Learning Objective

This activity helps achieve the following learning objective from Essentials of Marketing:

LO 4.1: Define and describe generic markets and product-markets.

Assignment

Assume you have been asked to segment the following broad productmarket: Car for transportation in the USA. Think about the many product offerings in this market and the people who buy them. Then, answer the following questions.

1. List potential customer needs.List all the needs you can think of that potential customers may have in this productmarket area. Be sure to focus on needs rather than product features. (Note: don't limit the list just to needs that might apply to most peoplealso include needs that may only apply to certain types of people. For example, some people may want a "prestige" image, and for others that may be totally irrelevantor even a big negative.)

• Need 1 __________________________
• Need 2 __________________________
• Need 3__________________________
• Need 4 __________________________

1. Form "homogeneous submarkets-i.e., narrow productmarkets.Recognizing that some people have different needs than others, rough out at least two different submarkets based on the needs you have identified in step #1 above. Start by forming one submarket around some typical type of customerperhaps even yourself. (You want to be able to aggregate similar people into this segment as long as they can be satisfied by the same marketing mix.) For this submarket, write down the customerrelated characteristics (including demographic dimensions). Continue this process by identifying another distinct submarket (that is, one that would be composed of people who are not similar to the first submarket in terms of needs, characteristics, and the type of marketing mix they would want).

Submarket 1

Needs _________________________________________

Customer Characteristics __________________________

Submarket 2

Needs _________________________________________

Customer Characteristics __________________________

1. Once you are satisfied that you have identified two distinct submarkets, name (nickname) the productmarkets involved. You will probably want to select names by thinking about which of the determining dimensions you have identified as most important for each submarketperhaps aided by your descriptions of customer characteristics. Now, for the sub-markets that you identified in Question above, identify the type of products that would appeal to each sub-market

Note: The needs, and customer characteristics do not change from steps above.

Sub-market 1

Name _________________________________________

Needs _________________________________________

Customer Characteristics __________________________

Products ________________________________________

Sub-market 2

Name __________________________________________

Needs _________________________________________

Customer Characteristics __________________________

Products ________________________________________