Unit 3: Introduction to Marketing
By Rais Mauthoor
Segmentation and Targeting
Introduction
This report will explain how and why groups of customers are targeted for selected
products.
P5 Explain how and why groups of customers are targeted
for selected products
When marketing a product, it is important to understand that a single product will not
appeal to everyone because people’s needs and preferences vary greatly from each
other. A business may be forced to divide a market into multiple separate segments with
different shared characteristics. These are the groups of potential customers that are
targeted because they are believed to respond better to particular marketing activities
and they may already be interested in what the company has to offer. An example of
this would be purses and wallets, both of the commodities have almost identical
purposes, which is to contain and protect money and other paraphernalia. However, the
difference between them is that they are both targeted to different segments of the
market using gender segregation. Hence wallets are used by men and purses by
women. Businesses have various methods of segmenting markets, they can use geo-
demographic systems such as “ACORN” or “MOSAIC” or they can segment using the
different bases of segmentation. These are the psychographic, demographic,
geographic, behavioural and lifestyle bases.
Business-to-consumer
Product Target market Base of
segmentation
Video game Children, Psychographic
consoles adolescents, young
adults
Men’s cologne Male adolescents Demographic
and adults
Handbags Female Demographic
adolescents and
adults
Winter apparel Adults and children Geographic
Video game industries target children, adolescents and young adults because these are
the generations that has adapted to the digital world and are most entertained by the
product. Psychographic segmentation is used to identify similar personalities and
lifestyles within the target market.
By Rais Mauthoor
Segmentation and Targeting
Introduction
This report will explain how and why groups of customers are targeted for selected
products.
P5 Explain how and why groups of customers are targeted
for selected products
When marketing a product, it is important to understand that a single product will not
appeal to everyone because people’s needs and preferences vary greatly from each
other. A business may be forced to divide a market into multiple separate segments with
different shared characteristics. These are the groups of potential customers that are
targeted because they are believed to respond better to particular marketing activities
and they may already be interested in what the company has to offer. An example of
this would be purses and wallets, both of the commodities have almost identical
purposes, which is to contain and protect money and other paraphernalia. However, the
difference between them is that they are both targeted to different segments of the
market using gender segregation. Hence wallets are used by men and purses by
women. Businesses have various methods of segmenting markets, they can use geo-
demographic systems such as “ACORN” or “MOSAIC” or they can segment using the
different bases of segmentation. These are the psychographic, demographic,
geographic, behavioural and lifestyle bases.
Business-to-consumer
Product Target market Base of
segmentation
Video game Children, Psychographic
consoles adolescents, young
adults
Men’s cologne Male adolescents Demographic
and adults
Handbags Female Demographic
adolescents and
adults
Winter apparel Adults and children Geographic
Video game industries target children, adolescents and young adults because these are
the generations that has adapted to the digital world and are most entertained by the
product. Psychographic segmentation is used to identify similar personalities and
lifestyles within the target market.
