Strategic Marketing Explore: Concept of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Introduction

Every marketing aspect is founded on STP, which is; segmentation, targeting and positioning. In the conceptual analysis of marketing, a marketer will find it hard to satisfy the needs of all the customers' available in the market. This is so because not everyone in the market will desire to have the products of the marketer ta the same time. Thus the marketers have resulted in the division of the market into various segments. It has been found that segmentation is normally the key concept to development of sustainable competitive advantage I the market setting. The competitive advantage is normally built on certain aspects such as differentiation, focus strategy, and low cost. It is typically hard to identify the segments, but one can look into one or more segmentation variables for which some strategies can be channelled. Positioning involves hoe marketers do with their product, by positioning t I the mind of the prospects. This is so because the modern marketing situation today has been found to be placed where there is over communication and thus too much information on the knowledge of certain information and its offer. Positioning, therefore, comes in place to help sharpen the marketer's form of communication in the market environment which is an overcommunicated society. Targeting, on the other hand, is a concept that helps marketers in the identification of the valuable segments where their products can best sale. It is a concept that marketers have greatly decided to put in uses t helps them identify and at best deliver their products to their customers at the right time and quantity.

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Literature Review

About Charles W. Lamb and Carl McDaniel (2003), the very initial step in the segmentation of markets is the selection of a market or in the product category. They explain that it may be a market where the industry is already set up new but of related, market or category of the product. Alternatively, in most cases, a different product. The second step is the selection of basis for the market segmentation. The second step needs the managerial insight, market know-how, and their creativity. The marketing mix is described with the following tools, distribution, product, promotion, and the knowledge of the market price. They are the strategies that are used to bring about relationships that are mutually satisfying together with the target market.

Roger Best (1990) suggested a framework for the implementation of a market segmentation strategy. He proposed some sequential guidelines that were to be followed in a segment that has needs, and the segmentation process to be of primary importance to the need-based segments such that the segments are to be created around particular customer needs. The goal of the process. Was for the determination of specifically the observable behaviors that differentiate a segment from another and their demographics, this is in order to create need-based segmented market actionably.

Craft, Stephen Show (2004) in his general research, customers are usually willing to give a premium for any product as long as it meets their demands more particularly than a competing product does. Therefore, marketers who segment the overall market successfully, and also shape their goods and services to the demands of a smaller segment and stand a better chance to gain in the profit maximisation and the creation of competitive advantage. Small firms, particularly, tend to find segmentation of the markets as a very key element in enabling them to handle competition with the larger firms. Many consulting management firms give offer help in the market segmentation to only small businesses. However, the possible potential benefits availed by segmentation of markets has to be measured contrary to the cost, of which to add to the research of the market, requires segmentation of a market lead to increased marketing expense and production. (Mikeska, et al. 2017, p.17)

Wendell Smith (1956) brought up the idea that segmentation, the market divided into segments of customers who have the same form of characteristics and features in the consumption of a good or service, can play to be a very effective way for an organisation in the diverse management in a market. Very resourceful literature has been developed suggesting various techniques and bases in which one domestic market seemed to be effectively divided into varied actionable segments of customers. While large literature exists, which primarily focusses the criteria that is possible to be used in the segmentation of a market, In that time there seemingly was less attention paid in the requirements that were accompanying for what one Kotler (1998) describes as the effective segmentation. Thomas (1980) tries to argue that any of the proposed segmentation is supposed to pass via four tests, which are named about accessibility, measurability, stability, and sustainability. However, there exist differences in the types and the number of tests.

The segmentation of the market theory gives the ability for one to have total understanding of the market, improvement in the prediction techniques related to the behaviors of the consumer, and lastly in the improvement in the ability for detecting and exploitation of new markets chances for commercial gains ( Fuller, Hanlanv & Wilde, 2005). As per their theory, the ability for splitting markets into segments of buyers, or prospective customers, who behave in different ways to the variables of the marketing mix, is a highly probable for demonstration mostly of the advantageous to those who want to influence the demand of customers for a product or service (Hunt, Arnett, 2004). The theory also largely supports that market segmentation goal is to infer alterations among customers who possess the same attributes in the market and the making the available difference beneficial (Chen & Hsiao, 2009)

Market Segmentation

Segmentation of the market is the procedure or process in the distribution of potentially profitable market into distinct customer segments who have same features or characteristics; it also involves the selection of the segments with the sole aim of a particular marketing mix. The procedure includes the subdivision of the market in general for a product or service into smaller groups or segments, which has customers who are similar and in the same segment and very different from customers who are in the other sections. Segmentation of the market includes the larger market getting subdivided into various consumer subsets who have the same needs and wants or same receptiveness to offerings in the market. (Dixon, et al. 2015,p3)

Segmentation of the market can be executed by the use of some factors in the society settings; they include; lifestyle, beliefs, demographics, values, psychographics, life stages, benefits and lastly their behaviour. A firm, for instance, can differentiate its consumers in the form of geographic factors such as region, state, nation variables, they can also be grouped in demographic factors such as; gender, education, age, and income. Other variables can be of psychographic variables like those of attitudes values, and opinions. Also, behavioural aspects that can be used include brand loyalty, purchase frequency, channel usage and media habits. By way of aligning consumers in the same place based on their similar features or reactions in the bigger marketing factors, marketing efficiency, and the attainment of customer satisfaction.

Market segmentation is a strategy that is adaptive. It includes the partition of the market with the target of selecting one or many segments available in the market, of which industry can aim by way of development of mixes in the market which help the adjustment to certain particular wants in the market. Effective segmentation of the market creates a chance for the marketers to present a different between subsets of the market in respect to their behaviour to the variables in the market. For instance, marketers can define differences in the price sensitivity of customers and the non-price consumer's sensitivity because of segmentation. By segmentation, one can note the various areas that have particular wants and also in the identification of markets which are mature in the identification of new customers. Industries that have high rates of growth tend to be more successful by way of recognising and the meeting up the various desires of their consumers with special taste and preferences.

Targeting

By targeting, we mean the method that involves the assessment of every single market segment's desirability and thus selecting which one of them to fit. Targeting thus is the authentic market segment selection. In the process of targeting, the industry must be able to weigh the capabilities and the available resources against the various desirability of the diverse segments. Targeting involves a tactical stressing of one, or some know market segments and the establishment of the marketing offers which appear to be unique in each of the market segments in question. Selection of the segment targeted involves the assessment of every segment of the market desirability and the selection of any of the segments of the market to fit in. After the identification of the required segments and their evaluation of the customer's target behaviour in the segments, then there need be assessment, whether attractive the segment is for a particular brand of a product. (Olson, et al. 2018, p.21)

The decision taken of the target market is usually the consumer's preference in the product-market, where an industry focuses on the marketing strategy that involves positioning. The choice is a hard step for the management to take, as it is a very demanding challenge in the firm's management. The customers in the target market comprise of those whose characteristics and needs the company can satisfy. By targeting, organisations can further focus on the particular wants of the targeted segment concerning habits, price and their desire. The moment the organisations understands the customer need structure, then it resolves to the segment to deal with and in what way. Target marketing means that a consumer sector has been spotted and to whom an organisation will point out the majority of the marketing time, attention, and resources, this is the rationale with which it would be better. Upon a well-defined market based on product satisfaction, know-how and the market analysis, which should be measurable. The target should define if the audience of the market is enough for the organisation in the long run. The target market should be reachable. An organisation, therefore, should first evaluate the target market desirability and suitability as per the organisation's objectives and the available resources of the firm.

Positioning

It refers to the designing of the image of an organisation and having it to exist uniquely according to the target market. According to one Walletzky (2015), positioning refers to the placing of a product to take up a distinctive, desired and clear place that is relative to the competitors' products in the consumer's mind. The strategy of poisoning is an ideology with which firms preoccupied with the influence of external surrounding on their strategy, that is, resources and competencies, and lastly by way of influencing stakeholders anticipations. Marketers describe positioning strategy as the positioning of a brand. The strategy includes the important benefits that are offered to consumers together with the image personality or brand that is intended and w...