S T P

From day one of learning about segmentation, targeting and positioning people have been taught to think of the marketplace as an orange. Different sections are different audiences and potential customers so products must be promoted to suit each desired segment.

S

“The subdividing of a market into homogeneous (or similar) subsets of customers, where any subset may conceivably be selected as a target market to be reached with a distinct marketing mix."

Kotler (2000)

Segmentation is the start to this whole process and many different factors influence how the market is segmented. These factors include demographics (age, gender, social class and life cycle stage), psychographic (self-concept, personality and lifestyle), geographic (region, country) and behavioural (loyalty, usage and desired benefits). (Solomon, 2010)

This Volkswagen advert proves that market segmentation has to be taken into account. By using the caption: "Touareg. The luxury off-road." it is quite easily targeting the westernised markets which indicates a positioning that has been thought out geographically. Style and appearance is a very common factor in Western culture and wanting to live life in ultimate comfort is another, indicating that psychographics have also been analysed. The way that the goat looks also hints at Western culture because it's coat is cut in the shape popularly used for poodles which are traditional known as a 'posh dog'.

T

"Once segment profiles have been identified, their attractiveness can be assessed. Segment attractiveness will depend on the size and predicted evolution of sales, buying power and the amount of competition targeted at the same segment."

(Pelsmacker et al. 2010, p133)

 Targeting is a company's way of measuring the profitability and possible successfulness of each segment. Doyle created five factors to help business do this: segment size, segment growth, segment profitability, current and potential competitors and core capabilities. The size of the segment can be measured by the potential number of customers, and the growth by whether or not the audience will increase or decline. Profitability can be analysed using a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis and also by using Porter's Five Forces. The Five Forces diagram below can be used to assess the competitive analysis and SWOT can help with core capabilities.

P

"The position that a product has within a market reflects consumer opinions of that product and the comparisons they make between it and competing products. The aim; position products within the minds of consumers as more attractive, and better able to supply their demands, than competing products."

(Boddy, 2008, p293)

Positioning a product within the correct segment is vital for it's survival. Many different marketers use the 'Marketing Mix' with the Four P's to help place their product in the market, and if each of these are chosen correctly they will give the chosen product or service an advantage.

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion

Now, both of the products below are very different, but will the market segment be the same? Very high-tech gadgets are now on the market, but will the brands always place them out of reach of normal, working class people? Apple have proved that statement wrong aftere placing the new Ipad at a price of around £500, but time will tell if Sony and Mercedes take the same route.

Sony's new 360 degree view hologram



Brabus Mercedes-Benz Viano Lounge



Perception

Definition 1:

In philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. The word "perception" comes from the Latin words perceptio, percipio, and means "receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses."

Definition 2:

Perception is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world. Sensation usually refers to the immediate, relatively unprocessed result of stimulation of sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or skin. Perception, on the other hand, better describes one's ultimate experience of the world and typically involves further processing of sensory input. In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate, because they are part of one continuous process.



My Interpretation:

I would describe perception as the ability to receive information and create my own view of that information through my personal opinions. There are many different theories for analysing perception, whether it be psychological or physical.

Below are a couple of adverts that attract different senses:

Sound:

Taste:

Smell:

Touch:

Sight:

A physical way of deconstructing perception is to look at the perceptual process model which describes how our senses receive stimuli. Marketeers use different tools to appeal to these senses depending on the product or service they are trying to sell. For example, when trying to sweets to children, the design of the packet will have to appeal to sweets, either through colours or images. Strawberry flavoured sweets may have images of the fruit on the packet, chocolate containing nuts may have nuts on.

(Solomon et al, 2010, p119)

For example, a picture that I found relating to a theory of perception will show two different images:

http://www.mscareergirl.com/2010/08/10/perception-is-reality/

One persons perception of this image may be different to someone else's, you will either see a vase or two faces. Neither perception is wrong however, it does show that not everyone thinks along the same lines, and whilst one theory is perfectly acceptable for one person, to another it might have a completely different meaning. Brassington (2007) agreed with this and stated that when a stimuli is interpreted by our brain, no two people will have the same reaction. The Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) model looks into why we all perceive stimuli in different ways, either through culture and values or personality and traits, debatably even gender. Many personality tests are now available on the internet, linking personality traits together to determine charateristics which marketers can use to target their products. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes3.asp
The video below also looks at perception, and how information deemed not to be relevant is filtered by our brain.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8301897598175512211

Gestalt laws of perceptual organisation describes how our brain will 'fill in the blanks' if some of the information is missing. 'Filling in the blanks' varies from person to person, depending on personality, and this links to the NLP model.

First Impressions

Well, first things first, I missed a week and a half of being a fresher. Being in Cuba does have it's disadvantages. Fortunately I think I've managed to catch up quite well and have begun to make a few friends : ).
The work does seem to be piling up already! We have quite a few chunks of reading to get through so I suppose I should start trying to get through it all before it becomes much more daunting.

Coursework...yay! This is another joy that I really do have to get my head around after spending the past couple of years at work full time.

Looking forward to getting started on the work though as I know it will all be worth it eventually.