Topic: Segmenting the Business Market & Estimating Segment Demand
The business marketing manager serves a market comprising many different types of organizational customers with varying needs. Only when this aggregate market is broken down into meaningful categories can the business marketing strategist readily and profitably respond to unique needs. Once the segments are determined then the marketer must estimate demand for each segment. Accurate projections of future sales are one of the most significant and challenging dimensions of organizational demand analysis. This week we will discuss: the benefits of and requirements for segmenting the business market, the potential and procedures for the for segmenting, the role of segmenting in strategy, and the process and techniques for estimating demand and effectively developing a forecast for demand.
The reflection paper is to serve as a platform for you discuss weekly "aha" moments. The focus of the paper is up to you but should center around the weekly topics. This would also be a good platform to compare, contrast, and examine any BusinessWeek correlations to the weekly topic.