Market segmentation explained how the market should be subdivided into small portions to be more manageable efficiently and effectively. Market Targeting strategies explain how companies evaluate and select the target marketing segment which they can serve best and which they can achieve the biggest profit.
When evaluating different market segments to decide the best segment for the product, the organization must consider three main factors to identify the most approachable market targeting strategies for the business.
- Segment Size and growth – The size of the market segment should be aligned with the organization’s production capability and development characteristics. The market segment should cater growth capacity and the growth capacity should be able to handle by the organization
- Segment structural attractiveness – The organization should analyze the long-run attractiveness of the market segment.
- company objectives and resources – The organization’s objectives should match the output of the market segment and the available resources should have the capability of catering to the need of the target market segment.
The market targeting strategies can be identified under four main segments.
- Undifferentiated Marketing
- Differentiated Marketing
- Concentrated Marketing
- Micromarketing
Undifferentiated Marketing
This is also known as the Mass marketing strategy. Under this strategy, the organization decides to ignore the market segmentation and decide to produce it to the entire market. This is suitable for productions such as garment and necessary food. This type of strategy focuses on the common needs of the consumers and products to satisfy those common needs. There is no uniqueness or specification for the product. The organization should invest a large amount of capital for mass production.
Differentiated Marketing
Differentiated Marketing strategy is also known as the segmented marketing strategy. It decides to select several target markets in the industry and produce customized products for each market segment. By offering separate product types for each market segment, the organization is expecting to achieve a higher market share in each market segment and plan to stabilize separately in each segment. This strategy requires many research and development skills, innovative and creative skills to produce products that can satisfy all the selected market segments.
Differentiated marketing is a highly costly strategy. Apart from that, it can be considered as one of the safest ways of production. If one marketing segment fails to achieve the expected income, the organization has a few more options to improve and encourage.
Concentrated Marketing
Concentrated marketing is known as Niche marketing as well. Under the concentrated marketing strategy, the organization focuses on a large share of one or more small segments (niches). Through concentrated marketing, the organization is planning to achieve a strong market share and create brand loyalty in the customers. By focusing on one or a few niches the organization is planning to obtain better knowledge on the customer needs and provide exactly what they are expecting from the product.
This strategy helps smaller companies to focus on their resources and provide with minimum waste and achieve bigger and better market share.
Micromarketing
Micromarketing strategy is about producing the product and the marketing method to suit the taste of a specific individual or specific location. Rather than producing for every customer, micromarketing concentrates on satisfying the needs of specific, prestigious customers.
Micromarketing can be divided into two categories naming local marketing and individual marketing.
- Local Marketing – This is about providing a product or a service based on the requirement of a customer group
- Individual Marketing – This is about providing a product or a service based on an individual customer. This can be identified as one-to-one marketing or mass customization.
The organizations use the above-mentioned market targeting strategies to find the best market segmentation for their product and try to expand the market share within that market segment.