SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING

As always we will start off with the a definition, marketing segmentation is a marketing technique that targets a group of customers with specific characteristics. (InvestorWords.com, 2010)

First of all  business normally do a profiler information, this is where the business identifies the type og consumers they will be targeting.This information will include Gender age, social class, income, family life cycle, employment status, marital status etc.  This then becomes the basis of you segmentations.

There are four different ways of segmenting a market and they are:

Geographic segmentation – this is where the markets are divided into groups by their geographic area e.g. states, countries, towns etc. Marketers use this because depending on the area characteristic change. For example north London can have certain characteristics but the East London may have a whole different set of characteristics. If a business is a global one then they may want to go into different countries but people are different in each country e.g. different culture and values.

Demographic segmentation-   this involves in knowing more about the consumers and the customers household in a measurable criteria such as age, gender, race, income, occupation socioeconomic status and family structure, religion etc.

Psychographics Segmentation- this is when it’s divided into groups depending on the consumer’s attitudes, belief, opinions, social class and personality characteristics.

Behavioural segmentation- this divided the marketing groups based on the consumer’s knowledge, attitude, uses and response to the product.

Targeting

Targeting: process of measuring the attractiveness of each segment & selecting the best option.

Two types of targeting include the differentiated marketing which is used when there is a multiple of marketing mixes.  For example Cadburys have many types of products which mean different segments as you can’t aim all products at the same people as they won’t all need or want the product. The second type of targeting is Undifferentiated targeting this is when the there is only one marketing mix used to target everybody for example the post office will have one mix aim at everyone as they are offering the same service to everybody .

Factors in assessing segment attractiveness are Segment Size, Segment Growth, Segment Profitability, Current & Potential Competitors and Core Capabilities

Positioning

Is where would you want to position yourself in to that will enable an advantage compared to competitors for example Volvo is well known for their safety, BMW for their performance etc.

When thinking about the targeting you also have to consider the four ps and they are product, price, place, and promotion.

* PERCEPTION *

So what is perception?

“is how we see the world around us” (Schiffman & Kanuk 2003)

Perception is our sensory experience of the world around us and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli. (Kendra Cherry, 2010)

Perception is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world. (sapdesignguild, 1977)

well thats our three definitions, now we need to look into it in more detail.

Perception has three components and they are:

Sensation -àAttention -àInterpretation

Sensation is the basically your five senses and these are the element that marketers use when advertising . The five sense are :

Vision

This is arguably the most affective sense that marketers use in advertising i.e. the packaging which plays essential part in grabbing the consumer attention.  These a saying that goes a picture can say a thousand words which is this sense are used very often.  Colours have meanings that consumers associate them with. The link below is a list of colours and what we associate with them.

http://www.digitalskratch.com/color-psychology.php

Sound

This is another sense that the marketers use. In my opinion it is very a powerful as music can make you feel a certain way. Music can make you feel happy, sad, want to dance etc. Personally when am feeling down I noticed I like listening to more sad or depressing songs doesn’t help at all but I only listing to it because its goes with the how am feeling.  This what marketers try to do they choose songs that go with what they want you to feel.  For example the Nolan’s Cheddar cheeses uses a happy song at the start with am “ am on the top of the world” but then goes into a sad song when the mouse get trapped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8lrVjT6fM

Touch 

Yes even touch can be emphasised on adverts. This is another sense marketers use, surprisingly this is used quit a lot in perfume adverts. This is also used in chocolates adds to convey the smoothness for example. This is also used in tissue adverts by portraying how soft it is a prime example is the Andrex tissue.

Taste

Taste is another sense that is used in marketing. This is very important in the food industry as it is vital that they get across how nice their products are and most of all how they are nicer than their competitors. This is used in chocolates and biscuits for example to portray how creamy or crunchy they are.

 Smell

Yes this can also be shown through adverts; this can stir emotions or create feelings. For example it can make you feel relaxed. This is commonly used in adverts of air fresheners e.g. emphasising the freshness or the lavender smell etc.

ATTENTION

The next thing you have to do is GRAB THE CONSUMERS ATTENTION .

Attention is the degree to which consumers focus on stimuli within their range of exposure. (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, & Hogg, 2010)

Grabbing the attention of the consumer is very important, so how do we do this, well you can just stick a nasty picture up or just use sex to sell am not joking many businesses to that. These are not the only ways of course but just two I’ve picked out that do have huge affect on getting the consumers attention. other methods include having huge adverts that u cant miss, so size does matter, can be something funny etc .

Ok  here are some attention seeking adverts for you :

 Beautiful naked woman taking a bath in Budweiser capsules. STUPID ?  well it got my attention didn't it, to be using  it in this blog,and am sure your still looking :p

Ok stop staring now :p but really was there any need to put a girl that couldn't be wearing a shorter skirt than that ?? well yes,?  why ? TO GRAB YOUR ATTENTION OF COURSE. hey it worked didn't it ?...

 This was meant to be a advert for a PEN !! there are other versions of this advert with different modals and guess what none of these modals are wearing any CLOTHS, these are actual marking of the pen !

Bloody but Great ! grabs your attention straight away, wondering what this advert is about,  you don't realise until you read the writing " Don't talk while she drives " 

well these no blood in this one just replaced with cockroaches !!

Back to being bloody again, but this is very effective aint it? , I personally think it gets its message across very well :D

TO CHECK OUT MORE OF THESE EXTREME ADVERTISEMENTS CLICK THE LINK BELOW :

http://www.onextrapixel.com/2010/02/25/80-extreme-advertisements-that-will-challenge-your-mind/

"Turns birdie into mans best friend" haha .. aint that clever ?

Interperation

  

Process of assigning the meaning on a basis of stimulus:

1.       Schema, the meaning we assign to stimulus on the base of knowledge, personality, thought background and feelings .

2.       Priming properties of stimulus that suggests a schema that leads us to compare to other similar ones we encountered in the past.

(slideshare, 2008)

Basically thing such as what our background are cane effect the way we interpret   things e.g.  if you’re from a different country you will have different cultural values, the level of education you get will also influence you interpretations, you personality will affect how you interpret things e.g. your dislikes and likes, how your feeling at the time will affect how you interpret things e.g.  You might be in a bad mood and you just didn’t see the funny side of things etc.

       

Time for some psychology, yes in a marketing blog , you see where it fits in...

Gestalt Psychology (psychology of form)

·         Figure & ground – basically here the Gestalt says that the whole thing is the most important which catches the attention not the individual bits.   

·         Grouping - we tend to group things together or patterns, objects that have similar characteristics . For example all shampoo bottle are similar shapes.

•      Closure -Gestalt basically says that we tend to see an incomplete picture but then we automatically fill in the gaps for example you can see bit and bobs of a picture but you automatically fill in the gaps which completes it.

Even though the panda is not complete, these enough of the picture for you to fill in the gaps and complete the picture.

Stimulus Ambiguity

This is when we cannot immediately recognise the shape or form. In order to interpret we need to find some text to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHFKE6PD_6U&feature=related

THEY SAY IT TAKES 7 SECONDS TO MAKE AN IMPRESSION !

University is quite a big step and like most people i was nervous . It’s very different from school in fact it makes you laugh, school seems like first school compared to uni. You dont have teachers nagging at you all the time, here you are responsible for yourself so i feel it  is very important to be self motivated and to have good time management.  My friends were all telling me “first year is nothing  you can not attend  lesson and still do well” , THEY WERE WRONG !!,  I have already received coursework to do and you ONLY GET ONE SHOT AT IT!! So you better put everything into it these NO TIME FOR SLACKING !

As for for the Bucks uni, From my first impression I think it’s really good, the big deal is the best deal any uni does. The people here are all nice and friendly. The teachers are very down to earth who you you can have a chat with, which is nice to have, its much more informal  you don't have to call them miss.  They are all very knowledgeable and  excellent teachers .

The Bucks uni is located a minute away from the Town centre which makes it really easy to get around, you have the Edan centre which has nearly every kind of shop u can think off, the buss station and the railway station is very near too.

Am studying Marketing , the unit i find the most interesting out the three we are doing is the Customer Behaviour unit, I’m intrigued by the psychological  aspect of marketing. Its is fairly easy as well because most of it is logic and common sense not all but most. Next lesson is about PERCEPTION, which i am looking forward to as i find it fascinating how people can interpret the same thing in a different way . 

That's all from me, hope this blog has been useful as well as enjoyable to read.

BELOW ARE SOME PERCEPTION PICS . ENJOY :D 

WHAT DO YOU SEE ??

 

" You either see two faces or a varse "

" You either see a old lady or a young lady"