Analyzing Customer Profiles

This activity is important because targeting the correct market segments is essential to a company$$s growth and future success. While targeting particular consumer groups, marketers must consider three key criteria: growth potential, level of competition, and strategic fit. Assessing strategic fit often requires performing a SWOT $($strengths$,$ weaknesses, opportunities, threats$)$ analysis.

The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate your understanding of consumer targeting by helping the owners of a start$-$up company identify and evaluate potential target groups.

Read the case below and answer the questions that follow.

Luna and Mario recently graduated from a large state university located in the bustling, sprawling city of Los Angeles, California. Though both of them are originally from the Midwest, they love Los Angeles, and they want to stay. They want to start a business together, and they$$re considering opening a pizzeria in a location that is very convenient for members of the university community. In their preliminary research, they uncover the following facts:

$1.$ The enrollment at the university $($City of Angels University$),$ currently $30,000,$ has been growing every year for the past decade. The student body has increased by about $3$ percent each year, and the university has also broken ground for several new buildings. The university will be increasing the number of majors that it offers, and it will be hiring several hundred new faculty and staff members to support those majors.

$2.$ Within a $10-$minute walk of City of Angels University, there are three chain pizza parlors: Pizza Hut, Domino$$s$,$ and Papa John$$s$.$

$3.$ Because so many people attend or work at City of Angels University, a good number of businesses have located near the university, including employment recruitment agencies, childcare services, large retail stores such as Target, a major Internet provider, and several car dealerships.

$4.$ Because they are starting a new business with limited funds, Luna and Mario do not have a lot of money to spare. Paying the rent, outfitting the pizza parlor, and buying the ingredients for pizza is going to use up almost all of their funding.

$5.$ The City of Angels University cafeteria sells individual slices of pizza at lunchtime, between $11$ a$.$m$.$ and $3$ p$.$m$.$ The cafeteria is closed after $3$ p$.$m$.$

$6.$ The population of Los Angeles is about $4$ million.