Targeting Strategies

In order to start an e-marketing web site, it is important to know exactly who your target is. Market targeting is the selection of particular market segments that the business wants to attract. Segmentation is essentially the identification of subsets of buyers within a market who share similar needs and wants and who demonstrate similar buyer characteristics and behaviors. Thus you need to primarily understand the types of segments, in order to know your target.

It will sound nothing but reasonable to say that without a specific target, a business might make more profit targeting the general public. Is it then possible for a business to survive without a specific target?

In my own opinion, it not possible and this example will illustrate that. Wal-Mart is one of the most popular retailers in the U.S. which sells house hold needs on a daily basis. Though Wal-Mart attracts so many people, they can still be categorized by different segments. Wal-Mart normally sells to local people, especially those with transportation because buyers need to carry the items they bought. For local people, Wal-Mart provides groceries, clothes, kitchen stuffs, electronics, bed sheets, gardening tools, etc. I guess Wal-Mart’s main target is family and especially parents with children or huge families with relatives because Wal-Mart also provides baby items, indoor and outdoor toys, video games, etc. Moreover, it sells eventful/holiday products such as on Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, movies and camping items which are used especially by families and couples. Additionally, Wal-Mart tries to get individual’s attention through selling fun goods such as cosmetics, CDs, books/magazines paint tools, and sewing stuffs. Nowadays, people can purchase items through the Wal-Mart web site over the internet. Thus the range of their target spreads more and more. If you could not find an item in your local Wal-Mart store, you can order from the website and they will deliver it to you, either at your door or at your local Wal-Mart store. Thus Wal-Mart targets local people (geographical), who have a car and are in family (demographical), and want optional items (behavioral).


Although Wal-Mart’s target has not change for long, customers might not stay loyal to Wal-Mart because of other competing retailers. To keep attracting them, the business always changes and improves their actions. Today, Wal-Mart’s logo had the slogan is “Save money. Live better” which is written on every plastic bag they have. The former slogan was “Always Low Prices,” which was a few years back. Both slogans’ main concept is that Wal-Mart provides the same quality as other competing retailers, but at lower prices. However, their point of view changed from sellers to buyers. The first slogan focused on the word “always,” which reflected twice on the logo, and it meant that Wal-Mart did not change their reasonable prices, which were good and better. The new slogan now considers the buyers. So customers feel comfortable knowing that saving money with such low prices will definitely make them live better. They also changed their lettering and color. Before, it was “WAL★MART” in blue and “Always” in red which sincerely looked unattractive. The new logo is now “Walmart” in sky blue with a soft texting style, and it has a yellow sign after the name. Today’s logo is better because the colorings are softer, and the sign which looks like a flower or the sun implies making people happy by Wal-Mart. To attract their target, retailers need to constantly improve their marketing strategies.

That is why market segmentation and targeting are important any business. Salespeople can decide “what’s next” by providing new products and services to keep attracting customers.New goods can be produced, new services provided, or new web designs created. Why and how? Customers will not keep buying from one company only as I mentioned in the previous paragraph due to competition, as the other competitors try to attract the same targets. If salespeople know their targets and in which segments they fall in, they can analyze targets’ trends and desires, and decide their next marketing strategies quickly.

YouTube is one of the most popular video sharing website, and it keeps improving to maintain success. Their main targets are internet users who want to see interesting videos and who want to show their own videos. YouTube is also useful as an educational media: my teachers showed us artistic and economical videos to better understand some classes easily. Additionally, other businesses start using YouTube to advertise their products – B2B. So there are many uses of YouTube in a high tech world such as today.



YouTube.com was created on February, 2005, and it has changed their services to attract more internet users through current users’ needs. Last year, YouTube Inc. added “YouTube Insight tool,” which can store the times of each video entry and the user’s locations. According to the article written by Heather Havenstein from Computerworld.com, Tracy Chan, YouTube’s product manager, said "YouTube Insight gives the creators an inside look into the viewing trends of their videos on YouTube and helps them to increase views and become more popular." I guess the purpose of “YouTube Insight tool” works great, and it also helps users look for popular videos. Executives can respond to users’ needs and improve their services because they understand their targets’ view.

YouTube also gets its popularity from its great web design. YouTube.com does target different peoples, so they need to design the web site to that all users can understand the site and navigate through it easily. I think video sites, social networks, and search engines such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google use the same idea to design their web sites which are based on white background and easy navigation because their market target is extensive. How about other business websites who’s targets are narrow? These web sites such as those that target children or Christians are specific and have totally different designs.

Disneyfamily.com, the 2009 Webby Award winner of family/parenting website, targets parents and children. The difference between this web site and other e-marketing web sites is that tier main target is children. Each category is cute and really colorful which helps children recognize them easily. This website also shows new topics on the welcome page with pictures. Thus Disneyfamily.com has a very easy navigable site and easy web structure for its targets. (One thing that I did not like is the color of category on the bottom because it does not agree with side colors. The category of travel on the left side has a green icon, and the same one on the bottom is also green. However the category of games on the left side has a blue icon and red color on the bottom which may be a bit confusing to children.)

I want to introduce one Japanese website which sells cosmetics, Majolica Majorca. The concept of this cosmetic brand is “It will come true if you wish,” and “majo” meaning “witch” in Japanese: thus basically implying making up is like making magic.




Majolica Majorca’s website has so many great ideas for girls who are its main targets. The site starts a storied video about new items with sounds when you click “enter.” After the video, you can choose what you want to see from the different icons on the main picture or categories under the picture. If you are interesting, please click “eye shadow” and “how to”, and choose any color from the item list, so it will show you how to use each eye shadow step by step. Additionally, this website has a good category “grant your desire (欲望を叶える),” and I love its naming. Each item is also named, with names such as shyness, egotist, impulse, and first love. If you want more information about Majolica Majorca, you can check the site on Facebook in English. (Click here to go to Facebook)

As a result market targeting has advantages and disadvantages, as illustrated on the graph below.

Marketing Quality by Targeting:

Thus targeting is a very important to start and improve the business, and it determines how the business should focus on making the website a success.


Resources:
The history of YouTube(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2NQiVcdZRY)/YouTube adds tool to analyze activity of video viewers(http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9072380)/Disneyfamily.com(http://family.go.com/)/TVCM Majolica Majorca(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4becEYdzWlM)/Shiseido Majolica Majorca(http://www.shiseido.co.jp/mj/index.htm)/Facebook Majolica Majorca(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Majolica-Majorca/23055167349)

For Customers

Blanding customer demand in a very important aspect of building customer value. To understand customer demend, a business needs to look its products and services from the customer perspective so that it can improve its marketing strategies. Quality web service and customer service will advance the goals of a business.

E-commerce and internet marketing have many advantages. Customers use online stores because they are faster, provide lower prices, and are easier to purchase from. Additionally, businesses can provide customers with "customized shopping." Customers can customize the design of a product to make it original. For instance, NIKEiD and Timberland, each provide unique customized shopping experiences for their shoes. At NIKEiD, customers can customize colos, materials, and designs for different parts of their shoes. They can also view the shoes from many different angles.

(Resource: http://nikeid.nike.com/nikeid/index.jsp?sitesrc=USLP#home)





Timberland has fewer options for customizing shoes than NIKEiD. However, it is easier to customize a shoe as Timberland as they have just quite a few places available to change colors. Also the hangtag on the shoes and the tongue or heel can be chnaged making it really original and unique.

(Resource: http://www.timberland.com/customboots/)





These systems work wffectively only with internet market, and they attract both current and future customers becasue NIKE and Timberland are both great brands.

Easy web navigation is also an important way or method to get and keep new customers. The way the web site is built plays a great role on how customers view items. A front page with simple noncomplex menus will help customers go through the website finding exactly what they want. Thus clear and visible icons play a huge role in selling items to customers on the web. Apple.com has a simple navigation. On the welcome page, customers can see categories by products, hence knowing exactly where to go to find what they want. Additionally, new and/or best products are advertized on the front page, like "the new iPod shuffle."

(Resource: http://www.apple.com/)



"Easy" navigation also helps the younger generation to understand the contents of the site. It is organized by both texts and graphics. A good example is Disney.com. Children and parents can find what they want in two ways: music category is shown by "music" and a headphone icon.

(Resource: http://disney.go.com/index)

One of the differences between online and offline stores is the power of advertising inside and outside the store. Offline stores mostly advertise products through TV commercials, news papers, and billboards, and they attract customers using freestanding signboards like "Buy 1, Get 1 Free," or "30-50% Off." Online stores advertise products through spam, banners and mobile ads like cell phones etc. They can also attaract customers through their own website through great design. Thus internet marketing has a strong potential of getting new customers on their website -- advertising. Apple.com also has good ads on the welcome page lije the iPod shuffle. adidas.com, a brand that won the best home/welcome page of the 2009 Webby Award, catches customers' eye by active photpgraphs: customers will stay longer to see photos and summaries.

(Resource: http://www.adidas.com/us/homepage.asp)



What is important is making the difference and standing out from the many e-marketing sites on the web. For instance, if Hyunday.com has an opening video on its web page befire it goes to the homepage, it will creat impact on viewers!!

Super Bowl 43 Ad: Hyundai Get Your Name Right (it's Hyndai, Like Sunday) - Click here for more blooper videos

Strategies on how a business tales care of its customers personally build trust and customers value. Amazon.com does successful strategies, like collecting information on each customer's likes and dislikes, based on what they view or purchase on the site, while constantly making suggestions through e-mail on items the customer might like to view or purchase. As a result of internet marketing and improved technology, a business can keep recording each single customer's data accurately to provide personal service. This service makes customers feel that a business cares about them, thus the customers tend to be loyal to the business as they begin to build trust.





Customer evaluation also helps businesses to know exactly what customers what or expect. Both the customers and the businesses benefits from evaluation. One of benefits is to provide customers opportunities to voice their opinions, desires or complaints directly to the business. Another benefit is that a business can elavuate and improve its products and services faster from customer's evaluations. For an evaluation, a business could provide a survey, a community board, and a ranking of products or providers like Amazon.com.

(Resorce: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Generation/dp/B00154JDAI/ref=sa_menu_kdp23_gw?pf_rd_p=328655101&pf_rd_s=left-nav-1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=507846&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=02P6A9RDAWNFYTZ8Q3VW)



Improving these five points of web and customer strategies will build a good customer value and relationship, and also improve the business itself as branding. Hence businesses try more and more to satisfy their customers, making e-commerce a better way to shop.