Business & Finance - Marketing GP MARKETING HOMEWORK

Also, cite at least one other (apart from the suggested reading) source in your discussion. List any resource you used at the end of your discussion.  Always use APA format.

*****What are the needs/wants of target segment of Netflix product satisfying (features/benefits) of young adults age 20-28 and family connect. What is the history of growth experienced from DVD and streaming service of today?

********* Summary Reading of Textbook: Donnelly, J., & Peter, J. (2018).  A Preface to Marketing Management (15th Edition). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

DETERMINE CONSUMER NEEDS AND WANTS:

As emphasized throughout this text, successful marketing strategies depend on discovering and satisfying consumer needs and wants. In some cases, this idea is quite operational. To illustrate, suppose a firm has a good deal of venture capital and is seeking to diversify its interest into new markets. A firm in this situation may seek to discover a broad variety of unsatisfied needs. However, in most situations, the industry in which the firm operates specifies the boundaries of a firm’s need satisfaction activities. For example, a firm in the communication industry may seek more efficient methods for serving consumers’ long-distance telephone needs.

As a practical matter, new technology often brings about an investigation of consumer needs and wants for new or modified products and services. In these situations, the firm is seeking the group of consumers whose needs could best be satisfied by the new or modified product. Further, at a strategic level, consumer needs and wants usually are translated into more operational concepts. For instance, consumer attitudes, preferences, and benefits sought, which are determined through marketing research, are commonly used for segmentation purposes.

Two commonly used approaches for segmenting markets include benefit segmentation and psychographic segmentation. We will discuss these two in some detail. We will also discuss geodemographic segmentation, a development with a number of advantages for marketers.

Benefit Segmentation

The belief underlying this segmentation approach is that the benefits people are seeking in consuming a given product are the basic reasons for the existence of true market segments.2 Thus, this approach attempts to measure consumer value systems and consumer perceptions of various brands in a product class. To illustrate, Russell Haley provided the classic example of a benefit segmentation in terms of the toothpaste market. Haley identified five basic segments, which are presented in Figure 5.3. Haley argued that this segmentation could be very useful for selecting advertising copy, media, commercial length, packaging, and new product design. For example, colorful packages might be appropriate for the sensory segment, perhaps aqua (to indicate fluoride) for the worrier group, and gleaming white for the social segment because of this segment’s interest in white teeth.

MARKETING INSIGHT Want to Know Your VALS™ Category? Check It Out Online 5–2

If you are a resident of the United States or Canada, a fluent English-speaker, and age 18 years or older, you can learn your VALS type by completing the VALS questionnaire on the Internet. The Web address is http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com. Click on “Take the VALS Survey.” The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, and your VALS type will take less than 10 seconds to compute. You will get a report that includes both your primary and secondary VALS type. The VALS website has a lot of information describing the program and different types of VALS segments.

One study used a benefit segmentation approach to segment the market for bank services.3 Their research was concerned with the question of whether benefit segments remain stable across time. While they found some stability in segments, there were some differences in attribute importance, size, and demographics at different times. Thus, they argue for ongoing benefit segmentation research to keep track of any changes in a market that might affect marketing strategy.

Benefit segmentation is clearly a market-oriented approach that seeks to identify consumer needs and wants and to satisfy them by providing products and ser vices with the desired benefits. It is clearly very consistent with the approach to marketing suggested by the marketing concept.

Psychographic Segmentation

Whereas benefit segmentation focuses on the benefits sought by the consumer, psychographic segmentation focuses on consumer lifestyles. Consumers are first asked a variety of questions about their lifestyles and then grouped on the basis of the similarity of their responses. Lifestyles are measured by asking consumers about their activities (work, hobbies, vacations), interests (family, job, community), and opinions (about social issues, politics, business). The activity, interest, and opinion (AIO) questions are very general in some studies but in others, at least some of the questions relate to specific products.

The best-known psychographic FEATURE segmentation is called VALSTM. Originally developed in the 1970s, VALS was completely redesigned on a scientific footing in the late 1980s. VALS explains and predicts consumer behavior. Strategic Business Insights, a spinoff from SRI International, currently owns and operates VALS.

As shown in Figure 5.4, the U.S. VALSTM framework has eight psychographic groups based on two dimensions. The vertical dimension segments people based on the degree to which they are innovative and have resources such as income, education, self-confidence, intelligence, leadership skills, and energy. The horizontal dimension of primary motivations provides context about an individual’s self-perception and worldview. For example, customers driven by knowledge and principles are motivated primarily by ideals. These consumers include the Thinkers and Believers. Consumers driven to demonstrate success to their peers are motivated primarily by achievement, Achievers and Strivers. Consumers driven by a desire for social or physical activity, variety, and risk taking are motivated primarily by self-expression, Experiencers and Makers. Innovators and Survivors operate outside of primary motivations. Innovators because they have the most abundant resources and may express any of the three motivations. Survivors because they have few resources, live complacently and within their means without a strong primary motivation. Figure 5.4 gives more details about each of the eight groups’