Target Markets BOG has two distinct groups of customers, individuals and corporate customers: 1. Individuals- The individuals are people who are looking to give a friend, relative, colleague, etc., a gift basket as a gesture of goodwill. These customers typically do not have a specific type of gift basket in mind when they look at BOG's product offerings, they just want to give a gift. 2. Corporate- The corporate customer is typically buying the basket for a colleague at work either as a sign of appreciation or for a special event or as a thank you for a customer. The corporate market can be further broken down to banks, health care, employment gifts, real estate, apartments, special events/promotions, corporate headquarters, hotels/vacation resorts, and automobile dealerships. 3.5 Positioning Basket of Goodies is positioning itself as an upscale manufacturer of gourmet gift baskets through the introduction of several production baskets as well as custom options. BOG will achieve this positioning by leveraging their competitive advantages. The competitive advantage is based on two factors, low overhead which supports reasonable prices, and an unrelenting desire for the highest quality product and service. 1. Overhead- BOG's overhead is particularly low because it is a home based business. Most of BOG's competition is based in retail shopping areas. While they receive more walk by traffic and therefore higher sales numbers, their rent is a very large monthly expense. BOG avoids this large expense by having the business run out of owner Susan Presento's home. Additionally, Susan will be using a modified version of JIT (just in time) inventory and assembling. Susan's husband passes by 90% of Susan's vendors on his way home from work so Susan is able to order inventory when she needs it and have her husband pick it up on the way home from work. This significantly lowers shipping costs and carrying costs for The Basket of Goodies Page 8 inventory. BOG will have some of the standard baskets in stock for walk by orders, but will try not to have large amounts in overhead. 2. Unrelenting desire for the highest quality product and service- Let's face it, this market space is already crowded and a mediocre gift basket service is not going to fly, so Basket of Goodies must have some sort of differentiating feature that lets it stand out. Susan only uses the finest quality ingredients and can afford to because of her low overhead. Additionally, she always follows the maxim that the customer must be 100% satisfied. That means she is willing to loose money on an occassional order, if necessary, to please a customer, confident that in the long run this is a wise business decision. 3.6 Strategies The single objective is to position Basket of Goodies as a manufacturer of unique, attractive, gourmet gift baskets for individuals as well as corporate customers. The marketing strategy will seek to create customer awareness regarding the product offerings, develop the customer base, and work toward building customer loyalty and referrals that will significantly decrease customer acquisition costs. BOG will seek to communicate the message that they offer a higher quality, gourmet alternative for gift baskets relative to the baskets currently available. This message will be communicated through various methods, tailored to each target market. The first method will be the use of a Website. The Website will have product information, company information, as well as ordering information and order taking. The site will be useful to both targeted groups, individuals as well as corporate customers. The second method will be brochures, primarily marketing to individuals. These brochures will be dispersed through many different sources. The last method of communication is networking and it is primarily for the corporate customer. Before founding Basket of Goodies Susan worked within the Human Resource Department of several larger corporations and has developed a large list of contacts. Susan will leverage these personal/professional relationships to generate business for BOG. Since she has worked within the HR departments before, she is quite familiar with the buying habits and decision making processes; key knowledge for generating corporate sales.

Question: Use the Nielson PRIZM and VALS questionnaire in this discussion of targeting. Youll have to do some research about these things. How might the company utilize this information?