Note on Marketing Strategy

Which of these are in India?

• Mumbai

• Rome

• Dhaka

• Chennai

Which potential buyers should the firm attempt to serve? To answer this, the firm must first determine the most appropriate way to describe and differentiate customers. This is the process of segmentation.

How much customization should the firm offer in its programs, i.e., at which point on the continuum from Mass Market-Market Segments -Market Niches - Individuals will the firm construct plans?

Markets can be segmented in a variety of ways. Among the most widely used bases are: demographic (e.g., age, income, gender, occupation), geographic (e.g., nation, region of country, urban vs. rural), lifestyle (e.g., hedonistic vs. value oriented).

A good reference on the process of segmentation is in V.R. Rao and J.H. Steckel, “Segmenting Markets: Who Are the Potential Buyers,” Analysis for Strategic Marketing (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1998), Chapter 2.

As part of the segmentation and target market selection process, the firm has to play out scenarios, i.e., consider the question: if we pursue this segment, how would we approach it and how would we want potential buyers to see us? The answer should be formalized in a “positioning statement” specifying the position the firm wishes to occupy in the target customers’ minds.

The precise form of a positioning statement can vary but a form typically quite useful is to fill in: Our Product/Brand(single most important claim) among all(competitive frame) because(single most important support)

The Marketing Mix Neil Borden of Harvard Business School used the term “marketing mix” to describe the se

Which of these are in India?

• Mumbai

• Rome

• Dhaka

• Chennai

Implement to other products, enhancing their value to the customer (e.g., a color-coordinated sweater enhancing the value of the matching golf shirt) or will it be a substitute possibly cannibalizing sales (e.g., an entry in the low-end of the personal computer machine taking sales from the same manufacturer’s high-end, higher-margin items)?