2.2

1. Describe the market segment(s) your product aims for. What segmentation targeting strategy does the manufacturer follow? Which market segmentation criteria are used? Also, describe the positioning strategy used for the product.

Doritos’ primary segmentation is with the demographic value; age.  Their primary targets are younger people between the ages of 16 and 24, so college or university students, mostly. Doritos is also more targeted at males than it is at females, though this is less important than the age segmentation. There is also some segmentation toward income. The target here lies in lower to middle income, as is to be expected when you look at the ages they target. And, as Doritos is a snack, they also segment on the psychographic variable of lifestyle; the greatest number of people will still eat crisps, but there is a small branch of people who avoid all things unhealthy, athletes and the like.

To summarize, Doritos segments their market on the following variables:

-       Age

o   16-24

-       Occupation

o   Student

-       Gender

o   male

-       Income

o   Lower to middle

-       Lifestyle

o   Average people, non-athletes.

Doritos’ slogan at the moment is ‘’for the bold’’ this puts a perception into the minds of the consumers that greatly appeals to them, as it tells them they are daring or adventurous. Its executive positioning comes in the form of its logo, on a single colour of bag, along with a few crisps on the bag, the colours are usually very bright and eye-catching. They might, sometimes, release a special version which changes the standard look slightly, but the standard bags of crisps are commonly all the same. What Doritos promises (what its proposition is) is a taste so amazingly jaw dropping it is irresistible.

2. 26. Describe the basic conditions for effective segmentation and evaluate whether these conditions are met for the segments you described before.

The effectiveness is based on several criteria which are the following

-       Homogeneous

o   All the consumers allocated to a segment should be similar in a relevant way

-       Heterogeneous.

o   Every segment of consumers should be unique in comparison to the other segments.

-       Measurable

o   It must be possible to measure the size of the market segment

-       Substantial.

o   The segment should be large enough, when looking at sales, to warrant the attention of the firm.

-       Accessibility

o   The segment should be attainable when considering distribution and promotion.

-       Stable

o   The segment must be around long enough for it to be viable.

Doritos segments

-       homogenous

Doritos’ segments are definitely homogeneous. The people of this age group are definitely similar to one another as they are in a similar phase of their life. Students, also, are very similar to one another in the way they live. Males, are definitely similar in many ways, though we mustn’t generalize, of course, the group is rather large, after all, and thus, similarities and differences must exist. The people of the wage segment definitely share resemblances, but maybe this is easiest to see by looking at what they’re not. For instance, the higher tiers of the wage group are less likely to purchase something as, crude? perhaps, as Doritos. And would be more likely to purchase something more defined. But people of the targeted wage group have no such… restraints. And the last group, the non-athletes all share the most crucial trait for Doritos, in that they aren’t so restrained to never eat something that would be unhealthy.

-       Heterogeneous

When looking at heterogeneousness some problems arise, it is easily discernible when looking at the first two groups, for instance. The ages 16-24 of coincide with being students, and are therefore almost completely similar people. The same goes for the wage. Of course, this doesn’t go for all of this group, since later in life people who belong to this group are different. However, most students (age 16-24) are part of this wage group, because they aren’t properly earning money yet. The males and non-athletes are both very big groups, and so naturally have some part in other segments, but they are different enough from their opposite segments. What I mean with that is that while male and female are both massive groups (half the population (roughly) they are still heterogenous in the sense that these groups are in critical ways completely different from the other.

-       Measurable

In this regard the segments are very manageable. Age, occupation and gender are the easiest, with income being slightly more difficult, and lifestyle slightly more difficult still. However, you should definitely be able to evaluate the overall attractiveness of the segments.

-       Substantial

the substantiality of the buying power for the segments is definitely there. All of the segments that Doritos uses is without a doubt large enough to warrant attention, and making and subsequently maintaining a marketing mix should most assuredly be justifiable.

-       Accessibility

The segments are one and all accessible, though, because some segments fail in regards to heterogeneousness it might be slightly harder to differentiate them from one another. What I mean is whilst they are decidedly accessible, since they are similar to one another, or are related in some ways (such as the aforementioned age and occupation, here) it might be difficult to separately reach them.

-       Stability

Yes. All of the segments are magnificently stable. They are groups of people that exist, and always will keep existing. Changes will happen of course, people get replaced, but the segment itself is eternal. Look, for instance, at age; people won’t stop aging, for now, but even though people eventually go past the outer limit of 24 years old, new people will take their place, for now, and forever more. The same goes for the other groups.