Describe market targeting as a step towards designing a market driven marketing strategy

A target market is a set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company
decides to serve e.g. wholesalers who stock cooking oil products could be a target market for a
cooking oil manufacturer like Bidco.

Market Targeting Strategies
After analyzing the various segments, the company must then decide on the method to
use in approaching the market. The strategies for selecting a target market include:
(i) Undifferentiated marketing
(ii) Differentiated marketing
(iii) Concentrated marketing
(iv) Micromarketing

(i) Undifferentiated Marketing (Mass Marketing)
This is a situation in which a firm decides to ignore the various market segments and
goes for the whole market with one type of product using one form of marketing mix
e.g. mass advertising of Equity Bank, mass distribution of Jogoo maize flour, mass
promotional campaigns of Coca-Cola.

The main advantage of this strategy is that it is a cost saving approach
The main undoing of this strategy includes:
- Makes a firm unimaginative
- Makes a firm vulnerable to competition

(ii) Differentiated Marketing (Segmented Marketing)
Using this strategy, a firm decides to target several market segments and designs separate
offers or market mix for each e.g. Toyota has differentiated markets as follows:
- Toyota Prado/Lexus/V8– For consumers who care about size, strength, safety and not price.
- Toyota Corolla/ Probox /Vitz – For consumers who care about fuel consumption and are price sensitive.

The main advantage of this strategy is that it may yield financial success with economies of
scale in production and marketing.
The main disadvantage of this strategy is that it is a very costly strategy. The high cost
originates from; Product design cost, promotion costs for different markets, inventory cost for
various markets, research cost amongst others.
(iii) Concentrated Marketing (Niche Marketing)
This is a strategy where a firm selects a market niche and concentrates on it. It involves
offering one product to one specific group.
Is especially appealing when company resources are limited. Instead of going after small
share of large markets, the firm goes after a large share of one or a few segments or niches e.g. KCB has branches all over the country, I & M Bank, has branches only in cities i.e. Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa. I & M is applying niche marketing.
(iv) Micromarketing (One to One Marketing)
Micromarketing is the practice of tailoring products and marketing programmes to suit
the tastes of specific individuals and locations. It is broadly divided into local marketing
and individual marketing.
Local marketing is tailoring brands and promotions to the needs and wants of local
customer groups i.e. cities, neighbourhoods or specific stores
Individual marketing is the tailoring of products and marketing programs to the needs and
preferences of individual customers also called one to one marketing.

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Titany answered the question on November 3, 2021 at 07:57