营销管理[美]菲利普•科特勒著第十一版

第四章  市场营销战略与市场细分

教学目的：通过本章学习使学生理解企业要在制定正确的市场营销战略的基础上学会使这些策略协调配合，得到最佳的市场营销组合战略，基于此进行具体的市场细分与选择目标市场的营销活动。
教学重点：市场营销组合战略的含义、编制营销计划、市场细分
教学难点：怎样编制营销计划、市场细分的策略
教学时数： 6学时（讲授、讨论）
教学内容与步骤：

Chapter 4 Marketing Strategy, Market Segments and Selecting Target Markets

In this chapter, we will address the following questions:
■ How can a company make suitable market mix strategies ?
■ How can a company identify the segments that make up a market?
■ What criteria can a company use to choose the most attractive target market?

Strategic planning: three key areas and four organizational levels
 Strategic planning calls for action in three key areas: The first is managing a company's businesses as an investment portfolio. The second involves assessing each business's strength by considering the market's growth rate and the company's position and fit in that market. The third is establishing a strategy. For each business, the company must develop a game plan for achieving its long-run objectives.
     To understand marketing management, we must understand strategic planning.
 Most large companies consist of four organizational levels; the corporate level, the division level, the business unit level, and the product level. Corporate headquarters is responsible for designing a corporate strategic plan to guide the whole enterprise; it makes decisions on the amount of resources to allocate to each division, as well as on which businesses to start or eliminate. Each division establishes a division plan covering the allocation of funds to each business unit within the division. Each business unit develops a strategic plan to carry that business unit into a profitable future. Finally, each product level (product line, brand) within a business unit develops a marketing plan for achieving its objectives in its product market.
    The marketing plan operates at two levels: strategic and tactical. The strategic marketing plan lays out the target markets and the value proposition that will be offered, based on an analysis of the best market opportunities. The tactical marketing plan specifies the marketing tactics, including product features, promotion, merchandising, pricing, sales channels, and service.
   The marketing plan is the central instrument for directing and coordinating the marketing effort. Today, the marketing department does not set the marketing plan by itself. Plans are developed by teams, with inputs and sign-offs from every important function. These plans are then implemented at the appropriate levels of the organization. Results are monitored, and corrective action is taken when necessary.
Corporate and division strategic planning
By preparing statements of mission, policy, strategy, and goals, headquarters establishes the framework within which the divisions and business units prepare their plans. Some corporations give a lot of freedom to their business units to set their own sales and profit goals and Strategies, Others set goals for their business units but let them develop their own strategies. Still others set the goals and participate in developing individual business unit strategies.
Defining the corporate mission
 An organization exists to accomplish something: to make cars, lend money, provide a night's lodging, and so on. Its specific mission or purpose is usually clear when the business starts. Over time the mission may change, to take advantage of new opportunities or respond to new market conditions. Amazon.com changed its mission from being the world's largest online bookstore to aspiring to become the world's largest online store. eBay changed its mission from running online auctions for collectors to running online auctions covering all kinds of goods.
Establishing strategic business units
Most companies operate several businesses. They often define their businesses in terms of products: They are in the "auto business" or the "clothing business"; but Levitt argued that market definitions of a business are superior to product definitions.
The purpose of identifying the company's strategic business units is to develop separate strategies and assign appropriate funding. Senior management knows that its portfolio of businesses usually includes a number of 'yesterday's has-beens" as well as” tomorrow’s breadwinners.' Yet it cannot rely on impressions; it needs analytical tools to classify its businesses by profit potential. Two of the best-known business portfolio evaluation models are the Boston Consulting Group model and the General Electric model.
The boston consulting group approach
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a leading management consulting firm, developed and popularized the growth-share matrix shown in Figure 4.2. The eight circles represent the current sizes and positions of eight business units in a hypothetical company. The size of the circle depends on the dollar volume of each business. Thus, the two largest businesses are 5 and 6. The location of each business unit indicates its market growth rate and relative market share.
THE GROWTH-SHARE MATRIX the market growth rate on the vertical axis indicates the annual growth rate of the market in which the business operates. In Figure 4.2, it ranges from 0 percent to 20 percent. A market growth rate above 10 percent is considered high. Relative market share, which is measured on the horizontal axis, refers to the SBU's market share relative to that of its largest competitor in the segment. It serves as a measure of the company's strength in that market segment. A relative market share of 0.1 means that the company's sales volume is only 10 percent of the leader's; a relative share of 10 means that the company's SBU is the leader and has 10 times the sales of the next-strongest competitor in that market. Relative market share is divided into high and low share, using 1.0 as the dividing line. Relative market share is drawn in log scale, so that equal distances represent the same percentage increase.
SBU STRATEGIES The Company’s next task is to determine what objective, strategy, and budget to assign to each SBU. Four strategies can be pursued: build, hold, harvest, or divest. Building is appropriate for question marks whose market shares must grow if they are to become stars. The hold strategy is appropriate for strong cash cows if they are to continue yielding large positive cash flows.
     THE SBU LIFE CYCLE As time passes; SBUs change their position in the growth-share matrix. Successful SBUs have a life cycle. They start as question marks, become stars, then cash cows, and finally dogs. For this reason, companies should examine not only their businesses' current positions in the growth-share matrix (as in a snapshot) but also their moving positions (as in a motion picture). If a given SBU's expected trajectory is not satisfactory, the corporation should ask its manager to propose a new strategy and the likely resulting trajectory.
The general electric model
An Sub’s appropriate objective cannot be determined solely by its position in the growth-share matrix. If additional factors are considered, General Electric (GE) can see the growth-share matrix as a special case of a multifactor portfolio matrix such as that pioneered. This model is shown in Figure 4.3(a), where one company's seven businesses are plotted. This time the size of each circle represents the size of the relevant market rather than the size of the company's business. The dark brown shaded part of the circle represents that business's market share. Thus, the company's clutch business operates in a moderate-sized market and enjoy
Critique of portfolio models
In addition to the BCG and GE models, other portfolio models have been developed, particularly the Arthur D. Little model and the Shell directional-policy model? Portfolio models have helped managers to think more strategically, understand the economics of their businesses better, improve the quality of their plans, improve communication between business and corporate management, pinpoint information gaps and important issues, eliminate weaker businesses, and strengthen their investment in more promising businesses.
    However, portfolio models must be used cautiously. They may lead the company to place too much emphasis on market-share growth and entry into high-growth businesses or to neglect its current businesses. The results are sensitive to the ratings and weights and can be manipulated to produce a desired location in the matrix.
    Furthermore, because these models use an averaging process, two or more businesses may end up in the same cell position but differ greatly in underlying ratings and weights. Many businesses will end up in the middle of the matrix as a result of averaging the ratings, and this makes it hard to know what the appropriate strategy should be. Finally, the models fail to show the synergies between two or more businesses. Companies need to focus on customer segments that buy from several of the company's business units, rather than those that sell one product at a time. There is a danger of terminating a losing business unit that actually provides an essential core competence or market offering needed by several other business units?
Planning new businesses, downsizing older businesses
The company's plans for its existing bus 'messes allow it to project total sales and profits. Often, these are less than what corporate management wants them to be. If there is a gap between future desired sales and projected sales, corporate management would have to develop or acquire new businesses to fill it.
INTENSIVE GROWTH Corporate management's first course of action should be a review of whether any opportunities exist for improving its existing businesses' performance. Ansoff has proposed a useful framework for detecting new intensive growth opportunities called a "product-market expansion grid" (Figure 4.5)?
   The company first considers whether it could gain more market share with its current products in their current markets (market-penetration strategy). Next it considers whether it can find or develop new markets for its current products (market-development strategy).
Business unit strategic planning
The business unit strategic-planning process consists of the eight steps shown in Figure 4.6. We examine each step in the sections that follow. Business mission each business unit needs to define its specific mission within the broader company mission. Thus, a television studio-lighting-equipment company might define its mission as, "The company aims to target major television studios and become their vendor of choice for lighting technologies that represent the most advanced and reliable studio lighting arrangements." Notice that this mission does not attempt to win business from smaller television studios, win business by being lowest in price, or venture into non-lighting products.
swot analysis
The overall evaluation of a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is called SWOT analysis.
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS (OPPORTUNITY AND THREAT ANALYSIS) in general, a business unit has to monitor key macro environment forces (demographic economic, technological, political-legal, and social-cultural) and significant microenvironment actors (customers, competitors, distributors, suppliers) that affect its ability to earn profits. The business unit should set up a marketing intelligence system to track trends and important developments. For each trend or development, management needs to identify the associated opportunities and threats.
    INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS {STREN6THS/WEAKNESSES ANALYSIS} it is one thing to discern attractive opportunities and another to be able to take advantage of these opportunities. Each business needs to evaluate its internal strengths and weaknesses. It can do so by using a form like the one shown in the "Marketing Memo: Check list for Performing Strengths/Weaknesses Analysis." Clearly, the business does not have to correct its weaknesses, nor should it gloat about all its strengths. The big question is whether the business should limit itself to those opportunities where it possesses the required strengths or whether it should consider better opportunities where it might have to acquire or develop certain strengths.
   Sometimes a business does poorly not because its departments lack the required strengths, but because they do not work together as a team. In one major electronics company, the engineers look down on the salespeople as "engineers who couldn't make it," and the salespeople look down on the service people as "salespeople who couldn't make it." It is therefore critical to assess interdepartmental working relationships as part of the internal environmental audit. Honeywell does exactly this.
Goal formulation
Once the company has performed a SWOT analysis, it can proceed to develop specific goals for the planning period. This stage of the process is called goal formulation. Managers use the term goals to describe objectives that are specific with respect to magnitude and time. Most business units pursue a mix of objectives including profitability, sales growth, market-share improvement, risk containment, innovation, and reputation.
Strategic formulation
Goals indicate what a business unit wants to achieve; strategy is a game plan for getting there. Every business must design a strategy for achieving its goals, consisting of a marketing strategy, and a compatible technology strategy and sourcing strategy.
PORTER'S GENERIC STRATEGIES Michael Porter has proposed three generic strategies that provide a good starting point for strategic thinking: overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.
OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AND STRATEGY According to Porter, firms pursuing the same strategy directed to the same target market constitute a strategic group. The firm that carries out that strategy best will make the most profits. Firms that do not pursue a clear strategy and try to be good on all strategic dimensions do the worst. International Harvester went out of the farm equipment business because: it did not stand out in its industry as lowest in cost, highest in perceived value, or best in serving some market segment. Porter drew a distinction between operational effectiveness and strategy?
    STRATEGIC ALLIANCES Companies are also discovering that they need strategic partners if they hope to be effective.
MARKETING ALLIANCES many strategic alliances take the form of marketing alliances. These fall into four major categories.
 1. Product or service alliances: One company licenses another to produce its product, or two companies jointly market their complementary products or a new product. For instance, H&R Block and Hyatt Legal Services--two service businesses---have also joined together in a marketing alliance.
 2. Promotional alliances: One company agrees to carry a promotion for another company's product or service. McDonald's, for example, has often teamed up with Disney to offer products related to current Disney films to people buying its food.
 3. Logistics alliances: One company offers logistical services for another company's product.
 4. Pricing collaborations: One or more companies join in a special pricing collaboration.
Program formulation and implementation
Once the business unit has developed its principal strategies, it must work out detailed supporting programs. If the unit has decided to attain technological leadership, it must plan programs to strengthen its R&D department, gather technological intelligence, develop leading-edge products, train the technical sales force, and develop ads to communicate its technological leadership.
Feedback and control
As it implements its strategy, the firm needs' to track the results and monitor new developments. Some environments are fairly stable from year to year. Other environments evolve slowly in a fairly predictable way. Still other environments change rapidly in major and unpredictable ways. Nonetheless, the company can count on one thing: The marketplace will change; and when it does, the company will need to review and revise its implementation, programs, strategies, or even objectives. Compaq is a good example.
The marketing process
 Planning at the corporate, division, and business unit levels is an integral part of the marketing process; but to fully understand that process, we must first look at how a company defines its business.
The value-delivery sequence
Companies that subscribe to this traditional view have the best chance of succeeding in economies marked by goods shortages where consumers are not fussy about quality, features, or style. However, the traditional view of the business process will not work in more competitive economies where people face abundant choices. The "mass-market” is actually splintering into numerous micro markets, each with its own wants, perceptions, preferences, and buying criteria. Therefore, the smart competitor must design and deliver offerings for well-defined target markets.
Steps in the planning process
  To carry out their responsibilities, marketing managers--whether at the corporate, division, business, or product level--follow a marketing process. Working within the plans set by the levels above them, product managers come up with a marketing plan for individual products, lines, brands, channels, or customer groups.
    The marketing process consists of analyzing marketing opportunities; researching and selecting target markets; designing marketing strategies; planning marketing pro grams; and organizing, implementing, and controlling the marketing effort.
    NALYZING MARKET OPPORTUNITIES The first task facing Atlas is to identify its potential long-run opportunities given its market experience and core competencies.  Atlas can develop its film cameras with better features. It can also consider designing a line of digital cameras or video cameras, or it can use its core competency in optics to design a line of binoculars and telescopes.
DEVELOPING MARKETING STRATEGIES Suppose Atlas decides to focus on the consumer market and develop a positioning strategy (see Chapter 11). Should Atlas position its cameras as the "Cadillac" brand, offering a superior camera at a premium price with excellent service and strong advertising? Should it build a simple, low-price camera aimed at more price-conscious consumers? Should it develop a medium-quality, medium-price camera? Once Atlas decides on its product positioning, it must initiate new-product development, testing, and launching (see Chapter 12).
   PLANNING MARKETING PROGRAMS To transform marketing strategy into marketing programs, marketing managers must make basic decisions on marketing expend bares, marketing mix, and marketing allocation. First, Atlas must decide what level of marketing expenditures will achieve its objectives. Companies typically establish their marketing budgets as a percentage of the sales goal. A particular company may spend more than normal in the hope of achieving a higher market share. Second, the company has to decide how to divide the total marketing budget among the various tools in the marketing mix: product, price, place, and promotion?
   MANAGING THE MARKETING EFFORT The final step in the marketing process is organizing the marketing resources and then implementing and controlling the marketing plan. The company must build a marketing organization that is capable of implementing the marketing plan (see Chapter 22). In a small company, one person might carry out all the marketing tasks. Divisions of large companies such as Atlas will have several marketing specialists: salespeople, sales managers, marketing researchers, advertising personnel, product and brand managers, market-segment managers, and customer service personnel.
Product planning: the nature and contents of a marketing plan
Each product level (product line, brand) must develop a marketing plan for achieving its goals. The marketing plan is one of the most important outputs of the marketing process.
   Marketing plans are becoming more customer- and competitor-oriented and better reasoned and more realistic than in the past. The plans draw more inputs from all the functions and are team-developed. Marketing executives increasingly see themselves as professional managers first, and specialists second. Planning is becoming a continuous process to respond to rapidly changing market conditions. The trends we have discussed so far are in full force in the world of marketing!
   At the same time, marketing planning procedures and content vary considerably among companies. The plan is variously called a "business plan," a "marketing plan," and sometimes a "battle plan." Most marketing plans cover one year. The plans vary in length from under 5 to over 50 pages. Some companies take their plans very seriously, whereas others see them only as a rough guide to action. Eisenhower once observed: "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable." The most frequently cited shortcomings of current marketing plans, according to marketing executives, are lack of realism, insufficient competitive analysis, and a short-run focus. What, then, does a marketing plan look like? What does it contain?
Sample marketing plan: sonic personal digital assistant
 Sonic, a hypothetical start-up company, is getting ready to introduce a new multifunction personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld computer: Sonic's new product is entering a marketplace crowded with offerings from Palm, Handspring, and other PDA makers. The following is excerpted from the marketing plan that Jane Melody, Sonic's chief marketing officer, has prepared for the coming year.
CURRENT MARKETING SITUATION The $3.7 billion PDA market is dominated by Palm, which sold 13 million units in its first five years. Industry wide sales are expected to accelerate for at least the next five years, with multifunction devices attracting an ever-increasing market share. Analysts predict 4 million units in total PDA sales for this year and 5 million for the next year.
OPPORTUNITY AND ISSUE ANALYSIS Sonic licenses Palm's operating system rather than using Microsoff's Windows CE operating system. This allows its PDA to work with thousands of Palm-compatible applications and peripherals such as cameras, phones, and global positioning systems---greatly expanding the appeal of its PDA for both consumers and business buyers. Yet increased competition from hybrids such as the cell phone-PDA combinations offered by Mitsubishi, Knocker, and Samsung could slow acceptance of Sonic's model, which can use the optional Palm-compatible cell-phone attachment. Increased competition will complicate Sonic's ability to differentiate the Sonic PDA from competing models. Another threat is the ongoing downward pressure on pricing caused by the proliferation of PDA and hybrid products.
   Among the issues Sonic must address are: (1) Should it develop a proprietary operating system, switch to the Windows CE system, or continue to pay licensing fees for the Palm system? (2) Should Sonic offer customized applications for business users? (3) Should it create a game-playing peripheral to make the Sonic PDA compatible with
MARKETING STRATE6Y on the consumer side, the target market is middle_ to upper. Income professionals who need one portable device to coordinate their busy schedules and communicate with family and colleagues. These consumers prefer lower-priced PDAs with expandable memory and functionality. On the business side, the target market is a mid-to large-sized corporation that wants to help their workforce stay in touch and input or access critical data on the go. These buyers want durable, powerful, easy-to-use PDAs that can operate customized business applications.
  A company cannot serve all customers in a brood market such as computers numerous and diverse in their buying requirements. A company needs to identify the market segments it can serve effectively. Here we will examine levels of segmentation, patterns of segmentation, market-segmentation procedures, and bases for segmenting consumer and business markets, and requirements for effective segmentation. Many companies are embracing target marketing. Here sellers distinguish the major market segments, target one or more of these segments, and develop products and marketing programs tailored to each. Instead of scattering their marketing effort (a "shotgun" approach), they focus on the buyers they have the greatest chance of satisfying (a "rifle" approach).
Target marketing requires marketers to take three major steps:
1 identify an profile distinct groups of buyers who differ in their needs and preferences (market segmentation)
2 select one or more market segments to enter (market targeting)
3 for each target segment establish and communicate the key distinctive benefit of the company’s market offering (market positioning).
This chapter will focus on the first two steps. In the next chapter, we discuss market positioning.
Levels and patterns of market segmentation
Level of market segmentation
The starting point for discussing segmentation is mass marketing in mass marketing, the seller engages in the mass production, mass distribution, and mass promotion of one product for all buyers. Henry Ford epitomized this marketing strategy when he offered the Model-T Ford "art any color, as long as it is black." Coca-Cola also practiced mass marketing when it sold orgy one kind of Coke in a 6.5-ounce bottle.
   The proliferation of advertising media and distribution channels is making it difficult and increasingly expensive to reach a mass audience. Some claim that mass marketing is dying. Not surprisingly, many companies are turning to micromarketing at one of four levels: segments, niches, local areas, and individuals.
SEGMENT MARKETING a market segment consists of a group of customers who share a similar set of wants. Thus we would distinguish between car buyers who are primarily seeking tow-cost basic transportation and those seeking a luxurious driving experience. We must be careful not to confuse a segment and a sector. A car company might say that it will target young, middle-income car buyers The problem is that young, middle-income car buyers will differ about what they want in a car Some will want a low-cost car and others will want an expensive can Young, middle income car buyers is a sector, not a segment.
    However, even a segment is partly a friction, in that not everyone wants exactly the same thing. Anderson and Narus have urged marketers to present flexible market offerings instead of a standard offering to all members of a segment. A flexible market offering consists of two parts: a naked Solution contouring the product and service elements that all segment member’s value and discretionary that some segment member’s value. Each option might carry an additional charge. For example, Della Airlines offers all economy passengers a seat, food, and soft &inks. It charges economy passengers extra for alcoholic beverages mid earphones. Siemens sees metal-cist boxes whose price includes free delivery and a warranty, but also offers installation, tests, and communication peripherals as extra-cost potholes.
NICHE MARKETING A niche is a more narrowly defined group seeking a distinctive mix of benefits. Marketers usually identify clichés by dividing a segment into subset meets. For example, tile segment of heavy smokers includes two niches: those who are trying to stop smelting and those who do not care.
     An attractive itched is characterized as follows: The customers in the niche have a distinct set of needs; they will pay a plenum to the firm that best satisfies filer needs; the niche is not likely to attract other competitors; the Etcher gains certain economies through specialization; the niche has size, puffin and growth potential.
     Whereas segments are fairly large and normally attract several competitors, niches are fairly small and normally attract only one or two. Larger companies, such as IBM, lose pieces of their market to Etchers: Dialogic and Lieu labeled this confrontation “guerrillas against coffles? Even some large companies have turned to niche marked son & Johnson, for example, consists of 170 affiliates (business units), mix), of which dominate niche markets. Here are some examples of large companies that have moved into niche marketing.
LOCAL MARKETING Target marketing is leading to marketing programs tailored to the needs and wants of local customer groups (trading areas, neighborhoods, even individual stores), Citibank provides different mixes of banking services in its branches, depending on neighborhood demographics. Kraft helps super market chains identify the cheese assortment and shelf positioning that will optimize cheese sales in low-, middle-, and high-income stores, and in different ethnic neighborhoods.
    Those favoring localizing a company's marketing see national advertising as waste full because it fails to address local needs. Those against local marketing argue that it drives up manufacturing and marketing costs by reducing economies of scale. Logistical problems become magnified when companies try to meet local requirements. A brand's overall image night be diluted if the product and message defter in different localities.
INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMER MARKETING the ultimate level of segmentation leads to “segments of one," "customized marketing," or "one-to-one marketing-'m Ultimately, every individual has a unique set of wants and preferences, In past centuries, producers customized their offerings to each customer: The tailor fitted a suit and a cobbler made shoes for each individual. The Industrial Revolution ushered in an era of mass-production: Now companies made standard goods in advance of orders and left it to individuals to fit into whatever was available. Producers moved from built-to-order marketing to build to-stock marketing. Today the information Revolution is enabling a growing number of companies to mass-customize their offerings. Mass-customization is the ability of a company to prepare on a mass basis individually designed products, services, programs, and communications, to meet each customer's requirements.
Patterns of market segmentation
Here we will consider segment-centered marketing. Market segments can be built up in many ways. One way is to identify preference segments. Suppose ice cream buyers are they value sweetness and creaminess as two product attributes. Three different patterns can emerge.1、homogeneous preferences 2、diffused preferences 3、clustered preferences.
 Market-segmentation procedure
Market segmentation must be done periodically because segments change. At one Time the personal computer industry segmented its products purely on speed and power. Later, PC marketers recorded an emerging "Soho" market, named for "small Office and home office." Mail-order compares such as Dell and Gateway appealed to this market’s requirement for high performance coupled with low price and user Friendliness. Shortly thereafter, PC makers began to see Soho as comprised of smaller Segments.
Effective segmentation
   To be useful, market segments must be:
1 Measurable: The size, purchasing power, and characteristics of the segments can be measured.
2 Substantial: The segments are large and profitable enough to serve A segment should be the largest possible homogeneous group worth going after with a tailored marketing    program. It would not pay, for example, iron an automobile manufacturer to develop cars for people who are under four feet tall.
3 assessable: The segments can be effectively reached and served.
4 Differentiable: The segments are conceptually distinguishable and respond differently to different marketing mix elements and programs.
5 Actionable: Effective programs can be formulated for attracting and serving the segments.
Segmenting consumer and business markets
 Bases for segmenting consumer markets
 Two broad groups of variables are used to segment consumer markets. Some researchers try to form segments by looking at consumer characteristics: geographic, demographic, and psychographic, Thon they examine whether these customer segments exhibit different needs or product responses. For example, they might the differing attitudes of "professionals," "blue collars," and other groups toward, say, "safety" as a car benefit.
     Other researchers try to form segments by looking at consumer responses to been fits, use occasions, or brands. Once the segments are formed, the researcher sees whether different characteristics are associated with each consumer-response segment.
GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION Geographic segmentation calls for dividing the market into different geographical units such as nations, states, regions, counties, cities, or neighborhoods The company can operate in one or a few geographic areas, or operate in all but pay attention to local variations. For example, Hilton Hotels customizes room and lobbies according to the inaction of its hotels, Northeaster hotels are sleeker and more cosmopolitan. Southwestern hotels are more rustic. Take, for example, Campbell Soup, an experienced regional marketer since 1994, the company has marketed its Pace Planet sauce regionally. People m the Southwest do not need to be told that "plicate" is a cooking ingredient, whereas northerners confuse it with salsa. The packaging, communication, and marketing effort are more educational in the North, More and more regional marketing means marketing right down to a specific zip code?
DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION In demographic segmentation, the market is divided into groups on the basis of variables such as age, family size, family life cycle, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, race, generation, nationality, and social class Demographic variables are the most popular bases for distinguishing customer groups. One reason is that consumer wants, preferences, and usage rates am often associated with demographic variables. Another is that demographic variables are easier to measure. Even when the target market is described in non demographic terms (say, a personality type), the 1ink back to demographic characteristic is needed in order to estimate the size of the market and the media that should be used to react it efficiently.
PSYCHOORAPHIO SEGMENTATION In psychographic segmentation, buyers is divided into different groups on the basis of lifestyle or personality or values. People within the same demographic group can exhibit very different psychographic profiles.
BEHAVIORAL SEGMENTATION In behavioral segmentation, buyers is divided to groups on the basis of their knowledge, of attitude toward, use of, or response to a product. Many marketers believe that behavioral variables occasions, benefits, user status, usage rate, loyalty status, buyer readiness stage, and attitude are the best starting points for constructing market segments.
MULTIATTRIBUTE SEGMENTATION (GEOCLUSTERING) Marketers no longer talk about the average or even limit their analysis to only a few market segments. Rather, they are increasingly combing several variables in an effort to identify smaller, better defined target groups. Thus a bank may not only identify a group of wealthy retired adults, but within that group distinguish several segments depending on current income, assets, savings, and risk preferences.
TARGETING MULTIPLE SEGMENT Very often, companies start marke0ng to one segment, then expand to others.
Many consumers are cross-shoppers and cannot be neatly pigeonholed into one segment, consider the person who buys an expensive Bill Blass suit but shops at Wal-Mart for underwear; or the one who eats a Healthy Choice frozen dimmer followed by Ben &Jerry's ice cream for dessert. It is dangerous to interpret segment membership by observing only one purchase. Segmentation ignores the whole customer profile, which becomes clear only with individual profiling.
Bases for segmenting business markets
Business markets can be segmented with some of the same variables used in consumer market segmentation, such as geography, benefits sought, and usage rate, but business marketers also use other variables. Bonoma and Shapiro proposed segmenting the business market with the variables shown in Table 10.3. The demographic variables are the most important, followed by the operating variables--down to the personal characters-tics of the buyer.
Market targeting
Evaluating and selecting the market segments
In evaluating different market segments, the firm must look at two factors: the segment's overall attractiveness and the company's objectives and resources. Does a potential segment have characteristics that make it generally attractive, such as size, growth, profitability, scale economies, and low risk? Does investing in the segment make sense given the firm's objectives, competences, and resources? Some attractive segments may not mesh with the company's long-run objectives, or the company may lack one or more necessary competencies to offer superior value.
SINGLE-SEGMENT CONCENTRATION Volkswagen concentrates on the small-car market and Porsche on the sports car market. Through concentrated marketing, the firm gains a strong knowledge of the segment's needs and achieves a strong market presence, Furthermore, the firm enjoys operating economies through specializing its production, distribution, and promotion. If ft captures segment leadership, the firm can earn a high return on its investment.
    However, concentrated marketing involves risks A particular market segment can turn sour. When young women suddenly stopped buying sportswear, Bobble Brooks's earnings fell sharply; or a competitor may invade the segment. For these reasons, many companies prefer to operate in more than one segment.
SELECTIVE SPECIALIZATION The firm selects a number of segments, each objectively attractive and appropriate. There may be little or no synergy among the segments, but each promises to be a moneymaker. This multi-segment strategy has the advantage of diversifying the firm's risk.
PRODUCT SPECIALIZATION The firm makes a certain product that it sells to several segments. An example would be a microscope manufacturer who sells to university, government, and commercial laboratories; the firm makes different microscopes for the different customer groups and builds a strong reputation in the specific product area. The downside risk is that the product may be supplanted by an entirely new technology.
MARKET SPECIALIZATION The firm concentrates on serving many needs of particular customer group. An example would be a firm that sells an assortment of products only to university laboratories. The firm gains a strong reputation fix serving this customer group and becomes a channel for additional products the customer group can use, the downside risk is that the customer group may suffer budget cuts.
FULL MARKET COVERAGE The firm attempts to see all customer groups with all the products they might need. Only very large firms such as IBM (computer market), General Motors (vehicle market), and Coca-Cola (drink market) can undertake a full market coverage strategy. Large firms can cover a whole market in two broad ways: through undifferentiated marketing or differentiated marketing.
Additional considerations
  Four other considerations must be taken into account in evaluating and selecting segments: ethical choice of market targets, segment interrelationships and super segments, segment-by-segment invasion plans, and inter-segment cooperation.