Targeting the Right Market Segments

Discussion Topic:

Choose one of the new offerings being considered for development and recommend three market segments that a company might consider targeting and develop a brief market profile of each. Use combinations of the major segmentation variables from Table 9.1 in your text for each profile. Give a symbolic name to each profile. Explain your choice of market segments to target. (Please use Yourname_Product name e.g, John Smith_ GreenDial. in the Subject line of your post)

Soft Tough: a new line of male cosmetics. The products are not visible on the skin, but they help reduce aging effects on the skin and at the same time provide some sun protection.

GreenDial: a full-featured mobile phone that is solar powered.

iSense: a smart-phone with an interface that senses hand gestures and voice commands to function from as far as eight inches away.
Mobile CleanAir: a personal portable air purifier that removes harmful airborne pathogens in the user's air space thereby providing germ-free and contaminant-free air to breath wherever he or she goes.

Nutrition's Essential Tool (N.E.T.): a product that helps people see what they eat and make informed decisions based on this knowledge. The service is available to anyone who owns a camera-ready cell phone. N.E.T. allows a user to photograph the barcode of a food item and then use recognition software to identify the associated nutritional value of that product as well as its point value on standardized diet programs.
Transitional Widow Tint: a transitional polarized tint for car windows that adapts to lighting conditions. Sold as an option on new cars.

Bagnow: a small micro-chip encased in a plastic clip-on device that sticks to the inside pocket of any type of suitcase. Once attached, the baggage can be tracked via a GPS-based application on the owner's smart-phone.

Positioning

Discussion Topic:

Over the years a number of firms have tried to change their positioning for a variety of competitive reasons. Choose a firm in the global marketplace who has changed their positioning over the recent past. Describe the firm's original positioning strategy and then describe the firm's revised positioning strategy. How did customers react to this change in positioning strategy - was it successful or not? Why?

Positioning and Branding

Discussion Topic:

According to the International Dairy Foods Association, take-home ice cream sales totaled $6.8 billion in 2010. This market can be divided into four quality-based segments:

• Superpremium ice creams like Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs have very low overrun (i.e., minimal aeration) and high fat content, and the manufacturers use the best quality ingredients.

• Premium ice creams like Turkey Hill have low overrun and higher fat content than regular ice cream, and are made with higher quality ingredients.

• Regular ice cream brands like Breyer's meet the overrun required for the federal ice cream standard (i.e., finished product must not weigh less than 4.5 pounds per gallon).

• Economy ice cream meets the government standard and generally sells for a lower price than regular ice cream.

Using what you learned this week about positioning and branding, discuss the strategy you would use to enter the take-home ice cream market. Be sure to discuss what your points of differentiation are and what brand associations you would link to your brand. Support your choices with logic and research.

• Personal Application

Discussion Topic:

Based on this week's reading and your understanding of market segmentation and product positioning, describe your organization's segmentation strategy. Specifically, what variable(s) are used to segment the market, what segment(s) is your organization targeting and who are your major competitors for the segment(s). If your organization is targeting more than one segment, select one and describe the positioning strategy of your organization relative to your major competitors. Provide at least one positioning map to illustrate.
(See Perceptual Maps Positioning for an example of a positioning/perceptual map.)

Readings

Positioning and Competitive Advantage

Required Readings

1. Market Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning

2. Schmidt, G., & van der Rhee, B. (2014). How to position your innovation in the marketplace. MIT Sloan Management Review, 55(2), 17-20. Retrieved from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/

3. Uggla, H. (2015). Positioning in the mind versus brand extension: The revision of Ries and Trout. IUP Journal of Brand Management, 12(1), 35-44. Retrieved from http://www.iupindia.in/Brand_Management.asp

4. Claudiu-Catalin, M. (2014). Brand extensions positioning guidelines for competitive differentiation. Business Management Dynamics, 4(4), 19-26. Retrieved from http://bmdynamics.com/

Recommended Readings

• Intro to Brand Positioning: Overview
• Positioning and Repositioning Offerings.