MARKETING PROCESSES 4
4a)Needs and Benefits
Needs-based or benefit-based segmentation is a widely used approach because it identifies distinct market segments with clear marketing implications.
Market targeting
Once the firm has identified its market-segment opportunities, it must decide how many and which ones to target. Marketers are increasingly combining several variables to identify smaller, better-defined target groups. This has led some market researchers to advocate a needs-based market segmentation approach.
4b)Decision Roles
People play five roles in a buying decision: Initiator, Influencer, Decider, Buyer, and User. Different people are playing different roles, but all are crucial in the decision process and ultimate consumer satisfaction.
3)Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographics is the science of using psychology and demographics to better understand consumers. In psychographic segmentation, buyers are divided into different groups based on lifestyle or personality or values. One of the most popular commercially available classification systems is SRI Consulting Business Intelligence's VALS framework
4)Behavioural Segmentation
buyers are divided into groups based on their knowledge, attitude, toward, use of, or response to a product.
Bases for segmenting business markets
demographic variables are the most important (e.g. industry, company size), followed by operating variables (e.g. technology, user or non-user status), purchasing approaches (e.g. purchasing-function organisation, power structure), situational factors (e.g. urgency, specific application), and down to the personal characteristics of the buyers (e.g. buyer-seller similarity, attitudes toward risk). James C. Anderson and James A. Narus have urged marketers to present flexible market offerings to all members of a segment. A flexible market offering consists of two parts: a naked solution containing the product and service elements that all service members value, and discretionary options that some segment members value.
Bases for Segmenting Consumer Markets
A market segment consists of a group of customers who share a similar set of needs and wants. Some researchers looking at descriptive characteristics: Geographic, demographics, and psycho-graphic. Other researchers try to form segments by looking at behavioural considerations: such as consumer responses to benefits, use occasions, or brands.
Psychographic Segmentation: The major tendencies of the four groups with lower resources are:
Believers - Conservative, conventional, and traditional people with concrete beliefs. Favour familiar and established products and are loyal to established brands. Strivers - Trendy and fun-loving people who seek approval of others but are resource-constrained. Favour stylish products that emulate the purchases of those with greater material wealth. Makers - Practical, self-sufficient, traditional, and family-oriented people who focus on their work and home context. Favour basic products with a practical or functional purpose. Strugglers - Elderly, resigned, and passive people who are concerned about change. Loyal to their favourite brands.
2a)Age and Life-Cycle Stage
Consumer wants, and abilities change with age.
2e)Generation
Each generation or cohort队列 is profoundly influenced by the times in which it grows up - the music, movies, politics, etc. They share similar outlooks and values. Marketers often advertise to a cohort group by using icons and images prominent突出 in their experiences.
1)Geographic Segmentation
Geographic segmentation calls for dividing the market into different geographical units such as nations, states, regions, counties, cities or neighbourhoods. In a growing trend called grassroots marketing基层营销, such as activities concentrate on getting as close and personally relevant to individual customers as possible.活动的重点是尽可能地与个人客户保持亲密关系 Some approaches combine geographic data with demographic data to yield even richer descriptions of consumers and neighbourhoods, called geo-clustering.
2)Demographic Segmentation
In demographic segmentation, the market is divided into groups based on variables such as age, family size, family life cycle, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, race, generation, nationality, and social class. Two reasons for the popularity of demographic variables to distinguish customer groups, first, consumer needs, wants, usage rates and product and brand preferences are often associated with demographic variables. Second, demographic variables are easier to measure.
2d)Income
Income segmentation is a long-standing practice in product and service categories. However, income does not always predict the best customers for a given product. Increasingly, companies are finding that their markets are "hourglass-shaped" as some Asian middle-market migrates toward more premium products.
Psychographic Segmentation: The major tendencies of the four groups with high resources are:
Innovators - Successful, sophisticated, active, and "take-charge" people with high self esteem. Purchases often reflect cultivated tastes for relatively upscale, niche-oriented products and services. Thinkers - Mature, satisfied, and reflective people who are motivated by ideal and value order, knowledge, and responsibility. Favour durability, functionality, and value in products. Achievers - Successful career- and work-oriented people who value consensus and stability. Favour established and prestige products that demonstrate success to their peers. Experiencers - Young, enthusiastic, and impulsive people who seek variety and excitement. Spend a comparatively high proportion of income on fashion, entertainment, and socialising.
2b)Life Stage
Life stage defines a person's major concern, such as going through a divorce, going into a second marriage. These life stages present opportunities for marketers who can help people cope with their major concerns.
4c)User and Usage - Real User and Usage-Related Variables
Many marketers believe that behavioural variables are the best starting points for constructing market segments. Occasions. User Status. Markets can be segmented into non-users, ex-users, potential users, first-time users, and regular users of a product. Included the potential user group are consumers who will become users in connection with some life stage or life event. Usage Rates. Markets can be segmented into light, medium, and heavy product users. Heavy users often account for a small percentage of the market but a high percentage of total consumption. Buyer-Readiness Stage. A market consists of people in different stages of readiness to buy a product. Some are unaware of the product, some are aware, some are informed, some are interested, some desire, some intend to buy. Loyalty Status. Buyers can be divided into four groups according to brand loyalty status: Hard-core loyal (consumers who buy only one brand all the time), Split loyal (consumers who are loyal to two or three brands), Shifting loyal (consumers who shift loyalty from one brand to another), Switchers (consumers who show no loyalty to any brand). A company can learn a great deal by analysing the degrees of brand loyalty: (1) By studying its hard-core loyal, the company can identify its products' strengths; (2) By studying its split loyal, the company can pinpoint which brands are most competitive with its own; (3) By looking at customers who are shifting away from its brand, the company can learn about its marketing weaknesses and attempt to correct them. Attitude. Five attitude groups can be found in a market: Enthusiastic, Positive, Indifferent, Negative, Hostile. Combining different behavioural bases can help to provide a more comprehensive and cohesive view of a market and its segments. Multiple bases. Combining different behavioural bases can help to provide a more comprehensive and cohesive view of a market and its segments. Figure depicts one possible way to break down a target market by various behavioural segmentation bases.
2c)Gender
Men and women tend to have different attitudinal and behavioural orientations, based partly on genetic部分关于遗传 makeup and partly on socialization.