Target marketing strategy

The selection of potential customers to whom a business wishes to sell products or services.
The targeting strategy involves segmenting the market, choosing which segments of the
market are appropriate, and determining the products that will be offered in each segment.
When taking a shot at your marketing strategy, it's important to comprehend which customers
are your target/objective market. These are the individuals your business can help the most
with your goods and services. Research your customer base to comprehend their needs,
different preferences so you can make a marketing campaign that resonates with their
interests

Benefits of Target Marketing

One of the key advantages is that it enables businesses to build a deeper connection with their
audience by having a clear, succinct and defined message. When businesses target too many
segments with their marketing, they may dilute their message to appeal to the masses. When
speaking to a segment, however, businesses can use language and terminology that resonates
with the situations of that particular group. Another key benefit of target marketing is that it
allows businesses to stand out from the sea of competitors
By honing in on their unique value proposition and aligning it with the needs and wants of
their target market, businesses can show their prospects why they're the right choice for them
over their competitors. Target marketing can help make a business more memorable to
consumers so they choose it over competitive brands and products. Providing better products
and services to customers is another benefit of target marketing. When businesses have a
deep understanding of their target segment and empathize with the issues their consumers are
trying to solve, they have more insight into how they can help them. This helps businesses to
constantly improve upon their products and services, tailoring them to meet the needs of their
consumers.

Types of Target Marketing Strategies

1. Undifferentiated Marketing
It’s a mass-market philosophy-based strategy that comes in handy when you know that
putting forward a common product for all customers’ types. It won’t affect the popularity of
your product but can, definitely, let you overcome the costs needed for setting up a separate
marketing mix for each target market. Under such conditions, a brand starts developing a
strategy that covers up the whole market and is totally free from segmentation. This strategy
is a default set weapon in the arsenals for most of the newly starting companies who lack
customer knowledge as well as the concept of orienting the strategy, which is helpful since
you have to go for a single product for whole your customer base. Undifferentiated target
marketing strategies makes the adapter think the whole segmented market to be just like one
big market in which there are no individual segments. The strategy makers assume that the
expectations of all the individual customers can be covered up with one kind of product. So,
that’s how companies save a lot of in marketing as well as in the production of their product.
The most common example of this strategy that you witness in your everyday real life is the
company that promotes commodity products and that, too, where there is slight no
competition. Because of the absence of worthy competitor, the company doesn’t feel the need
of production promotion according to customers’ taste. Yet another example is Ford’s classic
Model T. The main downside of going with this strategy is that it exposes your brand to a
stronger competition in the near future. Moreover, the level of danger from those
competitions grows as quickly as they focus on even smaller segments.
2. Multi-Segmented or Differentiated Marketing
Differentiated marketing picks up the pace right there from where the undifferentiated
marketing leaves you. One of the most sought-after strategies that can bring the effectiveness
of your brand back to life by letting you plan your marketing mix while keeping the
segmentation of the market in your mind. Even though, the costs involved in generation of a
greater product design, its production at a huge level, the promotion in the market,
management costs as well as the research as pretty enormous, but at the same time, the
refined strategy makes it easier for the brand to achieve huge profits, generate more sales as
well as to focus on a larger market share and all these can cover up the costs effectively. The
car market is what makes use of this strategy a lot. Obviously, the car market is segmented at
different levels like the sports cars’, luxury cars’ and small cars’, as well. So, going for a
different kind of strategy for every different segment of the market becomes extremely
necessary. Ford, Honda, Toyota and many others offer their cars for every level of the
segmentation. It is important to understand the importance of other target marketing
strategies and your reason for prioritizing this one, in comparison to others. Because no one
wants to lose its customer, base to “cannibalization”.
3. Concentrated Targeting
Serving up all the segments of the target market is not necessary, most of the times. For the
purpose, the company puts its research about the segment to its advantage and establishes a
marketing mix, which is focused on that particular segment. It is a fact that concentrating the
efforts and resources on a particular segment proves to be more fruitful than investing in a
wide niche. This strategy is well-suited to the companies with a relatively lower number of
resources. On the other hand, the organizations at the upper level may not think it to be
necessary to spend their time spending both time and money on just one segment of the
market. The most notable example of the brand that made use of this strategy for carving out
success for them is Starbucks (a leading coffee company). The prime downside of the
concentrated targeting strategy is that if smaller niche workers are successful in attaining
recognition in that particular field, then they are giving an invitation to a competition that
takes larger organizations in. Moreover, it feels just like as if someone is putting all of his
eggs in just one basket. So, unfortunately, if that segment becomes unprofitable, the brand
will lose a huge lot of it.
4. Customized Marketing
Such target marketing strategies take the segmentation at a more refined level, the individual
level. Companies at such level study the behaviour patterns of their potential customers and
devise a separate solution for each of the customers. The companies deal face to face with
their customers and serve them with what the customer needs. The most common type of
businesses that make use of this strategy is often research firms, advertising, architects and
many others. This marketing leads to an even closer relationship with the segments as
compared to focused targeting.

Segmenting Your Target Market

The way businesses identify their target market will depend on the kinds of goods and
services they offer. There are four key strategies of segmentation that businesses can apply to
identify their market segments. The target marketing strategy definition includes:
A. Demographic:
This is the basic way to segment the market. Businesses can group prospects by age, gender,
race, ethnicity, job title, income, family situation and other demographic characteristics to
better understand their consumers’ interests. Businesses that target married men over 50 will
market differently than those that target single men under 25, for example.
B. Geographic:
This segmentation strategy involves looking at a consumer base’s geographic location,
climate, population density and size of region. It can help businesses to cater their marketing
and offerings to consumers based on where they live and the requirements that arise as a
result of their surroundings
C. Behavioural:
Businesses look at their consumers’ behaviour toward products based on customer loyalty,
frequency of usage, position in the sales funnel, readiness to buy and familiarity with the
product. The way a business targets consumers who have no awareness of the product will
differ from the way they target loyal customers, for example.
D. Psychographic:
This segmentation strategy involves understanding the kind of lifestyle the consumers live. It
includes their interests, hobbies, opinions, social values, political beliefs and attitudes. For
example, a business that wants to target people who value environmental sustainability will
use a different message than if they were targeting people who value money and success
above all else. When segmenting your target market, it’s important to build a detailed profile
of your ideal customer. This is a reference that anyone in your business can use to understand
your consumer. When working on the product or developing marketing communications
messages, referencing the customer profile can help employees ensure they stay on track.

Selecting the Right Target Market

Once a business has segmented its market, it can evaluate which segments should be targeted.
To do that, it’s critical to first look at the size of each segment. For the strategy to be
financially viable, businesses need to target markets that are substantial in size. If a market is
too small, it won't be worth it to dedicate resources to reach that market. In addition,
businesses need to evaluate how unique their market segment is. The target market should
have unique needs that justify unique marketing messages. If the market is too similar to
another segment, they may not be able to identify themselves within the business' messaging.
Accessibility is another evaluation criteria businesses should review when deciding whether
or not to target a specific market segment. The market needs to be easily reachable through
communication mediums that are affordable for the business. The target market also needs to
be in a position where distribution is efficient and cost-effective.

Reaching Target Market with the Marketing Mix

An effective target marketing plan definition includes the ways your business will use the
marketing mix to reach your intended customer. Consider these questions when deciding on
how to appeal to your target market:
I. Product:
What features are your target market looking for? What kind of packaging will they find
appealing? How does your product help them uniquely solve their problem?
II. Place:
Where does your target market shop for your product? How can you make it easy for your
target market to get their hands on your product?
III. Price:
What's your target market willing to pay for your product? How does that price stack up with
your competitors?
IV. Promotion:
Which promotional medium will be most effective for reaching your target market? How can
you tailor your message so it appeals directly to them? Should you consider an integrated
marketing communications strategy?

CONCLUSION
Target marketing strategies are essential for every business that really want to be successful.
It has been and will always work for those businesses that invest more than just money but
ideas as well so as to me customers happy hence no post purchase dissonance.

References
1. Ayele, G.A (2012) Positioning strategies Adopted by five-star hotels in Nairobi
2. Camilleri, M. A (2018), Target marketing strategy
3. Dibb, S and Simkim, L (1996), The market segmentation workbook for marketing
managers
4. Michael Lynn (2011), Segmenting and Targeting Your Market: Strategies and
Limitations
5. Walletzky, L (2012) Market segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
6. Yabs, J.K (2014) Market segmentation strategies used as competitive Advantage
7. Restrepo, J.A (2003) Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning. The smart marketing
information