Which Lens?
A streaming service recommends shows based on what you finished watching last week. It is using this type of segmentation.
Behavioral
A hotel company has a budget brand for travelers, a luxury brand for vacationers and an extended-stay brand for business trips. Name the strategy being used.
Differentiated marketing
To test whether a positioning statement is too vague, swap in "This brand." If it could describe a competitor, it fails. Name this test.
The generic test
True or false: an empty cell on a perceptual map ALWAYS means a business opportunity. Explain.
False. It could also mean nobody wants what would go there
Why does the unit say that "everyone" is not a real target market?
Trying to appeal to everyone means appealing strongly to no one. A specific target allows sharper decisions on product, price and promotion
Mia and Zoe are both 16, live in the same neighborhood and have $10 a week. Mia buys an energy drink five days a week; Zoe buys one on Fridays. Which segmentation can tell them apart?
Behavioral/Psychographics
A bakery sells only gluten-free cakes to people with celiac disease. Name the strategy and one benefit of it.
Concentrated (niche) marketing. Benefits: lower cost, loyal customers, a clear message
Quick Cup sells a $2 coffee in 90 seconds. Slow Bean sells a $6 pour-over with leather chairs. They use nearly the same beans. What explains why customers choose one over the other?
Positioning. Each brand owns a different idea in customers' minds
A smoothie map has one brand in Low price/Healthy and four brands in High price/Healthy. What does each cell's crowding suggest about competition?
The High price/Healthy cell is more crowded, so competition is more intense there.
A vague ad for everyone and a targeted ad for one group each bring in the same number of buyers, but the targeted ad costs much less per buyer. In plain words, why?
The targeted ad reaches mostly people who are actually interested, so little money is wasted on people who would never buy
A bank markets a student account to ages 18-22. A classmate says it is psychographic because students value saving. Name the appropriate type and the evidence in the clue that proves it.
Demographic. The clue names an age range.
Zip Sneakers has $40,000. A tailored campaign costs $0.50 per person plus a $10,000 creative fee per segment. The segments are Runners (20,000) and Hikers (30,000). Show why differentiated marketing to these two segments is out of reach.
Costs 50,000 × $0.50 + 2 × $10,000 = $45,000, which is over $40,000.
"For budget-conscious parents, ValueKids is the premium luxury clothing line, because it's the best." Name two problems.
The target (budget-conscious) clashes with the claim (premium luxury), and "because it's the best" gives no reason to believe
What are 5 real brands that would fall in the quadrant of quality & affordable fashion aimed at young adults?
My discretion
Ledger Leaf's gut-guess target was "busy adults who like journals." Research narrowed it to freelancers and revealed a price problem. What does the change show about the value of segmentation research?
Research makes the target more specific and finds problems a guess would miss
The audience "game-night groups near the school who order 4+ times a month" combines three segmentation types. Name them, in the order they appear in the phrase.
Psychographic (game-night groups), geographic (near the school), behavioral (orders 4+ times a month)
Zip Sneakers concentrated on Streetwear fans. In Year 3 that trend fades and their response rate drops from 4% to 1%. Switching segments now costs a $15,000 rebrand fee. What does this show about concentrated marketing?
Relying on one segment is risky: if it fades, the company is locked in and switching is costly
A budget grocery chain advertises a "premium experience" but changes nothing about its stores, prices or products. Which part of a positioning statement fails, and why?
Hint - "For [target customer], [brand] is the [category] that [key differentiator], because [reason to believe]."
The reason to believe. A position must be backed by real changes to the product, price or experience, not just new ad copy
A map has one crowded cell with five brands and a nearby empty cell. Give two reasons the crowded cell might still be the better choice for a new brand.
A crowded cell shows proven demand, while the empty cell might mean nobody wants it. A new brand can also stand out inside the crowded cell with a sharper differentiator
The Ledger Leaf persona is "Maya, 31, freelance illustrator in Rochester who shops at indie stationery stores and spends $30 - $40 on tools she loves." Name two marketing decisions this persona can guide.
Advertise in craft communities or indie shops; test prices around $25 - $40; design handcrafted packaging, etc.
A coffee chain finds that its best customers buy on weekday mornings, are office workers aged 25-45 and work downtown. It wants one segment built from all of this. Name the three segmentation types involved and explain why combining them beats using just one.
Behavioral (weekday mornings), demographic (age 25-45 and occupation), geographic (downtown). Combined, they describe a precise, reachable group, while any one alone is too broad to act on
A large brand that has always used one message for everyone now has detailed purchase data on millions of its customers. Name the targeting strategy that uses this data, and give two limits or concerns a manager should weigh before switching to it.
Micromarketing (personalized targeting of small groups or individuals).
Limits: it costs time and money to personalize at scale, it reaches only people already in the data, and customers may worry about privacy
A student writes: "For young people, Zesty is the best drink because it tastes great." Identify the weakness in the target, the differentiator and the reason to believe.
Target: "young people" is too broad
Differentiator: "best" is not specific
Reason to believe: "tastes great" only repeats the claim
A founder wants to launch in an empty "low price, luxury feel" cell. Name two things to check before launching, and explain why a rival could shrink the opportunity after the launch succeeds.
Check demand (enough customers want it), margin (can it deliver a luxury feel at a low price and still profit) or whether the position can truly be delivered. If it succeeds, rivals can reposition into the same cell and split the customers
A Segment Shock says your chosen segment has shrunk by half. Using ideas learned in the unit, propose one response and name its trade-off.
Examples: add a second segment (differentiated marketing, but higher cost and complexity); use micromarketing on existing customers (cheaper, but a small base); or reposition for a broader group (risk of becoming generic). Must name a trade-off