Mm Assignment

1) Major steps in designing a customer-driven marketing strategy

The objective of a customer-driven marketing strategy is to target a specific market segment and to create value for the target customers. Once the best opportunity to satisfy unfulfilled customer needs is identified, a strategic plan for pursuing that opportunity can be developed.

There are four major steps in designing a customer-driven marketing strategy. The major steps involve segmentation, targeting, differentiation and positioning.

Segmentation

Segmentation is the first major step to design a customer-driven marketing strategy. As the marketplace is vast and heterogeneous with different customer needs and wants in various forms, segmentation is used to divide this large market into smaller market segments. By doing so, companies can reach out to the smaller market more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match their unique needs. When segmentation is done right, the company can get the highest return for their marketing expenditure.

Example: “Colgate Total 12” toothpaste is marketed to adults, while “Colgate Kids” toothpaste is marketed to children. Both are marketed to two distinct groups of people but both meet the similar needs (toothpaste) for oral hygiene.

Targeting

Targeting is the second step to design a customer-driven marketing strategy. After market segmentation is done and the company’s market segment opportunities is clear, the company can choose the segments it wishes to enter.

“Marketing managers know they cannot serve all customers, by trying to do so, they end up not serving any well”. (Vallabhaneni, 2013)

As stated above, knowing who to serve is important for a company. After segmenting the market, the company has to target the specific segments of customers most likely to use the product/service. By doing so, the company can focus on its target customers better and be able to offer superior value to them.

Companies can also adopt...