Interrelation Between Segmentation, Positioning And Targeting In Marketing Management

The Importance of Marketing Mix in a Successful Campaign

Discuss about the Marketing Management for Interrelation between Segmentation.

The aim of this present essay is to identify the interrelation between segmentation, positioning and targeting (STP) which is three most essential segments of a fruitful marketing mix. Companies require building a well-organized marketing plan when the particular organization is going to launch a new business venture or to launch a new brand. In the time of launching a new brand, a business enterprise initially needs to identify a particular target market which after that followed by the process of the marketing mix. To obtain a clear understanding regarding the subject matter of marketing mix and its correlation with STP, the essay has discussed strategies of the marketing mix of Johnson & Johnson and Sanitarium-Weet-Bix in the case of launching two new brands in the market.

Before understanding how the two mentioned business organizations have become successful in marketing by using the concepts of the marketing mix and STP in particular, it is necessary to understand that marketing is essential for managing a firm customer relationship with the customer. Additionally, marketing helps a company to deliver values to the consumers that support to acquire benefits for the organization (Alon and Eugene 2012). The process of the marketing mix of a company could not become successful if the company stays ignorant about the other interrelated aspects of marketing which are market segmentation, positioning, and targeting (Hassan and Craft 2012). With the help of market segmentation, a company identifies other groups or organizations with similar service attributes by segmenting the entire trade market.

On the other hand, without targeting a proper group of audience, a company could not decide appropriate price or quality of the product (Kotler et al. 2015). Most importantly, positioning strategy is necessary when the enterprise goes to design an effective offering method to establish a distinct position among the target market (Sharma and Lambert 2013). Hence, the entire STP process is a mandatory criterion to choose a particular product, set an apt price for the product and after that to make a suitable promotion catches the eyes of the targeted audience (Smh.com.au 2016). Alongside, marketing mix supports an organization to stay entirely concentrated upon the intended audience and establishes an individual brand image that can be differentiated from other rival enterprises (Huang and Sarigöllü 2014). Most importantly, a proper marketing mix enhances the volume of credibility for a company.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is among one of those companies which are known for both its unique quality of products and services and exclusive and variety range of services. From baby products to skin care to women hygiene, the enterprise has caught billions of audience from every horizon of the world. Specifically, J&J is a familiar name for most of the household across countries for its unique and quality products in the brand of baby and child care. The organization has done a line extension in this particular brand by frequently launching cream, soaps, lotion and power in different fragrances and colors. Furthermore, the company prefers to do corporate branding as part of their marketing strategy. Specifically, J&J has earned immense popularity with their Johnson's baby powder and their success over this individual product is indicative of the fact that the enterprise has tactfully made a balance between their strategies for STP and marketing mix (Hassan and Craft 2012).

For instance, J&J has promptly used the concept of targeting which has helped them to find an enormous scope in targeting newborn babies and the newly become mothers. The company's aim regarding their targeting strategy has been to launch a product which can be affordable for the parents staying above the poverty line. J&J mainly has chosen the demographic segmentation and concentrated on to target mothers between the age group of 24 to 32 as newly become parents of this age group are considered to have the best interest to take proper care of their child's health (Jnj.com.au 2016). Similarly, with the help of using positioning concepts, the company uses eye catchy positioning statements that make the way easy to reach the desired revenue scale. J&J’s positioning statements are popular among the audience as most of the quotes are made considering aspects of emotional bonding. Considering the characteristic of the target market, J&J's baby powder possesses some excellent features such as it helps to make smooth skin, prevents any rash forming germs and comes in an attractive cylindrical package.

On the other hand, the organization prefers to distribute their products in retail and supermarket stores like Walmart, Target, Vons and Eversave offers special discount coupon and gift packs and campaigns like Nursing’s Future as part of promotional activities. Keeping in mind about the fundamental purpose of the company regarding the product, J&J has set an affordable price which has supported the company to make a good bond with the customers along with to earn huge revenue (Jnj.com.au 2016). In the year 2011, the enterprise acquired near about 65 billion dollars and the company believes they could not have received such an amount without the use of the concept of STP and marketing mix.

Case Study: Sanitarium-Weet-Bix's Marketing Strategies with STP

Unfortunately, instead of having successful marketing and customer satisfaction, the company has been blamed for their talcum powder. The report says that use of Johnson's talcum powder is linked with the death of Jacqueline Fox as the Fox family claimed that Jacqueline used the talcum powder of J&J that ultimately proved wrong for her ovarian cancer. The company has been obligated to pay near about 100 million dollars after the Missouri Jury found that Johnson's powder holds components those produce punitive damage (Wang 2016).

Sanitarium-Weet-Bix is another business enterprise that has been considered as one of the familiar names for providing healthy breakfast cereals in Australia. The company has aptly used to concepts of the marketing mix and STP to serve the purpose to provide nutritious and quality breakfast cereals at an affordable price. Most importantly, the company uses these concepts of marketing to meet with their strategic priorities such as to deliver ultimate value to the shareholders and holding the accountability to practice responsible citizenship. Most importantly, Sanitarium uses the concepts of marketing mix along with STP to promote an improved and unique cereal of Weet-Bix in the market. The company's attempt to extend their numerous customer groups from typical health concerned people to ordinary citizens (Loao Barroca 2013). Specifically, Sanitarium's current purpose regarding marketing plan is to reduce the gap between market shares and win over the rival brand Kellogs.

Using the concept of STP, Sanitarium has segmented the market into heath conscious, energy conscious, body conscious and sweet lovers. Each section has been created considering demographic, psychographic and behavioral attributes of the concept of segmentation. According to the segmentation style, the company specifically targets the active boys and the adults who are concerned with health, career, and figure. However, in comparison with the segmentation and targeting strategy, the organization's positioning strategy is not worth accomplishing as they are less tasty in taste. Nevertheless, the positioning strategy helped the enterprise in gaining praise for providing cereals which have maximum nutritional benefits. Following the STP strategy, Sanitarium has introduced a luxurious packaging with the facility of zipping log to attract the adult audience. On the other hand, the organization has inserted omega 3 with the help of microencapsulation process and has set 20% lower price than the range of traditional package to gain significant market share (Mitchell 2015).

Fortunately, the enterprise’s plan to distribute near about 65% of the newly launched product to the supermarkets and 20% and 10% to the retail convenience and independent food departments respectively have worked in favor. As Sanitarium focuses on to provide nutritional attributes rather than concentrating on taste, the enterprise has preferred to promote the awareness among the audience initially. Promotion through convincing and raising awareness among the public has accompanied other marketing strategies successfully. However, according to the code of practice that is formed to claim nutrients have allowed only 1.5g of fiber for each serve which made it difficult for companies like Sanitarium as the products of the company contains high fiber. Products of this company still run on 4g fiber on each serve. Therefore Sanitarium needs to change the elements before the deadline of 2016 (CHOICE 2016). Nevertheless, with the help of marketing mix, the enterprise successfully attracted customers across Australia as they recently praised as the largest player in UK’s cereal market.

From the entire article, it is understandable that segmentation, positioning, and marketing play key roles in forming marketing mix for a company. As per the essay, Johnson and Johnson and Sanitarium-Weet-Bix are two those well-known companies those have earned enormous popularity in the market with the help of using concepts of the marketing mix and STP. J&J for instance, have gained success in selling Johnson's baby powder by targeting infants and mothers and setting a price affordable for everyone. On the other hand, Sanitarium has acquired appraisal for selling highly nutritional breakfast meals for the active boys and health and energy conscious adults. However, J&J has to pay more than 100 million dollars to a family as the company has been accused of the death of a lady who has used their talcum powder for hygiene purpose. Sanitarium on the other side has the threat to lose revenue scale if they do not minimize the fiber component from the cereals.

References

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Hassan, S.S. and Craft, S., 2012. Examining world market segmentation and brand positioning strategies. Journal of Consumer marketing, 29(5), pp.344-356.

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Mitchell, S. (2015). Weet-Bix takes on Weetabix: UK to get fed an Aussie-style breakfast. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/weetbix-takes-on-weetabix-uk-to-get-fed-an-aussiestyle-breakfast-20150129-131cqm.html [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016].

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Wang, Y. (2016). Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay more than $100 million in suit linking talcum powder to ovarian cancer. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/world/johnson--johnson-ordered-to-pay-more-than-100-million-in-suit-linking-talcum-powder-to-ovarian-cancer-20160224-gn2vrx.html [Accessed 9 Sep. 2016].