Marketing Segmentation Analysis

Introduction

There is much more to marketing than merely the business of selling and advertising of products and services, it is a much more complex area of study. Of course branding a product is the main aspect of marketing, but it branches out to many areas of processing until a product or service is to be presented to the consumers. There first needs to exist a need and demand for a product or service before it is created and developed, and after it is to be designed in order to satisfy the needs of the market and customers. Furthermore, the overall market consists of a large population and therefore further and thorough research must be conducted and completed, as a way of selecting the right target market and this is where segmentation

The process involves a redesign of existing products. However, the segmentation strategy relies on establishing the appropriate geographic and demographic factors, psychological characteristics, sociocultural variables and psychographic characteristics.

Most products and services depend on using market segmentation for suitable advertising purposes and it can be viewed as a vital management tool. Kotler defines market segmentation as the process of dividing a market into distinct branch of consumers with common needs and attributes and selecting one or more segments to target with a distinct marketing mix. (Kotler,1999)

Philip Kotler (1999) injected the 4Cs in deem to 4Ps, describing the following equivalence: To show the difference among sellers and consumers, and how they perceive the product or service, Kotler revealed the significance of incorporating consumers’ view when designing the marketing plan. In addition, he (Kotler,1999) suggested the inclusion of two more Ps, defining Politics and Public opinion. Politics refers to the power of lobbying and how that can affect the on the sales of the products and the marketing plan of the firm. Public opinion refers to people that change trends, attention or get warmth and this alter their behavior and lifestyle. Such changes have consequences and alterations for the

As Arora et al. (2008) stated, the tailoring of a firm’s marketing mix to the individual customer is the essence of one-to-one marketing. The service of providing a person with a caffeinated beverage is an experience, which includes not only personal satisfaction for the client, but cultural enrichment, as well as a feeling of uniqueness and novelty. Furthermore, this experience has strong characteristics of variety, diversity and daily differentiations, which turn it to a challenge. This, by itself is an integrated value chain for the customers, which according to Birnik and Bowman (2007), should be researched in order for the company to understand the relationship between their experience and the operational delivery. Starbucks follows this mix mainly for two reasons. Because it has an established plan and mission to work and invest in brand equity, and customer loyalty.

Consequently, the marketing mix elements, as described above, were derivatives of strategic choice which Starbucks followed by predicting, on the one side, the value of early investment in the dimensions of brand equity while on the other side, perceiving the strong influence of overall customer