Thursday Oct 8: SEGMENTS Fall in the Air and Coffee in the Cup

What's In Here

¶ Review of today
¶ An article for you to read for this week
¶ Some thoughts about your groups

Review of the Day

We met in Colloquium; we teamed up on the segmentation, targeting, and positioning chapter in Keegan.  Ambassadors from each team took the learnings (key points, why they are important, and what was missing/what do you criticize) to the other groups.

A few key points and Questions

1.  Segments: know what they are.
Q: Are segments static? Is a segmentation a point in time? Could it be more?
Q: Do segments correspond to an "average person"?  What are the problems with that?

2.  Targeting: know what this is.
Q: How narrow should a target be?  How broad?  How do you know?
Q: When does it make sense to target across cultures (e.g. globally?)  Why?

3. Positioning: know what this is
Q: If positioning happens in the "mind" of the customer or end-user, how do you control it?
Q: What is the meaning of positioning if customers have their own meanings in mind?  If they do, then what does the marketer do?

Task for your teams: be thinking about a product (and, perforce, a channel in which to market it) for which you will develop a marketing plan for your OWN country.  Be aware that your CEO will be asking you where ELSE you might market this product (e.g. into one or more of the other groups/cities in class).

Individual tasks: you will still be asked to get some depth knowledge about your city. This will involve sending me a short bibliography and some simple reporting (format TBD) about your city.  In your teams, you already have a city focus: as a team you are experts in that city. As an individual, you have to be an expert in your city.  Yes, that includes that city the name of which you can't remember (in South Africa, for example).

An Article to Read 

Individuals often make new kinds of sense out of products.  This article is a little theoretical at the start, but look for the main point(s). How has "positioning" of Coke in Trinidad been the result of corporate efforts; how has it been the result of local "mental models."  And, what is a mental model, anyway?

The article is HERE and on the right, in the downloads; look for the "Coka-Cola: A Drink from Trinidad" article.

Thoughts for your Groups

Be thinking about a product and a channel IN YOUR COUNTRY that you want to work on. BE sure it makes sense for roughly 18 to 25 year old people.  That's whose daily lives/needs you need to understand in your country.