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Target marketing - a strategy for business success
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Shameena Silva | 21 May, 2010
The main aim of any organization is success. In other words, what they really look for is to increase their profits by way of satisfying the needs of the customers providing them with goods and services that is up to their expectations. If the customers think that the goods and services are up to what they believe is value for money, then this will not only increase the existing customers but also the new customers as well. Increasing the customers means, on the other hand increasing sales which will eventually pave way to increase the profits.
Why is target marketing important?
Today, with the limited amount of resources available for the business organizations, it is indeed very vital to use all of their resources, capabilities and capital effectively, in order to produce goods and services that the customers desire. Having said that, in reality it is not an easy task to do than say. In other means, producing goods and services to satisfy the entire market is not entirely practical, and its only a waste of money. Not all people have the same desire for a single product or service. Different people may want different products in order to satisfy their needs. As a result, it is thus important to target the customers who are likely to buy the products manufactured by the organization and concentrate the marketing efforts on those customers. This will on the other hand help the businesses to increase their profits while winning the hearts of the customers. This is where the target marketing comes in to practice.
Target marketing and market segmentation
Target marketing is all about concentrating on one or few segments of the market in order to develop products to satisfy those selected segments. In other words, rather than trying to concentrate on the entire market as a whole, the organizations tend to identify the customers who are mostly likely to buy their products. Upon identifying their targeted customers, then they produce goods or services so as to satisfy the customers within the target market. Target marketing basically involves breaking down the market in different segments in order to help the organization to identify its selected customers effectively. This process is called market segmentation. This is very vital in identifying the target market. Generally a market is broken down into segments such as,
* Demographic segments - this is all about sorting the market according to the age, gender, income, education , occupation, family size, family lifecycle ( bachelor, married ), nationality, etc.
* Geographic segments - this basically includes identifying the market according to the region, country, neighbourhood, etc.
* Psychographic segments - this usually involves identifying the market according to their lifestyle, activities, interest, opinions and attitudes, etc.
* Behavioural segments - this is basically breaking the market according to the usage, brand loyalty, user status (first time buyer, regular), benefits sought, etc.
Having said that, the organizations basically tend to focus on one or more segments of the market and thus develop products that best meets the expectations of the consumers targeted. For example, an particular organization who tends to manufacture clothes will want to produce cold weather clothes for both the boys and girls below the age of five and whose parents are in the middle income families. As a result, once they are aware of who their customers are, the organizations are able to use all of their resources only to produce what their customers are willing to buy. This basically minimizes the wastage which will eventually lead to produce better quality products with cost effectiveness. This is due to the fact that, once the target market is identified then the organizations can most probably concentrate their marketing mix to suit the customers identified.
Factors to consider when selecting the target market segments
To say, it is not just enough to concentrate on any one or few of the market segments in order to form the selected target market for the organization's products. In other words, there are basically two important factors that should be kept in mind when it comes to selecting the segments for the target market. First of all, the selected segment/s should be attractive enough with regard to the size of the segment, growth rate of the segment, competition in the segment, brand loyal customers, and the expected profit margins. For example, there should be an attractive number of customers( not too big or not to small) in the segment/s, an increasing growth rate, not too much competition, brand loyal customers with good profit margins.
Likewise, there should be a fit between the concentrated market segments and organization's objectives, resources and capabilities. This means that the identified segment/s should be able achieve the objectives of the organization, the organization should be able to offer value to its customers in the segments, how accessible are the segments to their distribution channels and the organizations capital and the invested capital required to serve the segment/s. The better the market segments fits the organization and are entirely attractive, the greater the profits are.
Finally, it should be said that when it comes to target marketing, this however involves only a certain proportion of the entire market. But still this helps to increase the profit of the organizations thus paving way for success, rather than trying to satisfy the entire market which is of course is not practical in today's turbulent and competitive environment. What actually means by this is that by trying to produce goods for a large market, the organizations basically have to face a lot of competition, a lot of wastage trying to market to the wrong customers ,and is also difficult to produce good quality product or services that the customers demand for. That is why target marketing is one of the important strategies that should be taken into account and carried out properly in order to achieve success.
(Source: Articlesbase)
* Shameena Silva is a freelance writer.
* The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his/her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of SME Times.
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