Post #6: Target Marketing Strategies

Welcome back,

For this post I’m going to describe the four different target marketing strategies that a company might employ in order to market their product, service, or idea. I’ll define each one and then give my take and recommendation.

Undifferentiated (mass) marketing

A market-coverage strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and go after the whole market with one offer. The Super Bowl commercials are always using a this type of strategy because their audience of over 100 million viewers, although most likely football fans, is undifferentiated.

Differentiated (segmented) marketing

A market-coverage strategy in which a firm decides to target several market segments and designs separate offers for each. This strategy would be seen by a company like Match.com. Their segmentation may be as simple as men and women, but it will make their commercials different, on ESPN they will advertising by showing testimonies from women, and probably vice versa for say TLC.

Concentrated (niche) marketing

A market-coverage strategy in which a firm goes after a large share of one or a few segments or niches. Going back to ESPN, many beer companies clearly have concentrated marketing strategies because they are always targeting the same large share of a niche, like male sports fans.

Micromarketing (local or individual marketing)

Tailoring products and marketing programs to the needs and wants of specific individuals and local customer segments; it includes local marketing and individual marketing. Local marketing in defined by tailoring brands and promotions to the needs and wants of the local customer segments – cities, neighborhoods, and even specific stores. Individual marketing is a term for tailoring products and marketing programs to the needs and preferences of individual customers. An example for this customized products, such as jerseys, jewelry, and trophies.

Now, I think each strategy has it's pros and cons. However, I want to share an observation about their relationship. I think that there is clearly an evolution to these strategies, starting with micromarketing and ending with undifferentiated marketing. Take Nike, for instance. Nike started with their founder, Phil Knight, selling sneakers from the trunk of his car. Now, he's the 56th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $16.3 billion. So, Nike started with micromarketing, and now it has commercials everywhere.

Target marketing strategies are really just ways to show how popular a certain company is and how far-reaching their products and services are. Some companies stay at the micromarketing level, and sometimes that is where those companies want to be. Many landscaping businesses would fit here. The other examples are above if you'd like to revisit, but I want to focus on micromarketing because that is what people usually use to market their ideas, and their personal brand. I think that for personal branding, people must focus on micromarketing, and the idea of customization. Know your audience when you want to talk about yourself - it's like tailoring your resume for a certain position. Above all, have an idea of which strategy you ultimately want to use. In other words, decide how popular you want your brand to be. To begin moving into the upper level target markets, I think targeting "investors" is the natural next step. For companies, that usually means trying to get more capital, but for those of you buying into this personal brand concept it means gaining interest and connections with people who will talk about you and promote your ideas. Below is a video that sums things up fairly well. If anything, the last minute provides a good perspective.



The big lesson here is to go out and get investors. If you really have an idea that you are passionate about, and I know most people do, chances are that others can become passionate about it, too. My last post was all about my personal brand and what I am passionate about. Now I just need to continue telling professors and making more connections until I find a professor that will buy into my idea and help me to carry it out - I need investors. My dad is going through a similar process with a bookstore that he recently took over. It is something that he is passionate about, and as he continues to tell others in the community, he gets more and more investors - people who buy into the idea of his bookstore and what it can provide. So, be confident in your brand, go out there, and get some people to invest in your ideas - I hope you'll have as much fun with it as I am.

Best always,

Tim

Post #5: My Personal Brand

The material in chapter five is very similar to my previous post, so I have decided to discuss my goals for this semester – one of our alternate prompts to work with. Ironically, I will be providing more information about myself, which is what personal branding is all about. So here’s my personal brand:

My name is Timothy Nagy. I am a junior at Saint Michael’s College, majoring in business administration and religious studies, and minoring in classics and medieval studies. Most people will say, “Oh, well that’s an interesting combination! What are you planning to do with those degrees?” I used to tell people that maybe I could go into business ethics or managing a non-profit organization. Today, I am very focused on the religious studies route.  So what can I do with this personal brand?

Well, I have a few goals in mind. First, I’ve got to finish up the project that I mentioned in my previous post. The research has been completed, now I’m just trying to write it all up in a paper. Once I finish the paper, which has to be by the end of the month, I am planning on submitting it to the American Academy of Religion’s regional meeting for the Northeast and Maritimes. Fairly ambitious, but I’m optimistic. If it is not accepted, I will look for other journals and conferences to send it to. The main goal is to get my work published.

My second goal is to find a good summer program that will improve my research skills and my graduate admissions chances. The best program that I’ve found so far is this - http://cer.berkeley.edu/training. The only problem is that it’s in California. Otherwise, it’s really a great fit. Take a look at the poll question to the right and tell me what kind of program I should look for.

My third goal is to go to graduate school. I’ve been doing some research on what types of programs are out there, but the process is going to take several months to finalize. I am trying to keep all of my options open, but I’ve narrowed things down a bit. As of now (these things can change frequently), I want to study pneumatology, and I want to take an ethnographic approach to future research. Ideally, I would like to either stay in the northeast, or study in the UK because many of their programs are shorter.

Those are my primary goals for this semester. Notice I didn’t mention classes at all, but I am certainly committed to earning good grades this semester, and, more importantly, adding to my knowledge. For my marketing class in particular, I hope to keep learning about how I can best market myself so that I can make my primary goals as achievable as possible. Ever since I started the semester by reading Karen Kang’s book about personal branding, BrandingPays, my perspective has been focused on personal branding. I hope this blog has been at least somewhat helpful for you in terms of improving your perspective on how to present yourself to the world and improving the chances of achieving your goals. Have a great week! -Tim

Post #4: Ethnographic Research

Hello there,

Yes! Ethnographic research! For this post I am going to discuss ethnographic research, it's importance in marketing, and, at the same time, give a glimpse of my experience with it.

Ethnographic research, in many ways, is the practice of going into a community or culture that  is foreign to you and learning about it. Ways of learning about it could be through immersion or interviewing, but it cannot be done well from the computer. A huge part of ethnographic research is being in the field and learning from experience.

In marketing, ethnographic research is defined as: "A form of observational research that involves sending trained observers to watch and interact with consumers in their 'natural environments'." Companies send researchers into stores to see what people buy and how they interact with their products in the store. They hope to get a better idea of how consumers react to their product. From there, they can make the packaging stand out, or whatever the case may be.

My experience conducting ethnographic research was a bit different. This past summer I receieved a grant from the Saint Michael's College Alumni Fund for Undergraduate Research. My proposal was to investigate the relationship between a person's religious affiliation and their approaches to decision making and conflict resolution. To do so I planned out an ethnographic model with my advisor. We chose two churches in Amherst, Massachusetts, one Catholic and one Baptist, and we chose a two-tiered interviewing process. The first interview would be a focus group so that I could learn about each church community separately. Then I would interview each participant one-on-one about a particular decision they had to make or a conflict they had to resolve. After that, I would be able to identify any similarities and differences. I will tell you what I found in one of the next few posts, just so you have something to look forward to. What I will say is that Catholics and Baptists, at least in Amherst, Massachusetts, approach their decisions differently and appeal to different values.

Ethnographic research is a very valuable research tool. It has helped me to change my perspective after just one study, and I hope to conduct many more studies in the future. In terms of tying this into personal branding, I think the most practical application is to use ethnography to determine where you fit in. Once you know your talents and what you want to do with them, you can start to look for an industry to persue. You can start by looking at job descriptions online, but you'll never know what your actual tasks will be until you start asking people what they do. An ethnographic approach can give you a new perspective whether you interview ten people in a focus group, or if you go and have a conversation with a professor or business leader. Either way, go and have a chat!

Best always,

Tim

Post #3: Super Bowl Ads

Hello once more,

This week my professor assigned a special objective for blogging this week: analyze the Super Bowl commercials with the 4 P’s. At first, I wasn’t too enthused because I used the 4 P’s last week, and because I have been trying to emphasize personal branding. However, after watching the commercials (and the Seahawks domination!), I think this will be a good lesson in how companies try to appeal to you as they spend millions of dollars for these ads. To show the differences, I’m going to focus on the ads from different automobile companies.

If I remember correctly, the first ad was for the new Maserati Ghibli. The ad was one minute and thirty seconds long, and for the first minute and ten seconds a little girl talks about “waiting until they get sleepy,” “coming out of the shadows,” and then it’s time to “strike” - then they introduce the product. After looking at the commercial again, I identified the metaphor of other car companies getting sleepy and then Maserati coming out of the shadows and striking with the Ghibli, but I’ll admit I didn’t realize it the first time. So why did I remember this ad? I think it was just because it was so much longer than most ads, and maybe because I was confused by the two distinct parts of the ad.

Product – Maserati Ghibli

Promotion – Abnormally long commercial, “quietly walk out of the dark...and strike”

Place – First Super Bowl commercial

Price – Estimated $12 million for the commercial, price of car not mentioned

Chevrolet had two means of appealing to you. The first was humor with the bull being transported to the farm with all of the cows. The second was much more emotional as a couple traveled across the countryside, the wife silently communicating that she had overcome something by reaching for her husband’s hand. This ad was made in conjunction with the American Cancer Society. Both ads were a minute long.

Product – Chevrolet Truck (no specified model)

Promotion – Humor and emotion, teaming with American Cancer Society to raise awareness

Place – First half Super Bowl commercials

Price – Estimated $16 million for the two commercials, price of car not mentioned

Humor was used by Volkswagen, too. Their ad was my favorite of the car ads because it was simple, yet effective. The message was that once a Volkswagen reaches 100,000 miles, “a German engineer gets his wings”. After the driver of the VW tells this to his daughter, the attention goes to the VW plant where engineers start sprouting wings of different sizes. Then the daughter says, “Yeah dad, and I ‘m sure at 200,000 miles, rainbows shoot out of their butts.” And sure enough, they show one extra surprised engineer. Here’s a link. 

Product – Volkswagen (no specified model)

Promotion – Humor, “that’s the power of German engineering”

Place – First half Super Bowl commercial

Price – Estimated $8 million, price of car not mentioned

Other ads included Chrysler with Bob Dylan as their spokesman. This ad came late in the game and was not very memorable, but now I associate Bob Dylan with Chrysler – doesn’t make me want to buy a Chrysler though. Kia had an ad with Morpheus from The Matrix trying to redefine luxury, and then singing Nessun Dorma, the classic opera song made famous by Pavarotti. Toyota also had a memorable ad with the muppets and Terry Crews.

My main point here is that there are many different approaches to grabbing one’s attention. I like humor like many others. Some like suspense, others like emotion, and, of course, sex sells. The bigger question remains, Do these ads significantly increase sales? Here's a perspective on that question. In the meantime, I'll try to see if that's true throughout the week, and I'll let you know soon.

Best,

Tim