The Right Target Market

The Right Target Market One of the most important marketing functions for a firm is finding

the right target market. A target market by definition is: "a group of

consumers at whom the seller specifically aims its marketing efforts".

Identification and selection of the target market is crucial for a

firm's marketing strategy to be effective. In the process of finding

the target market the first and probably the most crucial step is

market segmentation.

Market segmentation in general is differentiating groups of people in

the market, so that the firm may find similarities between certain

groups and therefore construct a target market. Many companies'

previously developing products for diverse markets have found that the

resource draws unsustainable as consumer demand has dwindled. This has

led to greater emphasis on defining the characteristics of accessible

and financially viable consumer groups in order to target the unique

benefits of an existing product portfolio and rationalize production

and marketing costs in the process. The nature of service sector

products facilitates product and market differentiation with enhanced

opportunities for cost control and productivity gains. A good market

segmentation program in effect saves the company resources and hits

the market exactly where the company has planned to do so.

The process of market segmentation should always be practices within

the parameters of the following criteria. The reason for this is that

unrestrained segmentation may lead to an impossible amount of product

modifications and la...

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be seen.

As it is made clear by the examples shown above; market segmentation

is clearly not a product of just one variable but a delicate mix of

multiple variables that the marketers take into consideration. It is

through this delicate mix that most target markets are formulated and

from those markets successful business' thrive.

In the case of SMART it illustrates effective market segmentation from

the beginning, as they observed a growing need not catered to by SMART

Gold, and from there formulated a new mix of segmentation variables to

come up with a smaller and better defined target market. And later

launching a product designed for that target market Addict Mobile.

Mixing and matching the different variables for the segmentation of a

market is now the only way for this activity to be effective.