Segmenting Nonprofit Stakeholders †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Segmenting Nonprofit Stakeholders. Answer: Introduction: Market segmentation is one of the most important things in fixing the marketing strategies (Wedel Kamakura, 2012). The organizations have to divide their customers into different segments so that they can be able to trace the customer behavior and thus manage to manipulate their customers to buy their products and gain the competitive advantage over their rivals in the industry. These are the ways in which the organizations can be able to attain their success. The need for assessing the behavior of the customers, their likes and dislikes is immense (Wedel Kamakura, 2012). The organizations and the marketing team has to analyze some of the important matters in regards to making the customer segmentation so that they can be able to assess which things are best suitable for which segment of customers, both from the point of views of quality and price (Jahanshani et al., 2014). The chosen organization for this assignment is one of the leaders in the global retail chain industry, Woolworths Limited ("Woolworths Limited", 2017). The need for consumer or customer segmentation is huge and this is done by almost any organization thriving for success. Customer segmentation is done by the organizations so that they can divide their customer base into smaller groups with similar kinds of choices, tastes, demands and preferences (Hjort et al., 2013). The market segment is a smaller market within the larger customer base that comprises of similar minded customers. The market segments are totally different from each other in their nature. A particular market segment is such a setting where the customers think and behave on the same lines (Cross, Belich Rudelius, 2015). The fluctuations in the market are ought to happen and a particular market segment responds to this in the same way. The basic customer segmentation can be done in some ways. This is done on the basis of some important factors like the age, gender, income, marital status, occupation and some others. There are generally three types of market segmentation (Mller Haase, 2014). These are psychographic segmentation, behaviouralistic segmentation and geographic segmentation. The different factors in this segmentation need to be addressed (Rupp, Kern Helmig, 2014). Demographic market segmentation The need for segmentation based on gender is very important since both men and women have different choices and preferences. The organizations have different choices for men that would surely not work for the women in the target market. The customers must be segmented by the customers based on their age group so they could find it comfortable to sale the products according to that particular age group only. The marketing strategies for the organizations would surely be different for the kids, teenagers and adults (Tifferet Herstein, 2012). The marketers divide the customers according to their income as this is very important to measure on how they could sale their customers and this has to be done strictly by maintaining the pricing strategies properly by assuming the income of the customers. According to this basis, the customers can be divided into three segments and they are high income customers, mid income customers and low income customers (Tifferet Herstein, 2012). The marital status of the customers is a factor in determining the consumer segmentation. This is because the travel agencies will surely not make the holiday packages at same price and facilities for the bachelors and the married couples. The consumer market segmentation can be fixed on the basis of the occupation of the customers since the products to be sold would vary from office goers to school and college students and people involved in other professionals. Advantages The demographics data can be achieved very easily from the government organizations or websites. The various factors of the demographic data like the age, income, gender are quantitative things and are adjustable to the needs of the company (Tifferet Herstein, 2012). Demographic segmentation does not approach the extremely niche groups and therefore have a great chance of targeting a huge population. The important data about the income and socio-economic status gives a huge opportunity to the companies to assess the buying powers (Tifferet Herstein, 2012). Disadvantages The competitors can very easily understand the demographic information and segmentation that the concerned company has targeted. It has happened often times that targeting the wrong market segmentation groups has turned to be a loss for the companies and wastage of money and resources as well as time. Psychographic market segmentation It is a known fact that different people have different personality traits, attitudes and personalities. The need for dividing the consumer base according to those traits and personalities is of huge importance (Boone Kurtz, 2013). There are many people who are careful about the outside environment while others are not. Similarly, some people are very much health conscious while others are not. The organizations must look after these things before making their products. This kind of market segmentation has to be done based on their lifestyles, interests, moral values and attitudes. The customers are always changing their preferences and the organizations have to change their mindsets as well so as to cater to the needs of the customers. This kind of segmentation is directly related with the human psychology and companies have to assess it before presenting those products to the customers (Boone Kurtz, 2013). The companies have to understand the psychology of the customers better an d thus they can be able to target and approach them in a better way. Advantages This helps the companies to catch the customers by studying his/her psychology. This is very important in case the companies desire to provide niche and customized products to their customers (Boone Kurtz, 2013). This helps to understand the customer behavior. Disadvantages It is a time consuming process. The psychology of the customers is different from each other so it is very difficult to segment the market according to that only. Behavioral market segmentation Behavioral market segmentation is important market segmentation. This is done so that the customers showing same kinds of choices and preferences can be assimilated together and put under the same group (Ailawadi et al., 2014). This helps the organizations to promote their variety of products in a similar manner and reach those customers in a shorter time. The customers can be captured by depending on their needs. The people are being more brands conscious so the companies have to be cautious about choosing their products. There are certain parameters for this market segmentation. These are:- occasion oriented, usage oriented, loyalty oriented and sought benefits (Ailawadi et al., 2014). Advantages This process helps the companies to identify the customers similar in behavior and thus makes it easier to target them. This process further helps to create a brand loyalty because the customers show an affinity towards a particular brand. Disadvantages Customer behavior cannot be predicted to be right all the time since the preferences of the customers changes with time. This kind of market segmentation is done depending on segmenting the customer base based on geographical borders (Hassan Craft, 2012). This segmentation depends on the countries, states, villages, cities and other urban areas, climatic conditions and population density. It is very important because people living in the same region are often seen to have the same needs. The companies could produce for the things that are best suited for the people of a particular region (Hassan Craft, 2012). Advantages This helps to recognize people living in a same geographic region and having the similar likes. The areas being densely populated can open the doors for a huge marketing opportunity. This helps the companies to invest in a particular geographic region earning them the opportunity for brand loyalty (Romaniuk Nenycz-Thiel, 2013). Disadvantages This process is unable to show the likes and dislikes, behavior of the customers. A particular region goes through certain climatic changes very often and this leads them to loss (Romaniuk Nenycz-Thiel, 2013). These are the ways in which the companies can target their customers based on these four main sections. The companies have to continuously evaluate and assess the needs of the customers for better results. Targeting the audience is a crucial stage for marinating a marketing strategy that comes after the segmentation of the target audience (Writz, 2012). The target audience has to be convinced so that they will buy the products of the company. The customers do not get to test the quality of the products before purchasing it. So, they have to rely entirely on the things that are said to them. The companies should make sure that these advertisements are not fake. The target market of a company is determined by the fact where the company wants to sell its products. The target market of a company includes the set of customers who are targeted by the company according to the buying power of the customers and the kinds of target segmentations. Every company has their selected target markets in their business territory. They invest a lot of effort including their money and resources to monitor their target market (Writz, 2012). It is very obvious that the target consumers have to be influenced to buy their products and its pricing. The pricing of the products is not meant for all the target consumers as all of them do not have the same buying power. The target market is very important to fix the marketing plan for the company. It has to be kept to be in the focus of the marketing plan and strategy since it keeps the other factors like the distribution of the product, pricing and promotion strategies. This is called as 4 Ps of marketing (Gordon, 2012). Keeping that in mind, the target market has to be decided upon in the light of Woolworths limited ("Woolworths Limited", 2017). The target market of the company is mainly the high earning people. Their premium products are mainly designed to cater to the needs of the high society people. The standard of living of Australian people is higher than the average people in other countries. Woolworths target to develop the environment and fulfill the needs and demands of the people regarding the environmental safety (Lundgren McMakin, 2013). The chief strategy of the organization is to increase the market share in the future. They sell their products to different range of customers. They target all groups of people as per range. Their belief is they should be able to sell their product to a widely ranged customer group so that they can get the competitive edge (Barney, 2014). Woolworths always try to approach their target market through customizing their products in a mass volume. They have to build a good relationship with their customers so that their customers stay loyal to their brand only. In the entire marketing scenario, this helps to give them a huge advantage to create a reputed brand image (Aaker Biel, 2013). These marketing strategies help them to stay ahead of their competitors. The disposable income of the Australians is fairly high so the primary target of Woolworths is the people with a good earning ("Woolworths Limited", 2017). The secondary target market of Woolworths is the people who are weaker section in the financial basis. Their secondary target market audience for Woolworths may be the people who order their orders online. The target audience will take a long time to choose their products by comparing the quality (Aaker Biel, 2013). The products that are provided by Woolworths are daily use basis. This is why they have to provide the best quality materials in it to improve their reputation among their target audiences. They must produce their goods by analyzing their customer profiles. These are based upon the demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral approach to market segmentation. They must develop the goods according to the age, gender, income and occupation of the customers. This will be helpful for them to fix their pricing strategies since they cannot provide every product to very customer (Barney, 2014). The customers have to be careful about choosing their brands at the time of purchasing. This will add to the fact that the customers will be looking for the best products in the market. The best products will be available in the target market when Woolworths will have identified the needs and demands for the customers. Woolworths must make a marketing survey among their customers so that they can assess what their customers actually need ("Woolworths Limited", 2017). They should prepare a consumer profile template for that. This will help them to analyze what their customers actually want from them. They will then make things clear about what they have to produce and thus cater to the requirements of their target market (Aaker Biel, 2013). Brand positioning is a very important factor for the companies in the global business environment in these days. In this part of the paper, the brand positioning of the chosen company Woolworths limited has to be determined (Hollensen, 2015). Brand positioning of a company defines the reason for the taget customers to buy the products of that particular company. The companies have to create a niche market for its customers and this market has to be carefully chosen. The company has to be unique in quality than its competitors and the company can be able to gain a competitive advantage through this. In other words, it can be said that brand positioning is the reflection of the views and opinions of the customers on that particular company. The companies make their marketing strategies in such a way that their brand positioning creates a special and unique place in the market (Hollensen, 2015). Likewise, Woolworths have created their own brand positioning and it has been quite a success because they are considered as one of the most influential retail organizations in the country as well as in the world. When a company has to create a valuable brand positioning for them, identify and determine all the points of similarities and differences so that they can choose the right brand identity and improve their brand image this way. Woolworths generally operates in a mass market and they sell the FMCG products that are sold in a large market. Woolworths has always given the most priority on their products (van Elzakker et al., 2012). The quality products help them to build the customer faith and brand loyalty. This gives a good impression on the customers minds. They tend to identify the needs and requirements of the people and thus they develop those products according to the needs and requirements. Value and price is a determining factor in the positioning of the brands. Excessively low prices as well as excessively high prices ruin the brand image so it is clever enough to keep the price of the brands according to its use and quality (Sirianni et al., 2013). The customers always give more value to their budget because it helps them to judge what kind of products they will buy. The prices of the products of Woolworths are not too high or too low. Woolworths uses the strategy to communicate the benefits of the particular products to their customers. This way the customers get to know the benefits they can get from and Woolworths utilizes this opportunity to spread their popularity through their varied products from food to apparels and other products in the retail chain industry (Sirianni et al., 2013). The users will be able to select the products according to their needs and requirements. Perceptual map helps the companies to identify their brand positioning. Woolworths produces some important products that are used by a huge percentage people ranging from high social class to the lower ones (Kervyn, Fiske Malone, 2012). This has been the key for the company to keep their product pricing at a moderate level. Woolworths has a lot of competitors in their industry. The most important of them are Coles Supermarket and Wesfarmers. Woolworths has been trying to keep up their reputation and improve their brand image by providing good quality products. They are proven themselves to be a well established brand with expansions in the foreign countries. This has been one of their most impressive strategies to dominate the market. They have focused strongly on the advertisement of their brands. They put up advertisements on their websites as well as in the social media platforms (Kervyn, Fiske Malone, 2012) This also helps them to create a good brand positioning. Some of the ne w products of Woolworths are Arnotts Vovo ice cream, Arnotts Wagon Wheel ice cream, Banana Boat Dry Balance Lotion, Beckham Body Spray Instinct Sport, Bimbadgen Sparkling Semillon and many others. These products have been priced within the affordability of their customers by judging their buying powers. These factors work in real time as Woolworths are trying to be the leaders in the retail chain industry (Fernie Sparks, 2014). Since, they do not provide their products to the niche market they are well focused on to provide best quality products to the mass market. References Aaker, D. A., Biel, A. (2013).Brand equity advertising: advertising's role in building strong brands. Psychology Press. Ailawadi, K. L., Neslin, S. A., Luan, Y. J., Taylor, G. A. (2014). Does retailer CSR enhance behavioral loyalty? A case for benefit segmentation.International Journal of Research in Marketing,31(2), 156-167. Barney, J. B. (2014).Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. 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Retrieved 31 August 2017, from https://www.woolworths.com.au/