Page 154 - Foundations of Marketing

Target Markets: Segmentation and Evaluation | Chapter 5 121

Marketing Debate

Is Anything Gained by Gender Targeting?

ISSUE: Does targeting children by gender reinforce toys and play activities traditionally associated with the
stereotypes or limit play possibilities? opposite gender and possibly influence career choices
through stereotyping. Hasbro isn’t the only company that
After 50 years of targeting only girls for its Easy-Bake has faced such objections. After the Swedish government
Oven, Hasbro has announced a gender-neutral version forced Top Toy to change its stereotyped gender target-
and is airing commercials showing boys playing with ing, the company’s promotions began featuring girls with
the toy oven. This change made headlines because of military toys and boys with household appliance toys.
a teenage girl who wanted to give her little brother the For their part, toymakers target by gender so they can
oven as a gift but couldn’t find it in boy-friendly colors. understand the specific needs and preferences of boys
She presented Hasbro with a petition signed by 44,000 and girls and respond with appropriate marketing-mix
supporters and told its marketers that boys shouldn’t be elements. In fact, Hasbro knows that pink and purple
discouraged from cooking. aren’t the only colors girls like—which is why it has
This illustrates one side of the debate over whether
toymakers should target children by gender. Some offered its Easy-Bake Ovens in green, teal, orange, and
yellow over the years. So is it acceptable to target by gen-
parents seek to encourage creative play unconfined by der if the marketer doesn’t exclude nontargeted children
typical gender roles. Advocacy groups like Pinkstinks and doesn’t promote a negative view of the other gender?
a
worry that gender targeting will cause children to avoid

© iStockphoto.com/CRTd

After a firm uses a concentrated targeting strategy successfully in one market segment,
it may expand its efforts to include additional segments. For instance, the yoga brand
lululemon first became popular as a clothing company for women. However, lululemon’s
marketers identified growth opportunities among male consumers and now pursue a differ-
entiated targeting strategy, investing substantial marketing resources into the men’s yoga
2
segment.
A benefi t of a differentiated approach is that a fi rm may increase sales in the aggregate
market because its marketing mixes are aimed at more customers. For this reason, a company
with excess production capacity may fi nd a differentiated strategy advantageous because the
sale of products to additional segments may absorb excess capacity. On the other hand, a dif-
ferentiated strategy often demands more production processes, materials, and people because
the different ingredients in each marketing mix will vary. Thus, production costs may be
higher than with a concentrated strategy.

STEP 2: DETERMINE WHICH LO 4 . Become familiar with the
major segmentation variables.
SEGMENTATION VARIABLES TO USE

Segmentation variables are the characteristics of individuals, groups, or organizations
used to divide a market into segments. Location, age, gender, and rate of product usage
can all be bases for segmenting markets. Marketers may use several variables in combina-
tion when segmenting a market. For example, Silk, maker of nondairy soy and almond
segmentation
milks, segments the market for Unsweetened Vanilla Almondmilk two ways: by those variables Characteristics
who are allergic to or do not like the taste of dairy milk and by those looking to reduce of individuals, groups, or
the amount of calories in their diet while still getting the calcium and vitamins found in organizations used to divide a
3
regular milk. market into segments

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