英翻中.............. - 生活

Selecting target markets moves segmentation away from the purely descriptive to the strategic aspects of' marketing in which marketing managers pursue particular groups of customers.One criterion that should always be applied is parsimony. Although having a large number of segments sounds appealing because you can capture most of the differences between customers, it is expensive and inefficient to pursue too many segments. If the segments are different in terms of their behavior toward your product and they should receive different levels of marketing, a budget stretched over too many segments results in an insufficient concentration of resources in any one segment. It is very expensive to develop advertising and promotion programs for a large number of different target audiences.
Although it is not possible to generalize about the appropriate number of segments to
pursue, the following criteria can be applied to a particular scheme or way to segment
the market:
. Does the segmentation scheme explain differences in purchasing behavior or some
other related variable (e.g., membership in different loyalty groups)? The basic, issue
to explore is whether the segmentation variable (say, income) explains purchasing
behavior better than another variable (say, VALS2 groups). This can be done by considering the behavior as a dependent variable and the segmentation variables as
independent variables in a framework like the following:
Behavior = f (segmentation variables)
Several statistical approaches can be used to determine the strength (in a statistical
sense) of the relationship between the variables and purchasing behavior. The marketing
manager could then choose that variable (e.g., income) and particular levels of that variable (e.g., households earning $75,000 or more per year) that have the strongest association with the behavioral variable of interest.
For example, the MRI data shown in Table 4.4 can be analyzed using an "eyeball"
approach. Assume that the behavioral or dependent variable of interest is simply going
to the beach on vacation or not. The independent variables are the demographics on the
page 97
left side of the table. The variables that explain the most variance in going to the beach
are those that have the greatest variation in their index numbers." Thus, on a judgmental basis, the three most useful variables appear to be occupation, income, and education.
You probably would also want to compare these variables to others, such as psycho-
graphics, -which would be collected using another method.
. What is the segment size? It is clear that segmenting the market into too many
groups results in some that are too small to be economically viable. Thus, one
criterion for a particular scheme or level of a variable is whether it is of sufficient
size in terms of number of customers, sales revenue, or potential profit to be
worth targeting.
What is the segment's growth rate? A marketing manager might prefer growth,
indicating future revenues, over current size.
Are any particular environmental factors associated with the segment? This would
include elements such as regulatory, social, cultural, economic, or other exogenous
factors. For example, targeting health-conscious consumers might make sense if
there is a particular health boom in the country to which the product or service is
being marketed.
. What is your potential competitive position? You might choose to ignore a lucrative
segment if a competitor is well entrenched or if you decide that you cannot offer a
product that has a competitive advantage over what is already being offered.
Therefore, the marketing manager's job is not only to develop alternative segmentation schemes but also to determine which of a large number of alternatives are most
appropriate for the product or service.
One of the true success stories in American business is the motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson.
Since 1990, sales of Harley Davidson motorcycles and parts and accessories have
increased 5% per year and are constrained by production capacity. Even with cash, the purchaser of a new Harley may have to wait up to 2 years to take delivery. Although the motorcycles
cost about $15,000 new, customers who have their orders in the queue can sell their undelivered motorcycles for $20,000.
This was not always the case. The company was very
successful from its beginnings in 1903 as a manufacturer
of large, heavy motorcycles until the late 1950s. When
Honda introduced its small motorcycles in the United
States in 1959, all other manufacturers including Harley
were caught napping because they believed that the fad
for such small motorcycles would be short-lived. Harley
was acquired by several firms that sought to increase its
share by expanding production. However, it had significant quality control problems and its share of the heavyweight bike segment declined from 80% In 1973 to around 30% in 1980. The company was able to right itself after senior management purchased it from its last owner, AMF.
Page 98
base in order to develop new services such as membership programs and ancillary merchandise. The image of the typical Harley owner is a hard-core gang biker. If the customer
base is more diverse, then certain programs tailored to such a group would not appeal to
all owners. Increased competition has also made maintaining and building the Harley
image more important.
In 1994, a survey was administered to a national U.S, sample of registered owners. Of 2,500
questionnaires mailed, 761 responses were obtained, for a return rate of 30.4%. This is a fairly
high response rate for a mail survey, indicating that nonresponse bias is likely to be low. The
questionnaire included the following:
. 72 motorcycle lifestyle statements (a 1-5 scale, from not at all descriptive to extremely
descriptive).
78 general lifestyle statements (same scale).
33 behavioral questions measuring frequency of participating in various activities as well as
magazine readership and television viewing (1-5 scale, from not at all to extremely often).
. Demographics.
The responses to the lifestyle questions were subjected to a multivariate statistical approach
called factor analysis, which reduces the 72 questions (in the case of the motorcycle lifestyle
questions) to a few underlying factors based on the correlations of the responses to the questions. For example, two of the questions were as follows:
. "I would like to do `gang' biker things."
"Sometimes I feel like an outlaw."
One would expect that the responses to these two questions on the 1-5 scale would be similar
across respondents. Thus, they do not measure different, independent underlying traits but
really one. The analysis of the 72 questions revealed 11 different underlying lifestyle dimensions;
these are shown in Table 4.5.
A score was created for each respondent based on his or her answers to the questions in the
11 dimensions. Using another statistical method, cluster analysis, and the scores on the 11
dimensions, the respondents were grouped into six owner segments based on similarities of
their scores on the dimensions. These are shown in Table 4.6. The averages of the demographic
variables for each segment are shown in Table 4.7.
As can be seen, the six segments are quite different from each other, both psychographically
and demographically:
Tour Gliders: 14% of the sample, they like to use their bikes for long trips. Compared to the
other segments, they are somewhat older, more likely to be married, upper income, more
professional, and veteran motorcycle owners, particularly Harleys.
. Hard Core: These are the archetypal Harley owners. Perhaps surprisingly, they are only
9.7% of the sample. Compared to the others, they are younger, less likely to be married,
less educated, lower income, and own an older motorcycle. These are the outlaws (or people who would like to feel that way).
Zen Riders: To these 20%, riding a motorcycle is a spiritual experience. They are young, most likely to be married, educated, upper income, and tend to use their bikes less than others.