Main Activities of Target Market

3 Main Activities of Target Marketing
Three main activities of target marketing are segmenting, targeting and positioning. These three steps make up what is commonly referred to as the S-T-P marketing process. Companies and marketers use this step-by-step approach to target marketing to figure out which segments offer the best profit potential and how to effectively market to them.
Target Marketing Basics
Target marketing means identifying specific market segments within a larger audience and targeting them with ad campaigns. This process is commonplace in marketing and helps companies get more value for their advertising investment. It goes against historical approaches to marketing whereby companies would simply pay to deliver messages to mass markets without considering the waste in paying to reach consumers who would never buy. By targeting select markets, businesses with tight budgets can get more return from their advertising dollars.
Segmenting
Segmenting means breaking up the market into smaller, homogeneous segments. Within S-T-P, it is a virtual brainstorming step whereby the business considers all possible market segments. Segmenting strategies include demographics, lifestyle, geographic and behavioral approaches. Demographics segmentation means you break up markets based on personal traits like age, race, marital status, gender and income. Lifestyle segmenting means you divide customers by hobbies and interests. Geographic segmentation makes local, state, regional, national or international markets key. Behavioral segmenting is based on such things as usage patterns and benefits sought from the product.
Targeting
Following the brainstorming of possible segments in step one, the next step is to pick a select market to target or focus on. Companies often focus on one market segment at a time with marketing and ad campaigns. Whichever market is the most attractive from a profit standpoint or long-term potential is usually selected first. Factors...