Variables in the Market Environment

INTRODUCTION

When opening a new store of any kind, identifying the issues in segmentation is of high importance.

In order to make sure your store stands out from the rest and offers all that consumers need and want, the following steps needs to be taken and looked at in great detail

LOCATION OF HARDWARE

WHEN CHOOSING A LOCATION, I LOOKED FOR A PLACE THAT WOULD ATTRACT PEOPLE, A LOCATION WHERE CONSUMERS WILL FLOCK TO FOR DAY-TO-DAY NEEDS, SUCH AS A GROCERY STORE,A CHEMIST, ETC.

I FOUND THAT A NEW SHOPPING CENTRE IN BOKSBURG , SUNWARD PARK HAS JUST BEEN BUILT,WHICH OFFERS A VARIETY OF OTHER STORES, SUCH AS WOOLWORTHS FOOD STORE, A MIMMO’S RESTAURANT, THE DROS PUB & GRILL, A HAIR SALON, AN FNB & ABSA BANK AND A CHEMIST.

BY LOCATING MY HARDWARE STORE IN THE SAME CENTRE AS THE ABOVE STORES, IT WILL ATTRACT MANY PEOPLE AS CONSUMERS USE THE ABOVE MENTIONED STORES ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS.

VARIABLES IN THE MARKET ENVIRONMENT THAT WILL IMPACT MY BUSINESS

There are four variables which influence Market Segmentation, Geographic Segmentation, Demographic Segmentation, Psychographic Segmentation and Behaviouristic Segmentation.

These variables will now be discussed in detail to see how they will affect the Hardware Store.

GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION

In segmenting a market geographically, the Marketer divides the total market into different geographical areas, such as countries or regions. Other concerns would be the size of the city or town and whether or not it is an Urban, Suburban or Rural area – This will help you decide what LSM you are looking at targeting.

If we look at the stats for this town, the numbers will read as follows

* Region: Gauteng

* City: Johannesburg – Approx 100 000 inhabitants

* Town : Boksburg, which has approx 10 000 inhabitants

* Density: Urban & Suburban

Lets discuss the above stats in more detail

When looking at a Town such as Boksburg, Sunward Park, you will notice that it is a fairly large Suburb, resulting in...