How much do you actually know about your customers' needs, wants, preferences, attitudes, and buying patterns? If you had an unlimited marketing research budget, what three questions would you want to answer to gain a better understanding of customers and their needs? For example, you might want to know when, specifically, customers have a need for a product like yours—which occasions, situations, or problems trigger this need. The answer could help you position your product as the solution to a problem or help you plan promotional messages for certain occasions. List your three questions and next to each, note how you would use the answer to develop a more effective marketing plan.
Select one of the questions you just listed. Following the marketing research process, write 2-3 sentences defining the specific issue or problem you want to research. Next to it, write your hypothesis (your informed guess or assumption) about what the research might reveal.
Brainstorm some possible ways you might research this question and test your hypothesis. For example, would a particular source of secondary data (such as a customer satisfaction survey published by a major university) offer clues to testing your hypothesis? Could a brief online survey with some carefully-worded questions get to the heart of this issue? Write one paragraph about potential approaches to researching the issue or problem.
Now you can tackle target market decisions. With your organization's strengths and resources in mind, and your preliminary ideas about the market, think about the strategy you'd like to use for targeting. For example, would it make sense to choose an undifferentiated strategy, designing one marketing mix for the entire market? Should you choose a concentrated strategy, with a marketing mix for one particular segment of your market (such as price-conscious consumers)? Or will you choose a differentiated strategy, developing a separate marketing mix for two or more targeted segments (such as one marketing mix for price-conscious consumers and a second marketing mix for status-conscious consumers)? Write a paragraph about the targeting strategy you'll use, explaining why it's right for your product, your market, and your organization.
If you're going to target consumers, think about the variables that would help you divide the market into segments you can reach and influence through marketing. The segmentation variables you choose should relate to customers' need for, uses of, or behavior toward your product. As an example, if you're marketing a sturdy baby stroller, you would use demographic variables such as family life cycle (new parents might need strollers) and product-related variables such as benefit expectations (expecting a stroller to be of high quality and sturdy enough to last). Write one paragraph about the variables you will use for segmentation, and why they're appropriate for your market and product.
You'll use different segmentation variables if you're planning to target business customers. Here, you'll think about geographic location (differences in climate, urban vs. suburban vs. rural locations, etc.) type of organization (manufacturer, service business, etc.), customer size (big or small business), and product use (as raw materials for production, as office suppliers, etc.). Write a paragraph about the variables you will use for segmenting the business market, and why they're appropriate.
Think carefully about one particular segment of the market, as defined by the variables you just identified. How can you estimate the level of sales your product might achieve in that segment during a month or a year? What competitors are already active in that segment, and how strong is each? How expensive do you estimate it would be to develop the product, promotion, distribution, and pricing to meet this segment's needs? See how much information you can find with a quick online search. Now, based on your best estimates of sales, competitive intensity, and cost, would you select this segment for targeting? If not, what other segment would be a better choice, and why? Write a paragraph or two about the segment you plan to target and your reasons for making this choice, citing sales, competition, or cost (or all three).