Segmentation Marketing Performance Solutions MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Segmentation Marketing for Performance Solutions Group. Answer: Introduction The marketing research is an important component in determining the marketing objective, tactics and the strategies of a firm (Babin and Zikmund 2015). This kind of research helps in the formulation of vision and aims of the marketing plan and decides the path to be followed for achieving the marketing goals. It would also help the company or the brand to know the target audience and the new markets that would be lucrative for the business. Apple Inc. engages in extensive market research to know the exact requirements of the customers (Sama et al. 2014). It has a research group for this purpose named Apple Customer Pulse which helps the company in collecting, compiling and analyzing the data for quick data analysis. The company made different design as well as product modifications based on the market research such as larger screens, greater user interface and the better quality of the cameras. This has helped the company to fulfill its goal of making good products that would satisfy the customer needs. As discussed in theory, this example shows how the market research helps the company in shaping up of the goals and activities of the company. The company should engage in more interaction with the customers should engage in greater market research activities. There is a greater need of the alignment of the business goals with the findings of the market research, which would help the company to be able to formulate more customer friendly policies. The example failed to demonstrate the other tools used by the company to engage in market research activities. It also failed to address the direct contribution of the market research into the formulation of business plans. The modern brands are going through intense competition, which is evident in the competitive marketplaces. There is the existence of both direct as well as indirect competition in the market. My favorite product is cars and my favorite brand is Toyota Motors. The closest rivals of Toyota are General Motors, Honda, Volkswagen and Ford (Beard Ford and Spiwak 2015). The company should use the sustainable organizational resources including the human resources in order to create competitive advantage. This would also help the company to increase its financial resources. The article Toyota undertakes VW as biggest carmaker in the world on The Telegraph shows that the Toyota faces stiff competition from the German carmaker- Volkswagen (The Telegraph 2017). It shows that there are issues with the emissions cheating scandal of Volkswagen, which has given a competitive edge for Toyota. This is demonstrated by a global increase in the sales of Toyota. Toyota has incorporated increased safety features as well as improved acceleration to gain competitive advantage. The company has added value added features in their Land Cruiser, which is considered as the most expensive sports utility car. The sales of this car also improve the financial status of the company. This example shows that there is existence of the direct as well as indirect competition in the market and the organizations should respond in an effective manner so that they can top the market position. Toyota should incorporate more features in their products which would help them to handle the competitors in a better manner. The brand should engage in marketing research, which would help the company to determine the preferred attributes of the customers. The macro environment factors are helpful in the determination of external marketing environment of a company (Chen et al. 2014). This tool is helpful in the analysis and the assessment of the external environment of an organization. The various external factors such as political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal are analyzed through the help of PESTEL analysis. Google Pixel XL is a new product that is launched in Australia (Mi 2017). It should take into account the different factors in the PESTEL analysis for its entry in the market. The political factors imply that the company should focus on the government policies, labor laws, trade restrictions and others. It should also consider the economic factors such as interest rates, economic growth, inflation and others (McCombie and Thirlwall 2016). Google should also consider the socio-cultural factors such as shared beliefs, values, attitudes and other attributes of the population. It should also consider the other demographic factors of the population. Google should take into account the different technological factors such as new tools of production, distribution and communication. It is also important to focus on the different environmental factors such as pollution targets, scarce nature of the raw materials and the carbon footprint targets. Google should take into account the different l egal factors in Australia underpinning the health/safety, advertising standards, equal opportunities, product labeling and others. There are also certain international trade regulations that should be followed by the company. The PESTEL analysis is important when venturing into the new markets. The company should engage in in-depth analysis of the market so that there are minimal possibilities of the market risks. It should also customize the product according to the needs as well as preferences of the local target market. SWOT analysis is considered as one of the most important internal analysis that is used by the firms. This is an important tool that is used by the companies to take marketing mix decisions and utilize the elements of the marketing plan. The SWOT analysis combines the information gathered from the environmental analysis and identifies the internal issues as well as external issues of the firm (Grant 2016). The internal issues are determined by the strengths or weakness and the external issues are analyzed with the help of opportunities as well as threats. The strengths of the company includes that it has highest brand equity, company valuation and has vast global presence. It has high rate of customer loyalty and it has wide distribution network which makes it products easily available to the general public. The weakness of the brand includes that it has stiff competition with Pepsi, low product diversification, absence of health related beverages and issues with the water management. The opportunities of the product include that it can engage in more product diversification and give more products to the customers. It should try to emerge more in the developing nations and should strive for supply chain improvement. The threats of the company include the raw material sourcing and the indirect competitors such as Caf Coffee Day, Starbucks and others. There might be issues with the rising water scarcity in the world since the primary raw material used in the manufacturing process is water. Coca Cola should use the SWOT process to design effective marketing mix. It should make quality products, present right price of the products, engage in extensive distribution channels and use extensive promotional skills. The segmentation, targeting and the positioning is an important as well as familiar step used in the marketing process (Brian 2015). The first step used in the process is segregating the market according to the market needs and the needs of the consumers. The subsequent steps in the STP analysis would be used to implement products in the specific segments and target the customers accordingly. The positioning strategies of the companies would help the company to occupy a distinct position in the minds of the target customers. The segmentation can be done based on the geographic, demographic, behavioral and the psychographic attributes. The next step involves the targeting of the best customers by analyzing the size as well as potential growth of individual customer group. The selected industry of study is hospitality industry. The current trends in the hospitality industry show that there is high number of mobile check-in, which implies that there would be high degree of technological adoptions (Lian and Yuan 2015). The technology is also used highly inside the rooms. There is an increasing intervention of the social media network in the hospitality industry. Recommendations These current trends can be explained with the help of STP analysis. The market should be segmented based on the abilities of the people such as technological adoption and if the customers who are more likely to use the technological innovation would be selected. It may also include the younger generation who are more active on the social media network. This segment would form the target market of the hospitality properties and the service or products would be positioned accordingly. The example has bridged the gap between the theory and the practice. The brand management is considered as the administration of all the major activities of the brand and managing the tangible as well as intangible characteristics of the brand (Rosenbaum-Elliott et al. 2015). The branding is considered as an important activity for capturing the niche market for the particular product as well as services. It is also concerned with conveying the brand message of the company so that it is helpful in the creation of customer loyalty. A successful example of new product success would be the Samsung Galaxy S8 in Australia. The article on Forbes shows that the phone has received record breaking success after its launch (Forbes.com 2017). This is due to innovation incorporate into the products and the commitment of the brand towards the customers. One example of a product failure is the low sales Apple iPhone 7 in UK. The article on iPhone 7: Apple sales are not as good as hoped, report claims shows that there is disappointing sales of the flagship smartphone (Moore 2017). There is not up to the mark sales of the company and hence the company has decided to cut the number of production. This shows that the brand is not successful in incorporating value added features in the product. The internal as well as external forces have impacted the product failure of Apple iPhone 7 in UK. The brand should have incorporated value added features in the product. References Babin, B.J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015.Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning. Beard, T.R., Ford, G.S. and Spiwak, L.J., 2015. The Price Effects of Intra-Brand Competition in the Automobile Industry: An Econometric Analysis. Brian, J., 2015. Segmentation Marketing: A Case Study on Performance Solutions Group, LLC. Chen, Y., Wang, Y., Nevo, S., Jin, J., Wang, L. and Chow, W.S., 2014. IT capability and organizational performance: the roles of business process agility and environmental factors.European Journal of Information Systems,23(3), pp.326-342. Corea, G., 2016. Global value chain: the Coca-Cola system. Forbes.com. (2017).Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com [Accessed 5 May 2017]. Grant, R.M., 2016.Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley Sons. Hansen, J.T., 2016. Constructing a Product Brand Identity: The Case of Coca-Cola. Lian, D. and Yuan, N.J., 2015. Mobile Check-In Recommendation. McCombie, J. and Thirlwall, A.P., 2016.Economic growth and the balance-of-payments constraint. Springer. Mi, X., 2017. Google to launch Pixel, Pixel XL on 4th October?.Screen. Moore, M. 2017.iPhone 7: Apple sales are NOT as good as hoped, report claims. [online] Express.co.uk. Available at: https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/749318/iphone-7-sales-disappoint-apple-sale-figures-report-samsung-galaxy-note-7 [Accessed 5 May 2017]. Rosenbaum-Elliott, R., Elliott, R.H., Percy, L. and Pervan, S., 2015.Strategic brand management. Oxford University Press, USA. Sama, P.R., Eapen, Z.J., Weinfurt, K.P., Shah, B.R. and Schulman, K.A., 2014. An evaluation of mobile health application tools.JMIR mHealth and uHealth,2(2), p.e19. Thetelegraph.2017. Toyota overtakes VW as biggest carmaker in the world. [online] Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/11954499/Toyota-overtakes-VW-as-biggest-carmaker-in-the-world.html [Accessed 5 May 2017].