Page 56 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

48 Marketing: the Basics
consists of six stages: first a consumer is unaware of a product’s benefits. Second, after being exposed to a promotional campaign, they become somewhat aware. Following repeated exposure, they become informed. The more informed they become the more interested they become in the product. This in turn increases their desire to own the product, which translates into an intention to buy. The stage a product exists within the buying process affects the type of promotional campaign that is implemented.
usage RaTe
Markets can also be segmented according to rate of usage. Typically marketers divide the market into heavy, medium and light users. Heavy users, generally speaking, are the smallest group a marketer serves, but they are the most profitable. Promoting a small percentage of medium users into heavy users will dramatically affect the bottom line. It is the commonly quoted 80/20 rule, where 80 per cent of your sales come from 20 per cent of your customers, a rule which holds in an amazing number of markets.
pRoDucT enD use
Another method of segmenting a market is to identify the current status of the consumer. Marketers normally group customers into the following categories: regular users, first-time users, former users, competitive users and non-users. Regular users are the most valuable and contribute the most to profit. The challenge with first- time users is to make it such a positive experience that they will be converted to become regular users. Former users are of considerable interest. A starting place is to ask why did they leave? There are good reasons and poor reasons. A good reason might be that your product is no longer relevant, they have moved to a different city or have retired; a poor reason is that you dropped the ball on the customer service front. Poor reasons are ones you should try to solve to win back their business. Users of your competitors’ product are of great interest. After your own users they are a critical target. The great advantage is that they are already users of your product’s category and believe that it is relevant to their lives; what you must