it gets very easy to take decisions on the type of media which results into saving of unnecessary costs.
• Effective competition: This also helps in competing successfully with competitors.

How Target marketing process is implemented

Target marketing is defined as identifying specific market segments and targeting them with effective advertisement. There are 3 processes to it:

• Segmentation: Segmentation means segregating the market into smaller segments in which a company does heavy brainstorming and consider all possible market segments. Segmentation is done on the basis of demographics, geography, lifestyle, behaivour, etc.
• Targeting: Once segmentation is done, companies move to target a specific market on the basis of market size, growth, and competition. Whichever market looks more profitable or has a long term potential, that market is targeted first.
• Positioning: Positioning means how customers perceive a product/ service, i.e. how the brand is positioned in the minds of customers. It could be quality, low price, unique features, durability, reliability, etc. They important part of positioning is to differentiate from competitors and stand out in the minds of customers.