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This essay will illustrate the extent to which effective marketing must incorporate Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. Marketing effectively differs from one organisation to another as each has their own separate goals, which they pursue. To answer how important each of the afore mentioned marketing tools are, one must define what Marketing is and then take into account how each is applied and why if not applied in an organisations approach to selling could mean abrupt failure, or maybe that they do not matter at all. The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) defines marketing as, ‘The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements.’ (Lancaster & Reynolds 1998, p.11) An alternative definition is offered from the American Marketing Association (AMA) ‘The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational objectives.’ (Lancaster & Reynolds 1998, p.11) The CIM definition perhaps sums up the overall aim of marketing whereas the AMA definition identifies the tools which effective marketing would use when realising the firm’s objectives (Lancaster & Reynolds 1998). Looking at both definitions, they both finished stating that something must be satisfied, customer requirements and organisational objectives. So to market effectively you must be able to reach the organisational goals whilst also meeting your customer requirements. Market segmentation is defined by Kotler and Armstrong (2001, p.244) as ‘Dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers on the basis of needs, characteristics or behaviour who might require separate marketing mixes.’ These needs, characteristics, and behavioural factors, which signify different demands, come from a multitude of different reasons. The main profilers used to segment the consumer markets are Geographic, Demographic, Behavioural and Psychographic factors. On the other hand organisational market profilers are Industry, Type of Organisation, Size, Geographic, Application, Usage and Purchasing Organisation factors. (Doyle 1994) It begs the question; why segment the market instead of mass marketing the same product? The best-known example of Mass Marketing or Undifferentiated Marketing is told by Kotler and Armstrong (2001). They go on to use the example of Henry Ford’s marketing strategy of the Model T Ford. When he put the car into production, he told the cumsers, they could have the car “in any colour as long as it is black”. This though was many years ago; Ford has progressed and produces many different models today. An example of a company who still uses the Mass Marketing technique is outlined by Wilson and Gilligan (1997). Black & Decker faced a drop in its worldwide share of the power tool market from 20% to 15% as more Japanese firms began to compete by marketing in a more ‘aggressive’ manner than Black & Decker.
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