Marketing strategies

1

Marketing Plan Milestone Paper 2 5

PRAVALLIKA PARAGATI

Week - 6

NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE

Marketing Strategies - 202146 - CRN105 – Sharon Styffe

Date: 08/08/2021

Target Audience – Macy’s

Macy's physical stores sell consumer products such as cosmetics, apparel, and home furnishings. Macy’s target audience will be middle-class women and men aged between 16 and 34 although the emphasis will be on the women’s side because they are more interested in online shopping. The company’s quality products at relatively affordable prices will attract clients who are often busy probably engaged at their workplaces or those out and about enjoying social interactions with their friends. This target audience is smart and sophisticated, it's active on social media, and active users of their smartphones. This implies that these customers have the willingness and interest to get involved and purchase items from our online platforms and are committed to enabling this. Macy's will mainly target middle-class people with incomes of $30000 to $100000 annually and those that prefer the provision of high-quality products at reasonable prices.

Macy’s will be targeting customers with an education level of at least being able to use the internet and to have internet access. The target audience will no longer be concentrated in the United States because of the vast shift to e-commerce. We hope to expand our services to other countries across the globe as well. The newly expanded e-commerce platform aims at selling the same products online and our customers will mainly be the millennials because of including the internet and social media. Millennials are usually well-informed and they faithfully follow their products and brands via digital networks (Anshari et al., 2021, p. 1493). This is inclusive of our company websites, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Our websites and mobile apps will be able to display our different products and their prices which will include shipping prices for customers who need delivery services. For customers who need help doing their purchases, it will be easier for us as a company to offer online customer support which will save on time and reduce delays and frustrations on the customers. Macy's will also utilize live streaming platforms, virtual consultations, and augmented reality. Evidence shows that millennials are responsible for approximately $1.3 trillion in spending per year. It is estimated that at least $430 billion of this amount is spent on discretionary products (Barton, Koslow & Beauchamp, 2014, p. 16). Millennials also interact with their friends especially on social media and they may hear about our products through their friends. This will serve to increase our customer base.

Importance of Surveying one’s target audience about their personal and buying characteristics

A product’s success is defined by how a company considers the demand and supply of the target market. The former is about the customer’s willingness to purchase products or services at a given price and the latter is about how the company meets the customer's needs. Surveying the target audience helps the company to gain insights into the market capabilities of absorbing new products and concepts for developing customer-centric products and features. Studying consumer buying behavior helps a company comprehend what makes a customer purchase their product as well as evaluate the kind of products liked by the consumers (Madhavan & Kaliyaperumal, 2015, p.75). This assists a company in finding success in the new products or existing ones.

It also acts as a source of creating comprehensive and long-term marketing plans (HelmY et al., 2019, p. 162). By the use of customer satisfaction tools such as customer effort score, net promoter score, etc., organizations can collect feedback from their target audience. This feedback is then analyzed to determine the levels of customer experience, expectations, satisfaction, etc. Additionally, an organization is able to launch new products or services. Market surveys provide a platform for analyzing the scope of success of new products and strategizing the new products based on the received feedback.

Surveys also allow the evaluation of customer demographics such as ethnicity, race, income, socioeconomic status, etc. (Madhavan & Kaliyaperumal, 2015, p. 98). Marketers are also able to differentiate consumers based on their needs and wants and design different marketing programs. The company can then expand the breadth and width of its services and effectively serve a wider group.

Lastly, changes in fashion and technology also translate to changes in consumer behavior. Marketers need to comprehend the factors that are changing, and the reasons behind the changes to streamline their marketing efforts with the changes (Madhavan & Kaliyaperumal, 2015, p. 75).

Macy’s needs to shift in reaching their target audience in light of the pandemic

We are all living in a Covid-19 pandemic and one of the safety regulations to prevent further spreading of the virus is social distance. In light of this, many clients are opting for online services instead of visiting physical stores. Therefore, Macy's should embrace the shift from selling its products via its stores to online platforms. This will fulfill the safety measures put in place by World Health Organization and it will also attract numerous customers who would prefer to shop from their comfort zones such as at home or the workplace. Therefore, Macy's will need to change some of its public policy aspects as well as business practices to enhance the digital and trading infrastructure, support digital payments, and create the necessary legal and regulatory frameworks for online security and transactions. A shift to digital e-commerce channels will help reach millennials who are Macy’s target audience. This is a great opportunity for Macy since most people are free or are working from home which means that majority of the time they are glued to their smartphones. Macy’s should also focus on increasing awareness about their new marketing strategies for people to know that they can shop online from anywhere and at any time.

References

Anshari, M., Alas, Y., Razzaq, A., Shahrill, M., & Lim, S. A. (2021). Millennials Consumers' Behaviors between Trends and Experiments. In Research Anthology on E-Commerce Adoption, Models, and Applications for Modern Business (pp. 1492-1508). IGI Global.

Barton, C., Koslow, L., & Beauchamp, C. (2014). How Millennials Are Changing the Face of Marketing Forever. BCG Global. Retrieved 13 August 2021, from https://www.bcg.com/publications/2014/marketing-center-consumer-customer-insight-how-millennials-changing-marketing-forever.

HelmY, Y., Khedr, A. E., Kolief, S., & Haggag, E. (2019). An enhanced business intelligence approach for increasing customer satisfaction using mining techniques. International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, 17(4).

Madhavan, M., & Kaliyaperumal, C. (2015). Consumer buying behavior-An overview of theory and models. St. Theresa Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1(1).