Chapters 3 & 4: My Takeaways

Chapter 3: Understanding Markets and Customers

1)      Market analysis is crucial to understand the dynamic needs and behaviors of the consumers and business customers that you want to target

2)      Markets can be defined as:

a.    Potential Market – All customers who may be interested

b.    Available Market – Customers with sufficient income and access to the offering

c.    Qualified Available – Customers who are qualified based on several criteria like    income, age etc

d.   Target Market – Customers the company intends to target for an offer

e.   Penetrated Market - Subset of target market who are already buying the product

3)      Market analysis feeds into the SWOT analysis, thereby determining new opportunities and threats

4)      Consumer wants, needs and behaviors are affected by personal factors, cultural considerations and social factors

5)      Business customers are influenced by Organizational connections and considerations.

6)      Planning market research includes:

a.       Primary research : to address a specific marketing question or situation (includes ethnographic redearch, online and neuromarketing- understand consumer (brain) reactions to marketing activities)

b.      Secondary research: using information already collected for another purpose and is usually the starting point for research.

Chapter 4: Planning Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

1)      Marketers are moving from mass marketing to segmented marketing

2)      Segmentation: Grouping customers within a market based on similar needs, attitudes, habits that can be addressed through marketing

3)      Niches – Smaller segments with distinct needs or benefit requirements

4)      Target Market – The segment of the market that you choose to pursue

5)      Segmentation Variables: Behavioral, Attitudinal, Demographic, Geographic, Psychographic

6)      Segment Evaluation criteria: 1) Large, profitable, fast-growing, 2) potential for competitive superiority, 3) Extent of environmental threats 4) Economic and technological factors

7)      Marketing Strategies:

a.       Concentrated Marketing – concentrates marketing activities only on the most preferred segment

b.      Differentiated Marketing – Follows separate marketing strategy for each of the different segments being targeted

c.       Undifferentiated Marketing – Target all segments with the same marketing strategies