Market Segmentation and Marketing Strategy Reading Takeaways

The three articles were pretty easy to follow. One was hard to follow because it talks a lot about history - which is somewhat indirectly unrelated to fast-paced marketing of today's world. Anyway, here are my three takeaway points:

1. The term market has involved its meaning so much. Market is not simply off-line, periodical anymore. Now there is online markets, virtual markets, and "free" markets.
   
   Market is now a platform for "truck, barter, and trade", and an intermediary to break and mix large mass production into smaller and more appealing products. Markets not only compete with goods' variety, but also open hours, locations, service line, clerks, etc.
   
   One market's competitor might be another similar market, or a completely different one. For example, Trader Joe's might directly compete with Grocery Outlet, but also indirectly compete with farmer's markets. Because of this, markets are trying to diverse themselves to be able to differentiate themselves as much as possible to stand out, to give their target market a good and exact reason why the customers should do business with those specific markets. That is the reason why shopping malls are more and more becoming like a themed park.
2. What is social marketing? How it is used? Who uses it?
   All were my questions before reading the article. Now I know the answers for all of them. Let me share those with you all. Note that these answers are already paraphrased or rewritten so that they are easier to understand for me. I hope that they are for you as well.
   
   Social marketing: Using marketing concepts to market for a behavior change initiative. For example: a nonprofit organization tries to spread the message about the danger of unprotected sex for tween and young adults.
   
   How it is used? Well, it's very similar to popular use of B2B and B2C marketing:

• First: determine what is the initiative that you want to educate/persuade others to change their behavior(s) - Decide what is your main "product". Know your "product's" features. Know generally who is/are your target audiences. 
• Second: go do surveys, interviews, observations, etc. to get to know your target audiences as much as you can. Learn from those findings. Go back and adjust the original determinations.
• Third: segment/divide your target audiences into smaller, more specific groups. These groups will contain audiences that share a lot of commons characteristics. Because you have to understand that different audience with different background might react differently to your message delivery.
• Fourth: determine the exchange/ the award/ the benefits that your "product" provides to each individual segment of your target audiences. Why? Well, it's common sense: you want people to change, to do something "for you", there has to be something that interest/benefit them and then motivate them to take action.
• Fifth: think of the 4Ps: how to make your product accessible to all of your target audiences (price, place); how to make your product desirable, enjoyable, and at least doable (product); how to get information about your product to the crowd (promotion).
• Sixth: know your competitors. Figure out ways to differentiate yourself from the competitors (through your "product's" features, images, etc.).
• Seventh: know how to measure your outcomes.

3. 

"In essence, a positioning strategy should focus on and align with the product differentiation strategy. The product or service should be somehow unique, better, economical, profitable for the market, or else have some distinctive criteria that will differentiate it from the other available products and services. However, these points of differentiation must be important and valued by the customers themselves; it is said that “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.”

Indeed, whenever the entrepreneur introduces a new product, the new product plan needs to be focused on differentiation and positioning strategies and tactics. Moreover, positioning products needs to be focused on delivering a valued and distinctive product to a specific market and delivering it in a way that customers can accept. Hence, good product positioning will make it easy for the intended customers to define why, exactly, they want to buy that product."

So, the  two paragraphs above were of course copied out of one of the reading materials. I mean, they says a lot. If you missed them, or didn't have chance to read them thoroughly, here is your second chance. Remember, "beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder".


Thank you for reading my post!
I know it's long, but I am sure there are a few points that will help you later :)


- Hien