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.
- 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.
