Page 152 - Foundations of Marketing

Target Markets: Segmentation and Evaluation | Chapter 5 119

the strategy assumes that all customers in the target market have similar needs, and thus
the organization can satisfy most customers with a single marketing mix with little or no
variation. Products marketed successfully through the undifferentiated strategy include
commodities and staple food items, such as sugar and salt and conventionally raised
produce.
The undifferentiated targeting strategy is effective under two conditions. First, a large
proportion of customers in a total market must have similar needs for the product, a situation
termed a homogeneous market . A marketer using a single marketing mix for a total market
of customers with a variety of needs would fi nd that the marketing mix satisfi es very few
people. For example, marketers would have little success using an undifferentiated strategy to
sell a “universal car” because different customers have varying needs. Second, the organiza-
tion must have the resources to develop a single marketing mix that satisfi es customers’ needs
in a large portion of a total market and the managerial skills to maintain it.
The reality is that, although customers may have similar needs for a few products, for
most products their needs are different enough to warrant separate marketing mixes. In such
instances, a company should use a concentrated or a differentiated strategy.

Concentrated Targeting Strategy through
homogeneous market
Market Segmentation A market in which a large
proportion of customers have
While most people will be satisfied with the same white sugar, not everyone needs the same similar needs for a product
car, furniture, or clothes. A market comprised of individuals or organizations with diverse
heterogeneous market
product needs is called a heterogeneous market . For example, some individuals want a Ford A market made up of individuals
truck because they have to haul heavy loads for their work, while others live in the city and or organizations with diverse
enjoy the ease of parking and good gas mileage of a Smart car. The automobile market thus needs for products in a specific
is heterogeneous. product class

Image Courtesy of The Advertising Archives Anonymous/AP Photos

Concentrated Targeting Strategy Both Mont Blanc and Bic pens use a concentrated targeting strategy to aim at a
different, single market segment. They are not competing for the same customers.

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