Page 49 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

segMentation, targeting and positioning 41
strong predictors of whether she had borne children. Today, women are having their families later in life; a new mum can be anywhere from her 20s to her mid-40s and due to the wonders of in-vitro fertilization, even older. Though demographic segmentation is still widely used we should realize that as society changes, demographic segmentation loses some of its predictive power. We now take a closer look at a few of these variables below.
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Forget for a moment that all people are created equal. Men and women need different products, and tend to differ in their approaches to meeting those needs.
Gender segmentation entails dividing a market according to the gender of the customer, followed by a marketing offer consisting of a marketing-mix that is tailored to meet the unsatisfied needs of the targeted gender. Dividing the market according to gender is widely employed. Walk into a department store, and it becomes instantly clear which sections are targeted to women and which are targeted to men. It is equally dramatic for boys’ and girls’ clothing; few boys will be caught alive in pink, though girls are more opened minded about colours and clothing styles.
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Income segmentation entails dividing a market into classes according to the annual salary earned by consumers. Typically, these groups are divided into low-, middle- and high-income groups. The marketing-mix targeted to those in the low-income group will be different than those tailored to those who earn more. This can be seen in men’s stores where we can buy clothing at Wal- Mart or Asda; Sears, Target, Macy’s or John Lewis; and Saks Fifth Avenue or Harrods, each a step up in the income ladder. In the retail industry, income segmentation is fraying a bit around the edges, and some less well-off people are also ‘spoiling’ themselves by shopping a rung or two up the status ladder and some rather well-off people will do some of their shopping at Wal-Mart or Asda to save money in categories where they are content with less expensive goods.