TABLE OF CONTENTS Market segmentation and targeting can be defined as:
The process of breaking down the total market for a product or service into distinct sub-groups or segments, where each segment may conceivably represent a distinct target market to be targeted with a distinctive marketing mix.
To improve opportunities for success in a competitive market environment, marketers must focus their effort on clearly defined market targets. The intention is to select those groups of customers that the company is best able to serve in such a way that it does this in a superior manner to competitors. The sequential steps in this process are segmentation, targeting and positioning. We now examine each of these steps.
There are increasingly more segmentation bases available, which means that targeting and positioning strategies are becoming more meaningful.
The essence of the marketing concept is to place customer needs at the centre of the organisation's decision making. In addition, the need to adopt this approach is a result of increased competition, more informed and educated consumers and changing patterns of demand. It is this latter point that has given rise to the need to segment markets.
People do not purchase exactly the same kinds of products as each other. They may have different tastes in clothes or in the type of holidays they take. Perhaps they purchase different brands of toothpaste or breakfast cereals. This obvious example shows that market segmentation and the subsequent strategies of targeting and positioning start...
