MARKETING – MCU 1203 Assignment No : 301

Q
. Explain the concepts of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning with examples. Identify
the inter relationship among the said marketing concepts.

Marketing means satisfying the human needs and wants. So form that the marketer need to identify
the needs and wants of the consumers. And also market means that it ‘consist of potential
customers sharing a particular need or want who might be willing and able to engage in exchange, to
satisfy the need or want.’(Philip Cotler 1991)

The marketer need to identify that the person is buying for a purpose of the end using and or for the
resale purpose. Because all the customers do not purchase for the same purpose.

Therefore there are differernt needs and wants for different market. For an example, think that you
and your husband is going for shopping and the generic product there is clothes. The want for that
may differ from u to the husband. Like, wife may buy a saree and the husband may buy a sarong
(consumer market). And the wife is doing a small business too. Therefore she bought 100 night
dresses for the purpose of resale. In this example, they bought for the consumption purpose and for
the resale purpose(industrial market). Therefore marketer need to think that to which market do
they need to sell.

Market

Consumer Industrial
market market

The end objective of a marketer is to sell the product to the customers and retain in the hearts of
the customers in order to continue the relationship between the customer and the marketer and as
to continue the business while satisfying the needs and the wants of the customers.

The major challenge of a marketer is that the satisfying the consumer needs while achieving the
organizational objectives.

For that the decision of whom to sell need to be determined through a proper process. That process
can be listed as follows.

Segmentation Targeting Positioning

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 MARKETING – MCU 1203 Assignment No : 301

Now let’s see the meanings of these key terms of which gives the answer for “whom to sell ? ”.

SEGMENTATION.

Segmentation means selecting cluster of buyers from the heterogenious market who are having
homogenious needs and wants in order to satisfied with the available resources.

So in order to group the consumers in the market there are bases for segmentation. The bases for
the segmentation are,

 Geographic segmentation – the consumers are scattered everywhere and the organization
decides to which group should be served.
The cold areas such as Nuwara Eliya wears jersy everyday.
The people in Jaffna is dry area, therefore they do not wear jersy for their day today
wearings. Threfore the jersy marketer should be targeted on Nuwaraeliya in Sri lanka.
 Demographic segmentation – select a group of consumers from the population. Assume that
a toy seller is selling BEN 10 toy, for that marketer should market their product to the age
gap between 2-5 and if it’s expensive, the can income range of the parents, the male kids is
the targeted market.
 Psychographic segmentation – the behaviour of the consumers. For an example the
personality , the social class affect on the purchasing pattern of the consumer. A high class
consumer may go for a products like, TITAN, Emerald, Hugo Boss etc.
 Behavioural segmentation – the behavioural pattern of the consumer such as, for an special
occasion, like christmas season, people go for EXCEL world, and many organization offer
many offers for their customers.

The variables used to divide the consumer market are as follows.

Variable Breakdown
Geographic
 Region 1. Western,southern,nothern
 District 2. Colombo,matara,jaffna
 Density 3. Rural, urban
 Country 4. Sri Lanka, India
Demographic
 Age 1. Under 5, 13-19, above 60
 Gender 2. Male, female
 Family size 3. 2,3-4, 5 +
 Income 4. Above 30,000, 30000-50000
 Education 5. o/l, a/l, higher studies
 Religion 6. buddhist, muslim, tamil
Psychographic
 social class 1. lower, middle, upper
 lifestyle 2. straight, swinger, longhairs
 personality 3. compulsive, authoritarian
Behavioural
 occasion 1. regular, special
 benefits 2. speed, quality, service
 attitude towards 3. positive, indifferent, negative

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 MARKETING – MCU 1203 Assignment No : 301

Industrial Market Segmentation.

Variable
Demographic
 industry
 company size
 location
Operating variables
 technology
 user / non user state
 customer capabilities
Purchasing variables
 power structure of the organization
 general purchasing policies

TARGETING

Through segmentation, identify the group of people having similar bahaviour and through targeting
identify one or more group of customers whom can be selled the product. After selecting the
specific group from target market the, the marketer should develop the best marketing mix to
approach the specific group.

According to Derk E. Abell have identified five targeting options as follows.

1. Single segment concentration
2. Selecgive specialization
3. Market specialization
4. Product specialization
5. Full coverage

I. Single segment concentration

 Here, the producer develop single product for one group of customers
M1 M2 M3
P1

P2

P3

EX: The people’s bank offer RAN KEKULU account for the age group of 0-5 years.

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II. Selecgive specialization

 Select number of products for different group of customers.
M1 M2 M3
P1

P2

P3

Ex: Munchee produce choclate buiscuits for children market mostly. And munchee brand cracker for
diabetic people.

III. Market specialization

 Select one group of customers and sell number of products.
M1 M2 M3
P1

P2

P3

Ex: Nature Secrets produce face wash, face pack , face cleanser for woman.

IV. Product specialization

 Produce one product for the all the markets.
M1 M2 M3
P1

P2

P3

Ex: Lever brothers produce soap for many markets. Lifebouy for men, sunlight for washing purpose,
johnson baby for infants and children.
V. Full coverage
 In full market specialization, marketers target the whole market with its all product.

M1 M2 M3
P1

P2

P3

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 MARKETING – MCU 1203 Assignment No : 301

Ex : Elephant House sells its snacks to whole market.such as, cream soda, necto, orange etc.
POSITIONING
Afterwards the product should be carefully placed on the minds of the consumers. According to the
philip cotler,it is act of designing the company’s offer so that it occupies a distinct and valued place
in the target consumer’s minds.
For that, the consumer should be able to distinguish the company’s offer from the competitor’s
offer. Therefore the marketer should focus on features,benefits,occasions,user category, etc.
For examples,
 People in suburbs think that the only product for washing clothes is Sunlight, the only
toothpaste is Signal. Such that the positionig is strength.
 Benz cars are produced for high class people
 Margerine id for low income earners
 Hutch sim for couples & for cheap prices.

The positioning can be illustrated as follows.

PRICE
PRODUCT
- low price
- basic

POSITIONING
- sunlight Basic
Basic
PROMOTION PLACE
-powerful
Powerful - available in every shop

Basic
The relationship among Segmentation, Targeting and Positionig.
The concept of segmentation means that the identification of the group of people having similar
behaviour and the targeting means the identification of one or more group from the segmented
market. And positioning involves with the placing of the product in the minds of the consumers
whom that were segmented and targeted.
As an example, when segmenting the market for shampoo product. The market should be
segmented specially as, baby shampooand for shampoo for young generations.
After segmenting the targeting need to be done. For that, if the targeting market is, baby shampoo,
the shampoo should be in a soft smell, formy and with a medicinal care to the child and the price
should be affordable. If the targeting market is young the shampoo should be in a good smell,
middle range priced, either small packets or big bottles, different shapes, etc. The pricing and the
product are the main mixes that are discussed under targeting.
As soon as the targeted market is identified for the product, the positioning should be done. For
that, the promotion and the placement need to be done. For the young market the positionnig can
be done through by an advertiesment with a popular actress that she used this shampoo and have
good results. So impress others also to buy those.

The relationship can be illustrated as follows.

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SEGMENTATION
- Divide the market

TARGETING
Select a segment

POSITIONIG
Place the product in the customers mind

Product
Price promotion
place

Threfore in order to retain the customers for a long lasting time,the marketer should identify the
inter relationship among these concepts.

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