Case Study 6: Strategy to Empower the Student Community Portal

Q 1) You have been appointed as an external consultant to help a recently opened Management Institute in Mumbai which has launched its knowledge portal website. What Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning strategies will you adapt to build awareness amongst the student community?

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) is a standard strategic approach to modern marketing. The STP model is beneficial when creating marketing communications plans since it helps marketers to prioritize propositions and then generate and deliver personalized and relevant messages to engage with diverse audiences. The STP process illustrates the links between an overall market and how a business prefers to compete in that market. Sometimes, It is referred to as a predefined process, with the segmentation being conducted first, then choosing of one or more target markets. After this, finally the implementation of positioning. The primary aim of the STP process is to lead the organization to the development and application of an appropriate marketing mix.
              STP is extremely relevant to digital marketing, where applying smart marketing personas can help promote more relevant digital communications by these alternative tactical client segmentation approaches. Let us understand how should apply the STP step by step to build awareness among the student's community.

A) Segmentation
Through the process of segmentation, you can identify niches with specific demands, mature markets to find new clients, deliver more focused and effective marketing messages. The requirements of each segment are the same, so the marketing messages should be properly designed for every segment to emphasize relevant benefits and features required. This approach is more efficient, delivering the right promotional mix to the same group of people, rather than a scattergun approach.

i) Geographic Segmentation: 
Segment the consumer markets according to the location such as town, cities, countries, and regions to understand the consumers' needs and product usage. The customers' requirements from the same Geographic areas are often related to one and another. Geographic characteristics are also measurable and accessible.
ii) Demographic Segmentation:
This type of segmentation essentially consider the characteristics of the target group of consumers. It involves the age, gender, earnings, academic qualifications, location, family size, ethnicity, etc.

  • Age: The age group of our visitors is mostly around the average age of graduates in India. The designing, content and overall data positioning on the website should appeal to this age group.
  • Sex: The segmentation based on sex doesn't matter, as the education and knowledge are not sex-specific like fashion accessories.
  • Income: We will be mostly dealing with the students who come from low-income groups.


iii) Psycho-graphic Segmentation:
These considerations include the social existence of the target market. The segmentation positioning assignment help specialists also add these variables include the lifestyle, values, standard of living, personality, social background and disposable income.

iv) Behavioral Segmentation:
This segment includes the shopping preference of target clients, i.e., preference on online shopping, brand specification, preferable purchase items, etc. Moreover, there are particular groups of customers that appreciate unique and exclusive products whereas there are some groups who follow the crowd. Such a consumer behavior plays a dominant deciding factor in the segmentation process.

Segments:
Segment A: These are very young students who are between the age group of 17 -20. These group is looking for full-time management course and prefer digital media.

Segment B: These are the management students who are looking for a correspondence management studies while managing their job. They are more interested in study material and mock exams than the comprehensive marketing studies.

We should target the first segment, as they are tech-savvy and will take part in every new concept we will introduce. This segment will not shy away from trying new strategies for preparation and comprehensive knowledge about marketing. Also, they are more in number than the students in the segment B.

B) Targeting
Once the segments are properly identified, and their relative importance to the firm determined, the key targeting strategy is selected. In this step, the decision to target one or more segments is being made. Significant promotional marketing mix has to be designed for each of the segmented groups. Targeting helps to create unique strategies with which a target market can be easily selected.
After gathering all the data with segmentation, we will analyze the size and potential growth of each segment. First, look at the profitability of every segment. Which groups of customer contribute most to your bottom line? Is it big enough to be worth addressing? Is steady increase possible? And how does it compare with the other segments? Last, think precisely about how well your organization can service this market. For example, are there any legal, technological or social barriers that could have an impact? Conduct a PEST Analysis Add to My Personal Learning Plan to understand the opportunities and threats that might affect each segment. We can choose the segment to focus in future based on the productivity and response elasticity.

C) Positioning 

  • Positioning includes strategies to implement the target. It is a method to develop brand image of a specific product or a service to the target group. This influences the buying decision of our consumers. Effective and strategic activities of promotional marketing and well-versed marketing mix generate positive perceptions among customers.
  • If we are planning to open a management institute in Mumbai, we must focus on the relevant syllabus first. The students will surely take interest if we are offering what they require on the priority basis. The focus of data should be relevant to the current marketing studies, industry and opportunities in India. 
  • Creating a nice website mascot and a funny, quirky blog about the happenings in the field of marketing can be a great idea.
  • We can attract more students with interesting discounts on online courses or by offering exciting prizes by organizing online quiz competitions on our portal. We can offer discounted online courses too.
  • The portal should be user-friendly and have many elements to discover. This portal meant for the students who are proficient in utilizing the digital media and grasp more and more content every single day.  Secondly, the website should also be mobile friendly. The group we are targeting uses their smartphone more than personal computers. An interactive app-based web portal can also be a great idea. 
  • We can play the digital media card here. As we know, the days of going to the library and going through the pile of books are gone. It's the era of ebooks, digital notepads, audio and video lectures, etc. We can make use of multimedia channels like Youtube to create a video series of lectures or vlogging and link it to our website. The students will certainly prefer going through the videos more. 


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