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)
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)
