MARKETING ENVIRONMENT:Competitors, The Target Buyer, Segmenting your Market, FUTURE OF MARKET GROWTH

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Advertising and Promotion (MKT621)

Lesson 27

MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

OVERVIEW

In this lecture we will explain about the importance of knowing about the environment of the

market and different analysis pertaining to it. Moreover, the different influences in the

marketing environment will be explained and the future of market growth examined.

ANALYSIS OF MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

All of the marketing is based on the idea that you must thoroughly know the environment in

which your business operates in order to successfully promote and sell your product or service.

Ultimately your idea must:

a) Fulfill a need for your buyers; and

b) Must do so in a way i.e. somehow superior to the competition, however, you define it.

If you to be sure that your idea will do these two above mentioned crucial things you need to

know as you can about the following:

A. Competitors.

B. Target Buyers.

C. Marketing Environment.

Competitors

1. Who are your competitors?

Level 1: Specific brands which are direct competitors to your product or service.

Level 2: Competitors offering similar products in a different business category.

Level 3: Competitors competing for "same occasion".

2. What are competitor's strength's and weaknesses?

· Know each competitor's market share, as compared to your own.

· How target buyers perceive or judge your competitor's products & services.

· Your competitor's financial strength to spend money on advertising & promotions.

· Each competitor's ability & speed of innovation for new products & services.

3. What are competitor's plans to do next?

· Annual forecast of sales, spending &profits.

· Promotion & advertising programs.

· Introduction, support & success of new products & services.

· Direction for future growth.

4. What are competitors' spending trends?

Amount of money your competitors are willing to spend will impact.

· The success of current products & services.

· Your ability to obtain target buyer's attention & purchases.

· Key account's attention & commitment to your programs.

· Your company's introduction of new products.

The Target Buyer:

To understand the market it is essential that you should know precisely who your customers

are? You have to really know what type of people or business they are. In order to refine your

understanding of you own customer based you will need to:

· know precisely who your customers are?

Advertising and Promotion (MKT621)

· what type of people or business they are and the key factor is to look at the issue from two

angles:

· Niche marketing: Identifying main users of your product so you can direct marketing

efforts to those users.

· Segmenting market. Divide existing market into segments as new niches for your

business.

Niche Marketing: Picking right market segment that it is

i. Measurable in quantitative terms.

ii. Substantial enough to generate planned sales volume.

iii. Accessible to your company's distribution methods.

iv. Sensitive to planned/affordable marketing spending events.

Segmenting your Market: Market has to be divided in sections or segments based on different

factors

i. Demographics. Age, gender, income, education, race, marital status, size of household,

location, size of city and profession.

ii. Psychographics. Refers to personality & emotionally based behavior linked to purchase

choices, e.g. risk takers, risk avoiders, impulsive buyers etc.

iii. Lifestyle. Refers to collective choice of hobbies, recreational pursuits, entertainment,

vacations & other non-work pursuits.

iv. Belief & Value systems. Includes religious, political, nationalistic & cultural beliefs &

values.

v. Life stage: Refers to people's lives at different stages e.g. pre teens, teenagers, etc.

vi. Customer & product data collection. Researchers gather data from users of similar products

on:

· Number & timing of brand purchases.

· Reasons for purchases.

· Consumer's attitudes about various product attributes.

· Importance of product to the lifestyle of consumer.

· Category user information.

vii. Factor & Cluster Analysis. Researchers analyze the data collected to find correlations

between product & other factors, as a basis for identifying actionable consumer target

"clusters".

· Clusters are defined as "niche markets"

· Where there are buyers and users who are similar and can be reached by advertising and

promotion.

viii.

Cluster's identification & importance.

Whether Clusters are large & worth spending money on them?

Whether marketing to this group fit your existing image and long - term goals.

Marketing Environment:

Today it is influenced by global marketplace & explosion of information age. To be fully ready

Company must recognize & understand:

1. Cultural influences.

2. Government & political influences.

3. Demographic & lifestyle trends.

Advertising and Promotion (MKT621)

4. Local, national & world economic trends.

5. The strength of multi national competitors.

6. The influence of technology on physical distribution.

FUTURE OF MARKET GROWTH:

Once the market has been identified it is essential to know as to what is the size of the actual

market that you can compete in. Each total market must be examined in light of:

1. Size of total market.

2. Size of market that is interested in your products.

3. Size of market that is available for distribution of your products.

4. Size of market that already buys competitive products.

5. Size of market that your company can serve.

6. Size of the market that your company can reach with advertising & distribution.

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