Key and difficult points

6.3.1 Customer-driven marketing strategy

1) The core: create value for targeted customers

2) Who: Select customers to serve: segmentation, targeting

3) How: Decide on a value proposition: differentiation, positioning

Figure 6.1 - Designing a Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy

6.3.2 Segmentation

1) Major segmentation variables:

   Marketers can try different segmentation variables to find the best way to view market structure: demographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioral.

Table 6.1 - Major Segmentation Variables for Consumer Markets

2) Application of Multiple segmentation bases: it helps companies to identify smaller, better-defined target groups and understand key customer segments more efficiently and effectively

3) Requirements for effective segmentation

   Market segments should be: measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable, actionable

6.3.3 Targeting

1) Evaluating market segments

   Marketers should try to look at three factors to judge the attractiveness of segments:

A. Segment size and growth: right

B. Segment structural attractiveness: competitors, substitute products, power of buyers, power of suppliers

C. Company objectives and resources: own strengths and weaknesses

2) Selecting target market segments

   Marketers should then decide on which and how many segments to target and adopt one or several suitable targeting strategies, which are undifferentiated marketing, differentiated marketing, concentrated marketing and micro-marketing.

Figure 6.2 - Market-Targeting Strategies

3) Choosing a targeting strategy

   There are several factors to consider which is the best:

A. Company resources

B. Product variability

C. Product’ s life-cycle stage

D. Market variability

E. Competitors’ marketing strategies

6.3.4 Positioning

1) Identifying a set of differentiating competitive advantages

Firms can differentiate in terms of product, services, channels, people, or image.

2) Choosing the right competitive advantages

A. Number of differences: developing a unique selling proposition (USP) of multiple selling proposition(MSP)

B. Criteria of differences: Important, Distinctive, Superior , Communicable, Preemptive, Affordable, Profitable

3) Selecting an overall positioning strategy

  Five winning value positioning strategy: more for more, more for the same, more for less, the same for less, less for much less

Figure 6.4 - Possible Value Propositions

4) Developing a Positioning Statement

5) Communicating and Delivering the Chosen Position