Question

3. There are 4 bases for international market segmentation. Illustrate each with example.

Answer 1

There are four bases for international market segmentation.Illustrate each with example.

The concept of market segmentation came thinking that all the potential consumers are not identical,their wants,needs,desires are different based on their culture,geographical location. Market segmentation means targetting distinct groups that have similar desires,wants, and responds more often similarly to a marketing action.They segment a market by sub-dividing it depending upon various characteristics.Market segmentation helps to divide the target markets into smaller segments of people that share common characteristics to optimize their marketing,advertising and sales effort.Four types of segmentation are geographic, demographic, behavioural and psychographic segmentation.

Geographic segmentation : It targets consumers based on a geographical territory. One can geographically segment a market by area such as cities, counties, regions, countries, and international regions.Few important features of this type of segmentation are differences in interests, values,culture which helps marketers to advertise accordingly.One good example of such segmentation is that In USA, even though seafood is preferred all over the country, seafood is extensively marketed in the South and Southeast regions because of the fact that fresh supply is available in these areas all year round, and consumers demand more here and products are easily accessible.Instead of using beef, in India McDonalds burgers are made from chicken due to religious beliefs.

Demographic segmentation : In this case markets are targeted depending upon age, gender, education level, family size, occupation, income, and more. This is a very common form of strategy used for marketing due to specific products are the demand of specific types of people depending upon different demographic element,the most primarily targeted demographic element is age.As the generation changes,their wants changes and it becomes easy to target such people in this segmentation. It focuses on the people who are most likely to buy a product.Also gaming laptops are mostly demanded by teenager group category. This helps in identifying the target market.  Alcoholic beverages have limited to no reach in the middle eastern countries(an example based on demographic segmentation based on religion)

Behavioural segmentation :It targets consumers based on their buying behaviour like,quality in affordable price,benefits needed,festival demands,how frequently they buy a product. Faith in a particular brand, the way they use it are all examples of behavioral segmentation. Example : Nike or Puma are well known brands and people love buying these because they have faith in these brands.

Psychographic segmentation :As the name suggests,it focus on psychology of the person as to what traits do they possess.It focusses on the personalities of consumer along with their interests,opinions ,lifestyle patterns and values. It is mostly similar to behavioural segmentation except for the fact that behavioural focuses on specific reactions.Lifestyle is one of the common element psychographic segmentation. We can see such example of this in supermarkets where companies like Walmart targets middle class people who likes saving money. As a result of studying trends of people's interest,they display messages of discounts when and whereve required like in weekend days,they display "Weekend Special" .Big e-commerce companies like Amazon does they same.