ENHANCING THE SALES OF CONSUMERS GOODS USING MARKETING SEGMENTATION
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ENHANCING THE SALES OF CONSUMERS GOODS USING MARKETING SEGMENTATION
Chapter one
1.0 Introduction
Marketing is the business of identifying unfilled needs and wants, defining and measuring their magnitude, determining which target market the organisation can best serve, and selecting relevant products, services, and programmes to satisfy these markets.
Consumers are the most critical factor to consider while managing any business setting. It must therefore be apparent that a thorough and continuous research of consumers is one thing and quite another from meeting the needs of the consumer at a lucrative level, therefore marketers employ a variety of tactics.
Many individuals confuse marketing with its several subfunctions, such as advertising, selling, and merchandising. However, true marketing is more than just selling what you can make;
it is also about knowing what you should make. It is the art of recognising and understanding customers in order to maximise profits for producers and stakeholders.
Market leadership is achieved by providing customer services, hence marketing can be considered as a customer-oriented concept. It is the development and implementation of a standard of living. Organisations must aim to locate a more appealing market that can be managed effectively and profitably.
Market segmentation seeks to identify major differences in customer characteristics, which are then used to determine which target market should be targeted and what type of product should be offered to that market.
Market segmentation is defined as the division of a market into discrete parts. A market consists of purchasers who differ in one or more ways.
They may have different wants, resources, and geographic regions. Buying mentality and practices. Any of these can be utilised to segment a market and better serve customers.
Market segmentation can thus be defined as the act of splitting a market into discrete pieces, or the process of dividing a product’s entire heterogeneous market into many submarkets or segments, each of which tends to be homogenous in general.
Significantly, it may also be defined as the act of segmenting a market into different and significant customer groups that may require various product and/or market mixes.
Segmentation strategy assists organisations in identifying reactions in client traits and producing in accordance with those characteristics in order to meet the specified wants of customers.
1.1 Background of the Study
Companies cannot connect all customers in a vast, broad, or diverse market, thus they must divide the market into groups of consumers or segments with specific needs and interests. It is consequently critical for a corporation to identify
Which market segment to better serve. Before achieving the goal, careful strategic thought and a thorough understanding of customer behaviour are essential. To create the greatest marketing plans, managers must first understand what distinguishes each category.
Modern marketers are studying consumer behaviour and responds to the benefits offered by the goods, such as if people choose quantity above low price. In order to increase consumer benefit,
marketers will be able to better understand how to please each type of these customers. It needs a thorough understanding of customer behaviour and smart strategic thought.
The overall goal is to identify groups of similar customers and potential customers, prioritise them, understand their behaviour, and respond with appropriate marketing strategies that satisfy the different performance of each chosen division, thereby increasing company revenue.
This can be accomplished, however, by market segmentation, which is the dividing of purchasers into groups that may require different products and marketing strategies.
According to Michael Porter (1970, P. 37), with the appropriate segmentation, the right list can be obtained, advertising outcomes may be improved, and customer satisfaction can be boosted, leading to a better reputation.
Nelson (1984, p. 125) explains that the United States in the 18th century provided a comprehensive segmentation of its people based on statistical analysis of household and geo-demographic data.
In recent decades, the market has been segmented according to a variety of general parameters. For example, industrial or public vs private market segmentation differs significantly from consumer market segmentation, but all have comparable goals.
Regardless of the sort of segmentation used by a marketer, the secret behind marketing programmes is to recognise consumer differences and effectively highlight those differences in order to provide maximum pleasure to each division.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Every organisation has the challenge of growing consumer goods sales. Both service and physical marketers want to increase profit and sales turnover, and this goal can only be realised if businesses properly comprehend and use marketing segmentation strategy.
Firms are also faced with the challenge of identifying and selecting specific market targets and fulfilling them by combining marketing mix elements, resulting in marketing segmentation, which recognises that every market is made up of distinct groups consisting of customers with varied wants.
The task of properly comprehending consumer needs and wants, identifying various homogenous customer characteristics according to a defined dimension, adequately grouping them together,
and effectively developing a marketing mix to fit these characteristics and purchasing criteria. All provide a fundamental marketing challenge to businesses.
Marketing segmentation is one of the many strategic concepts that form the foundation of marketing programmes. Segmenting markets into subsets with the intention of pleasing client groups equally, sales of consumer goods, and profitability for the overall organisation and stakeholders is an objective and goal of every firm that practices marketing concepts.
Most organisations have the challenge of establishing the best pricing, promotional, and distribution strategy to meet the needs of their large consumer base. Some businesses found marketing segmentation strategy unpleasant since they saw it as an expensive and time-consuming task.
This is due to a lack of information regarding the importance of marketing segmentation and its impact on consumer products sales, which has become a research problem.
1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY
The goal of this research project is detailed below.
a. Determine the importance of marketing segmentation and its impact on consumer goods sales.
b. To outline the importance of corporations implementing the marketing segmentation strategy in order to attain the organization’s goal of profitability and customer happiness.
c. To investigate the dimensions and bases for market segmentation and their relationship with consumer products sales.
b. Determine the extent to which the organisation in question (PZ plc) uses market segmentation.
c. To emphasise the limitations of the strategy.
f. At the conclusion of the study, it is intended to make relevant recommendations to the firm on how to implement a market segmentation plan.
1.4 Significance of the Study
This research activity, in addition to being a prerequisite for partial fulfilment of the higher National Diploma, will bring value and benefit to the researcher, as well as other individuals and groups.
The study would benefit Nigeria PZ plc because the findings and recommendations will assist them better their marketing activity. The effort aids both my fellow student and students from other universities taking relevant courses. The lecturer at Kaduna Polytechnic would also profit from the knowledge gained via research.
The information presented in this project work will allow marketing businesses to re-evaluate their segmentation strategy and make better use of marketing resources and efforts in their marketing activities. The study will also broaden the researcher’s knowledge base in the course of doing the investigation.
1.5 Statement of Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a series of prepositions that aim to explain the subject of study in a brief sentence. It is a group of statements generated in relation to the problem being studied.
The hypothesis leads to the structuring of questionnaires to analyse the validity of numerous hypotheses by sampling the perspectives of consumers and firm management. For this study, the following hypothesis is intended to be tested.
Hello: Market segmentation has an impact on Nigeria PZ Plc’s consumer products sales.
Ho: Market segmentation does not affect Nigeria PZ plc’s consumer products sales.
1.6 Limitations and Scope of the Study
The study was designed to be a case study of PZ Nigeria Plc Kaduna, and as such, it covers all employees of the organisation. The researcher’s intention is to determine how this company segments its employees in relation to their markets, as well as the outcome of this system to the organisation as a whole and the relationships of the organization’s employees when evaluated.
Delimitation of the study; doing research of this sort is a difficult undertaking, and as a result, a number of limits exist throughout the investigation.
Financial constraints are a big issue in the research because of the depressed economy and the researcher’s inadequate fund/financial resources for the investigation.
This has retrained the researcher not to undertake a detailed survey. Transportation to and from various branches of PZ throughout Nigeria presents numerous challenges for gathering information for research purposes. The time necessary for the research task is insufficient, limiting the ability to seek for additional information.
The company’s employees and executives were uncooperative during the search for data on the company’s operations in respect to the subject area. The executives remained elusive for fear of disclosing sensitive financial information about the company to competitors.
The lack of books to source for relevant material was a barrier; the Kaduna polytechnic library had relatively few books, and those that were available were old or inappropriate to the research topic.
1.7 Definition of Terms
A market is a group of individuals or organisations who want a product and are willing and capable of purchasing it.
Target market: A specific market on which to focus and construct marketing campaigns.
Product: Anything supplied to the market for acquisition, sale, attention, usage, or consumption that fulfils a want or need.
Market mix refers to the elements of marketing known as the 4ps of marketing, which are product, place, or distribution, promotion, and pricing.
Market segmentation is the practice of breaking a broad market into smaller subsets of consumers or organisations that share characteristics, behaviours, wants, or needs.
Consumer market: It is a set of individual purchasers who purchase or utilise products or services for their own personal or domestic usage.
Marketing planning is the setting of goals and strategies for the marketing effect in an organisation.
Marketing strategy is a marketing philosophy utilised by businesses to attain specific goals.
A product line is a collection of comparable products that are meant for the same purpose.
Fashion: A style that is currently recognised or fashionable in a specific industry.
business aggregation is a business approach in which an organisation treats its entire market as if they were comparable.
Industrial markets refer to the market for industrial goods and services.
Industrial goods are products utilised in the production or processing of industrial goods, such as raw materials.
Management is the process of planning, implementing, and assessing the efforts of a group of individuals to achieve a specific goal.
A homogeneous market is one in which consumers or organisations have identical needs, interests, and behavioural inclinations.
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