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1- For my upcoming assignment on Market Segment Analysis, I am going to focus on pet owners. I am a new pet owner myself so I can relate and hopefully find some new products during this portion of the assignment that will benefit me as well. Pet owners are typically very passionate about their animals as they are often seen as a member of the family. However, I think demographically and geologically this can vary on what they choose to spend their money on and the price point of the products. Living in New York there are dog walkers that make over 100K a year because people here are busy working but want to have a pet as a companion so they are willing to spend a lot of money knowing that their dog is taken care of and in good hands while they are at work. While other areas like in Northern Wisconsin where we once had a cabin with neighbors who had hunting dogs that lived outside/in the garage and were basically used for one purpose and that was to hunt. These two types of pet owners likely have very different consumer shopping habits. This was confirmed in an article by Woodruff, “When it comes to U.S. pet owners, one size definitely does not fit — or describe — them all” (Using Psychographic Segmentation to Reach Pet Owners: Part 2, 2019). In this article, they explain that the demographic factors influence this segment by monitoring trends in the population who own pets and study their buying habits. In addition, it’s important to look at what type of pet they have, the age range, their marital status, and ethnicity. An interesting fact is that “pet ownership has grown among households with incomes of $75,000 or more” (Using Psychographic Segmentation to Reach Pet Owners: Part 2, 2019). It was stated that this economic status is typically the medium income range that can comfortably support themselves and the finances that come with having a pet. In addition to demographic location is another important area that I mentioned I was interested in looking into. It was stated in that same article that, “how pet owners view their pets and the criteria they use when deciding which pet products to buy are closely tied to whether they live in urban areas, suburban or outer suburban locales, or rural areas” (Using Psychographic Segmentation to Reach Pet Owners: Part 2, 2019). In addition, this article spoke to the “why” of this segment’s spending and in order to do that they studied three areas of psychographic factors which include attachment, interaction, and human stimulation. These areas helped to discover that pet owners not only look for a pet as their companion but also an expression of their identity. Studies have also found that the number of American dog owners have been increasing over time and their amount of spending on their furry friends has also grown with this increase. I can see this a lot since COVID hit more people were adopting dogs than ever before. Animal shelters that were at maximum capacity for their dogs were empty because people had more time to spend alone at home. None of these factors really surprised me but I do think that the rage of this market is really interesting. There is definitely a phycological component of how people prioritize their animals within their household that plays a huge role in what they are willing to spend on their pet and the degree of luxury. I think this information will help a marketing team to know if they want to carry mass the variety of products and price points to have vs if they wanted to be a boutique-style shop what areas it would be best supported in that could offer the products that people want and the price point they are willing to spend.

2- The textbook defines product life cycle as, “the stages a new product goes through in the marketplace: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline” (Kerin & Hartley, 2020). Product life cycle is important since it will help business owners manage prices, sales, profitability, and sustainability of their product. It will also be useful to see how the product is trending in the market and if any business changes need to be made.

The product I chose was Grass Straws. Although, they have sustain their business, I believe they are still in the growth stage of the product life cycle. The growth cycle is the most important stage since it is characterized by promotion of the product which will eventually lead to profit. Grass Straws needs to be more marketable and promote their brand. They are only promoting their product on social media and their website. Everyone I talked to about Grass Straws have never heard of that company before. By having other brand promotions, it will make Grass Straws visible to consumers and increase demands that will lead to repeat purchasers. Grass Straws need to focus on the four Ps of marketing services that includes product, price, promotion, and place. They have a good product and already determined the selling price of the straws to see profitably. It makes me wonder if these straws are so labor intense that they cannot keep up with the demand as defined in the capacity management terminology which has halt their desire to promote the brand more. 

 3-   The product that I selected for my first assignment was Babo Botanicals sunscreen. The sunscreen is nontoxic, hypoallergenic, not tested on animals, reef friendly, has fragrance free options, safe from pregnant and nursing mothers, and “non-nano” (Babo Botanicals, 2021). Therefore, the sunscreen will not be absorbed into your skin, is safe for the whole family, and safe for marine life. The sunscreen comes in stick, lotion, and spray options with SPF of 30 and 50. 

According to Kerin & Hartley, “The concept of the product life cycle describes the states a new product goes through in the marketplace: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline (2017, p. 268). More specifically, the introduction stage is when the product is initially introduced to the target market, the growth stage is when there is a fast increase in sales, the maturity stage is when the sales start to slow down and show some signs of consistency (repeat customers), and the decline stage is when sales start to decrease (Kerin & Hartley, 2017). 

When considering the textbook’s explanation of the different stages of a product’s life, I would consider Babo Botanicals sunscreen to be within the growth stage. This is because the company only started in 2010 and was recently added to an international company, that backs Mustela, in an attempt to be able to sell the product internationally. In addition, the product is now available in multiple large retailers (Target, Ulta, Whole Foods Market) so it is readily available. Therefore, I believe that sales will only continue to grow as more people are able to get their hands on the product and more people become educated on the dangers, to the body and environment, from using traditional sunscreens. The focus in this stage should be to increase marketing internationally and help spread knowledge of the need of a product like theirs to increase the demand. It is important for marketing teams to be able to recognize the life stage that a product is in so that they can make adjustments, such as increasing marketing efforts or ending production, accordingly

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