7. Identifying Market Segments and Targets

 While marketing and product development are activities that possess great importance to the industrial/business ecosystems that define the internal and external environment of companies, the concept of market and target identification provide organizations with a clear advantage if done efficiently.

Within this entry, we will explore the notion of market segmentation, while moving forward, we will accompany my understanding of the concept above, with the framework of perceptual mapping, supported by theory and its practical implementation on real life cases.

Ultimately, market segmentation focuses upon dividing a consistently evolving market of potential customers, into clarity-defined segments. These profound divisions are formed based on unique attributes that define said segmentation, on an average level. Such attributes range from certain criteria in regards to their wants as well as characteristics that influence their product needs. Hence, the formulation of such divisions assists in the marketing endeavors

of companies, making their strategies more effective towards that unique customer segmentation.

To add to the above, identifying target segmentations and implementing activities that match their unique attributes and qualities, assists companies that do not possess enough resources for mass marketing. A few of the segmentations that are observed, are geographic, that is based on the location of the customers; demographic, addressing their gender, age, income in addition to educational and national background; psychographic, going over their social status as well as personalized tendencies and last but not least, their behavioral background, based on frequency of product utilization, loyalty regarding brands as well as price sensitivity (“What is Market Segmentation? 5 Benefits to Maximize Results,” 2019). 

Having addressed the concept of target segmentation, it is important to touch upon the framework of perceptual mapping; a perceptual map portrays itself as a visual representation of customers and their unique perspective and opinions on brands, products, services or ideologies. 

WhasWhether the map is addressed as a position map or market map, its main objective is to go over ratios such as quality - price, functionality - price, healthiness - tastiness or price - performance; these ratios assist in the scanning endeavors of markets, marketing, branding and positioning strategies as well as the sequence of activities that take place for the efficient identification of products that are in decline or rise.

On the graph available within this entry, there is an evident example of certain automobile brands, and their perception in regards to quality vs price ratio. (“Introduction to Perceptual Maps | Resources | Get Lucidity,” n.d.) 

References:

Introduction to Perceptual Maps | Resources | Get Lucidity. (n.d.). Retrieved from getlucidity.com website: https://getlucidity.com/strategy-resources/introduction-to-perceptual-maps/

What is Market Segmentation? 5 Benefits to Maximize Results. (2019, March 11). Retrieved from LOTAME website: https://www.lotame.com/what-is-market-segmentation/

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