[Brielle Buckler]

The process of dividing a market into meaningful, relatively similar, and identifiable segments, or groups, is called market segmentation. The purpose of market segmentation is to enable the marketer to tailor marketing mixes to meet the needs of one or more specific segments.</span>

There are several reasons an organization may decide to target their product(s) and/or service(s) to one or more segments of the population. You can read more about each of the reasons listed in our Course Materials for this unit

For this assignment, work through this simulation which is part of this unit’s Course Materials. Imagine you are an entrepreneur working to building your house-made ice cream business. Based on what you’ve learned, choose a path to improve marketing efforts.

Explain how the path(s) you’ve chosen successfully (or unsuccessfully) gets your message to your target population, and what effect your marketing had on ice cream sales.. Then, speak to the segmenting variables that you considered for this product/service (ex: geographic, demographic, etc.). Why do you think your method was effective or not?

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In order to receive full credit for this assignment, you must first post your own response to the question(s) above by Friday, September 29 at 11:59pm ET. You then must comment meaningfully on at least two classmates’ posts by Sunday, October 1 at 11:59pm ET.

This assignment is worth a total of ten (10) points — 6 possible points for your original post, and up to 2 points for each of the two responses to your classmates’ posts. Please reference our Discussion Rubric for more information, and to this guide from MSSU to learn more about what it means to respond meaningfully to a classmates’ post.

• This topic was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Brielle Buckler. Reason: Republish

[Zaheer Ali]

When looking to increase the sales to my ice cream shop, I’ll focus on one specific target audience, rather than multiple, by using this approach i have seen success, because by looking at the geographic factors I discovered that people who live and work where my ice cream shop is located tend to spend more, i also discovered that families spend more money than individuals, so I decided to that my target audience is going to be families and that has increased my sales, I also discovered the people in the neighborhood tend to have a lot of dogs, so I made my business into a dog friendly environment by doing this, I was able to gain more customers because dog owners tend to interact with other dog owners and it draws more customer to my business, that has also helped increase the revenue of my ice cream shop, I found that mostly families an dog owners is the big spenders on my business so they became my target consumers. I think my method was successful because I learned the environment that my business is located in, I learn the buying habits of the people and who these people are and what are they willing to spend their money on and how do I as a business owner make them keep on spending their money on my products.

[Yohance Williams]

Hey Zaheer,

Congrats on the success of your business. I appreciate that you chose to focus on one target audience through geographic segmentation and found success by catering to those who work and live near to your ice cream shop.

It was a very good choice to explore families as your intended customer base. However, I found it even more business savvy of you to make your ice cream shop pet friendly as the research suggested many families nearby owned dogs. The use of the animals to help promote and potentially drive traffic to your business through the interactions of the dogs’ owners came at no cost to you. Perhaps you may implement your version of a “pup cup.”

Lastly, I am curious to know if you were to give your ice cream business a name, what would that name be?

Cheers,
Yohan

[Sherlyn]

Hello Zaheer,

i believe you did an amazing job choosing  observing that a lot of families had dogs. In many neighborhoods they like businesses where they can bring their dogs to. So by you noticing that means that you can catch the little things in certain customers.

[Bridget]

Hi Zaheer,

It was a good choice to focus on the environment where your shop is located. I did the same and was able to learn more about my customers that way. Increasing sales really relies on your customer base more than it does marketing without research. Doing the research before marketing allows you to get a better idea of how big your increase in sales will be.

[Krishna Mathur]

Hey Zaheer, I like how you took a different approach of focusing on the dog owners and ended up creating a more pet-friendly environment. I personally did not think that it would work in my simulation, but the fact that it did for yours gave me more confidence to keep my vision more open to such diversity and inclusion when it comes to such decision making.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Krishna Mathur.

[Sindi]

Hi Zaheer, your choices were more focused on the demographic side. You could’ve explored other areas as well, but you focused on multiple demographics which helped appeal to more customers. You didn’t just focus on the income of the people around your shop, you also created a better community based environment by making your shop dog-friendly.

[Brielle Buckler]

Great observation Sindi. Not all marketing decisions use demographic information, but many segments are at least partly based in demographics.

[jewel.conyers55@stu.bmcc.cuny.edu]

Hi Zaheer,

We had a similar thought process when it came to who to target for our ice cream shop. We both knew that our target audience is families since they bring us the most money.  It was a good idea to do research on this before marketing and being able to see who increases your sales. I also thought it was a great idea to make your shop pet friendly. You took into consideration your environment, and was able to benefit from it which is great. I also think coming up with a special dog treat for the customers who decide to bring their pets would increase sales as well.

[Leslie]

Hello Zaheer,

I like how you took the dog owners in your neighborhood into consideration and satisfying them. I think this was a great step as it can attract more people to your business.

[Yohance Williams]

As the owner of Y’s Cream ice cream shop located in Teaneck, NJ my goal is to increase sales, revenue and my profit margins. This task had its trials and tribulations but in the end my shop was able to succeed.

With no formal marketing Y’s Cream was making $17,459 average monthly revenue with profit margins of $4015. Instead of attempting to reach an unknown goal I decided as the owner to set a 20% increase in revenue.
The decision was made to conduct some research in segmenting and targeting to help better define my market. Through my initial research I found that 30% of my customer base were families with children. Ice cream as a product is universal as it is enjoyed by adults and children alike and proved to be a key factor in the long-term success of Y’s Cream.

I proceeded with a geographic segmentation of my market. I wanted to see how convenient of a location is Y’s Cream and is the value of my product worth the time and distance of my existing and prospective customers. The geographic segmentation results showed what I already knew, people who live and work nearby are my main customers. I used this information and employed a couple targeting strategies to boost traffic and revenue which both proved to be unsuccessful.
Strategy A: I invested $750 on signage in the busier areas of town to divert traffic to Y’s cream.
Result: A positive impact as traffic increased by 17.36% but not enough to hit my goal of 20%
Note: This approach was a bit too safe and inefficient in focusing resources on an already targeted market due to its proximity to Y’s cream.
Strategy B: The following month I invested $1000 in flyers and signs to let people, who live in different towns, know about Y’s Cream.
Result: While I saw a positive increase in traffic of 8.64% it was not enough to achieve my goal of 20% increased revenue.
Note: This approach proved to be too expensive and ineffective. Given the product offered (ice cream) and the distance it would be harder to compete with closer ice cream shops.

Determined to achieve my goal I conducted another research around segmentation. This time focusing on demographic. I wanted to get a better understanding of what type of customer Y’s Cream was catering to. The results came back showing that mainly families with children shopped at Y’s cream. With this information and through some networking I was able to create a new strategic approach to target families.
Strategy: I sponsored a few local sports teams (tennis and baseball) by providing uniforms with the Y’s Cream name and logo across the chest. It was an affordable way to get the Y’s Cream brand more recognizable. Tennis and baseball are the most viewed sports in the town and screen printing of uniform shirts was inexpensive.
I also provided ice cream to a few of the local school events. This can help to show Y’s cream promotes a sense of family and community.
Results: A major boost in family traffic. Sales soared from $17,459 to $21,076 monthly. An increase of 20.72%
Note: Current goal was achieved

Given we operate in a free market and with the success of Y’s Cream competition arose. A new store Z Creamery opened across town, and they focused on “food lovers” with the quality of the ice cream produced. As a result, my monthly revenue took a hit and was down by 17.7%.
I had to adapt to this new development, so I identified my threat and investigated a new opportunity by directing resources on targeting food lovers as well.
Strategy A: Working with local dairies to improve quality of my ice cream then market to new food lover audience.
Result: Revenue moved from being down by 17.7% to 11%.
Note: While improvement was made the monthly revenue was still in a deficit.
BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
Strategy B: A double initiative approach, highlighting my strengths and identifying a weakness I decided to target both food lovers by improved quality of product and families by developing some new flavors of ice cream. As previously stated, ice cream is enjoyed by both Adults and kids, but they may have different tastes.
Result: The Food lover and family initiative yielded an increase of 14.46% over my PRE-competition revenue. Essentially sales rose 35.18% from when I initially started due to my segmenting and targeting plan.

Z creamery closed its doors and moved to a new town.

In the end segmenting by demographic proved to be the most effective strategy to Y’s Cream success. I was able to identify and target who was the driving force in my customer base – families, apply new promotions and strategies to increase traffic. I also improved my product by not only implementing new flavors to satisfy my customer’s needs but by using competition to provide better quality and tap into a new viable audience – food lovers.
Next stop – expansion!

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Yohance Williams.

[Bridget]

Hi Yohance,

I’m happy to hear your business has succeded. I like how you went in depth with the options you chose during this simulation. I, like you chose to look at the location of my shop first to get a better idea of a customer base. I also like how you used this research in order to choose to sponsor the surrounding sports teams and that brought you a lot of success!

[Nechama]

Hi Yohan,

I appreciated reading your discussion post. You applied a personal approach that was very clearly written and informative. I see that in the beginning you chose to focus on geographical segmentation with some success but the not the maximum amount needed. I also focused on that segment because I believe it is an important one but not as my first step towards generating revenue. Ultimately you chose demographic segmentation as the most important one to focus on. I agree that it is an important one companies should play into.

Altogether your writing showed thorough research on how to best improve your business and you successfully did!

[jewel.conyers55@stu.bmcc.cuny.edu]

Hi Yohance,

You really were thorough in your response which was great.  I too attempted to use the geographic segmentation but realized it was not the best option.  We both agreed that demographic segmentation was the best option to help increase sales.  I like how you also included lots of details such as how you were working with local dairies to improve the quality of your ice cream and also how you incorporated new flavors. Great job!

[Bridget]

In the simulation being an ice cream shop owner, I was faced with the goal of increasing my sales. I started out by having an income of $4015. I focused on the segmentation of my demographics doing research on which one I should market to I ended up choosing “die-hard fans” and people who lived close to the shop. I discovered this made up most of my demographic and chose to survey these people. With my new findings, I targeted this segment and ended up doing well and increasing sales. The new competitor shop moved in which prompted me to target families and once again people closer to the shop. I completed the simulation and my competitor moved out of town. I learned that my method was effective I think this worked because I did market research in order to figure out how to market my service and ice cream the best. I think not doing research and hiring a sign spinner would have been a waste of my money and I would have decreased my sales by doing that. Targeting a demographic that makes up the majority of customers as well as marketing to the pre-customers is most effective in increasing your sales.

[Katrina Lizarondo]

Hi Bridget,

I completely agree with this approach. Families make up the most demographic of ice cream shops. I focused on families as well, which helped me increase my revenues.

[Zaheer Ali]

Hi Bridget, i like how you conducted market research and identified “die-hard fans” and local residents as your primary demographic. I like how you swift your focus on the families, this adaptability, led to you to increased sales. And drive your competition out of business.

[jewel.conyers55@stu.bmcc.cuny.edu]

In this simulation where I  was an ice cream shop owner of Swirly Scoops, my goal was to get more people to come to my ice cream shop. My average monthly revenue was $17,459 and the goal was to increase it by at least 20%. The first thing I did was define my market so I can see who will want ice cream from Swirly Scoops. I decided to do some demographic research and discovered that families tend to spend more money in my ice cream shop compared to individuals who come in or even people who come with friends. With that knowledge I decided to focus on  marketing to families . I sponsored some local school sports teams and also sponsored some summer tennis matches and provided Swirly Scoops to some school social events.  By doing this my average monthly sales increase from $17,459 to $21,076. This was a 20.72% increase in sales. This shows how the demographic segment variable was a success. I was able to boost my sales slightly above 20% by focusing on the families that visited Swirly Scoops. When a competitor opened up an ice cream store nearby, it reduced my revenue by more than 17.7%.  This made me  begin targeting and serving people who lived close by to the shop. I made sure to advertise a big outdoor sign which helped with our daily sales. This then only reduced my revenue by 3.13%. So I continued to use the demographic segment for marketing and continued marketing to families and people who live close by to the ice cream shop. This resulted in + 21.23% in revenues before my competitor opened the shop. This was a big success and my competitor soon left town.  I learned that demographic segmenting worked the best for my business because it helped me to focus on who the majority of my customers were and their needs. I also tried using geography segmentation which I thought would help my business. I thought by researching the people who visit the shop and spent about $750 a month on some signs to advertise the shop would be enough. But, it wasn’t the most effective. It only improved my traffic by 17.36%. Therefore, I learned that demographic segmentation was the most successful marketing for my shop Swirly Scoops.

[Yohance Williams]

Hello Jewel,

To begin I want to say I like the name of your ice cream shop. When I hear the name “Swirly Scoops” I think of a variety of flavors of soft serve ice cream.

Based on this simulation we can agree that given the product offered, directing resources on targeting families specifically was the best approach to take. The boost in sales at Swirly Scoops is evidence enough to support this strategic decision.

I would like to know what is your favorite flavor that you offer at your ice cream shop?

Best Regards,
Yohan

[Leslie]

Hello Jewel,

I like how you included your research in the process of achieving your business goals. It really helped me understand the process of you attracting more people to your ice cream shop.

P.S. I love the name of your ice cream shop!

[Katrina Lizarondo]

My main goal in the ice cream shop is to increase my revenue by 20% and to do that, I conducted some research first. I wanted to know which segment was better to improve my sales. I started looking into the demographic (segment by age, family status, and income). After that, I decided that targeting families was the best way to promote my shop, as I’ve successfully increased my revenue by 20.72%.

Once I successfully increased my sales, an ice cream shop opened up in another town which reduced my monthly revenue. My first focus was to target food lovers, and my revenues went from being down from 17.7% to 11.6%. Then I followed- up by targeting families which led me to an increase of 14.46%. Throughout the whole process, I decided to focus on families which resulted to driving my competitor out of town.

Families are the primary customers of ice cream shop. I learned that in able to increase my revenues, I focused on families as my target.

[Nechama]

Hi Katrina,

Your discussion post was very straightforward and to the point. I liked that you expressed the importance of targeting families as the key to success and persisted on that path throughout. It’s important to notice that while you were firm on your opinion you acknowledged that to achieve more success you needed to target other groups too. You did that by targeting food lovers and expanding your customer base while also remaining true to your initial decision to focus on families. It shows that while you had a strong marketing plan you also remained flexible to the needed changes you had to make to achieve success.

[Sherlyn]

Hi Katrina,

i like how you were straightforward on your point. I honestly like how you pointed out the importance of families in your business!!!! And I really felt that your business grew throughout your first marketing decisions. Then proceed to stay with the marketing decision. Making an increase on the revenue.

[Zaheer Ali]

Hi, Katrina, i like how you prioritize the importance of targeted marketing and adaptability. By identifying families as your primary customer group and persistently focusing on them, you not only achieved your revenue goal but also successfully dealt with new competition.

[Nechama]

Opening a new ice cream shop takes some real time and effort. Throughout the last year, using no formal marketing techniques my ice cream shop made an average of $17,459 in revenue a month, which pays me $4015. My goal now is to create more traffic to my ice cream shop, trying to increase my average monthly revenue by 20%.

I decide to conduct some research around segmentation and targeting. I decided to take the route of behavioral segmentation, focusing on my most loyal customers. Based on purchasing behavior, my choice groups to target were die-hard fans, weekenders, or pre-customers. Before deciding which group to target I decided to do some more research on the different segment groups available using surveys. I discover that die-hard fans generally have a high income, weekenders’ income usually fluctuate, and many pre-customers are dog owners.

I decide to market to die-hard fans. I add organic and specialty flavors to my shop and gain the attention of some online sites. It greatly expands my average monthly revenues by 67%. Focusing on a group who were already avid supporters of my shop helped increase their spending at my shop and their reviews helped expand my network online.

A competitor opens an ice cream store in another part of town and markets to “food lovers” with the quality of their ice cream. It impacts me significantly, reducing my average monthly revenue by more than 17.7%. Because of that, I decide to place my focus on families and manage to increase my revenues up 6.58% instead of down 17.7%. Families usually spend the most money, being that it’s usually a larger group with everyone purchasing something.

The next target group I decide to focus on are people who are close to the shop. Being that I already had the added convenience of location for them, marketing to grab their attention just escalated their interest to here.

The combination of focusing on people who are both close and come with their families result in revenues that are +21.23% over my revenues before the competitor came in. And I have heard stories that the competitor will be leaving town soon.

Based off this module, I learnt how important research is before deciding which market to target and knowing the kind of customers to cater to. It’s one of the larger keys needed for success.

[Katrina Lizarondo]

Hi Nechama,

I like your approach that you added organic and specialty flavors in your shop! Adding new flavors will definitely attract more customers.

[Brielle Buckler]

It sounds like you did a great job in this simulation planning for the future AND reacting to market changes. Great job!

[Krishna Mathur]

According to the simulation, I am the owner of an ice-cream parlor, called “Kinta Bhai’s”, based off my nickname back home in India (The word, “Bhai” stands for the slang “bro”, in the languages Hindi and Urdu). My location is going to be in Queens (Jackson Heights), New York. Jackson Heights has a strong Indian subcontinent’s community base, which I have been using to as an advantage. Now since growth is a necessity in business, I decided to increase my average monthly revenue by 20 per cent.

Before I started working on my marketing schemes, my entity’s revenue was at $17,459 per month, which pays me i.e., the owner, $4015. Then, I started focusing on the statistics of my current customer-base of how many people does my parlor have that visit with their families (30 per cent) and how many people are seasonal customers, I.e., show up only during the summertime (35 per cent).

From there, I decided to focus on the customer base that is close to my entity’s locality. Therefore, investing into advertising in the main section of the local newspaper for $1,000 per month. It worked decently, but the average month’s revenue grows from $17,459 to $19,587, about 12.19 per cent, which did not satisfy the goal of a 20-percentage increase of the monthly revenues.

 

So, we decided to dig deeper and conduct a quick survey on the newspaper readers and how much they currently end up spending at my parlor. The survey ended up being useful as it helped us in noticing that more of our consumers focus on the “Food Section” of the local newspaper. Henceforth, we started investing our $1,000 into the food section, which ended up increasing the monthly revenue from the base $17,459 to $21,135, evaluating our average monthly revenues to 21.05 per cent.

Then one fine day, out of the blue, a new competitor, named “Food Lovers”, opened up a store in another part of Jackson Heights, and apparently have a better quality of ice cream. Their growth effected our average monthly revenue negatively, bringing it down 17.7 per cent.

This situation needed to get rectified. Our focus was to improve our quality to compete with Food Lovers. We started working with some local dairies to do so, and then started competing in the market with the new approach. This reduced the negative effect to 11.6 per cent, from 17.7 per cent, leading to an improvement, but not complete rectification.

Thereafter, we started developing new flavors (especially authentic Indian dessert flavors such as Kulfi) so as to target different members of the family. This resulted in a massive improvement and increased the average monthly revenue to 14.46 per cent more than our pre-competition revenue (I.e., 21.05+ 14.46 = 35.51 per cent). This growth damaged our competitor, “Food Lovers” heavily and made them relocate to another place, not in this town.

In conclusion, we can see that the different types of marketing tools, when used in the same direction can be highly beneficial for an entity if they use them efficiently. For “Kinta Bhai’s”, Demographic Segmentation successfully worked.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Krishna Mathur.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Krishna Mathur.

[Brielle Buckler]

I love seeing your personality shine through in this post, Krishna! The authentic Indian ice cream flavors sound delicious!

[Sherlyn]

As the owner of Dulce Helados. My business was doing pretty great for the first couple of years so I wanted to push my full potential and see if I can up my revenue 20.72%.

I started by research around segment and targeting marketing. So I focused on demographic marketing with family and friends by inviting school sports team, school clubs, summer tennis matches, and sailing teams. Which automatically increased my revenue from 17,459 to 21,076 and increased it by 20.72%.

Right around the corner another business opened up named “Food Lover”. My competitor costed me a decrease of 17.7%. So I decided to target people closer to my business and made my revenue decrease an extra 3.13%. I later decided I wanted to target people with a high income. So in total with the marketing towards people closer to the business and with a higher income increased the revenue 5.79%.

In conclusion, I wasn’t able to reach my goal for my business but realized that a business is risky with any decision an owner makes weather its helps the business or makes business goes down. it teaches owners to learn from their mistakes, and will later know what decision to make that will help business grow.

[Krishna Mathur]

Hi Sherlyn, I liked how you concentrated on Demographic Segmentation around families and friends. Also, I faced the same situation in the simulation where a new competitor effected my revenues negatively. However, what I did (after a lot of trial and error) was that I tried concentrating on developing my own entity so as to compete with my competitor in the market with equal strength, and it worked really well. You should try it out as well!

 

[Jazmin Valdovinos]

Hi Sherlyn,

I agree with you, it is very important to view the different scenarios of the situations to make a decision on how to make a business prosper base on that. We learn from mistakes and I am sure you’ll be able succeed in your next business segmentation.

[pasquale]

In this simulation of being an ice cream shop owner my goal is to bring in more costumers and to have higher profit. My ice cream shop made an average of $17,459 a month which made me $4015. i chose to segment demographic and notice most people who buy my product is families so i decided to Target after them. We sponsor schools and sports team and my monthly average goes up to $21,076 making that a boost of 21.76 percent!

A competitor opens up in the same town so we target more families and people who lives close by and that results in our shop making 21.23 percent over my revenues before they came. the competitors left. I think my methods were successful because we targeted families and people who live near by and that made them loyal and love our shop. Families love ice cream, its about knowing your audience.

[Brielle Buckler]

Did you do any research to start, or did you intuitively think “families are the best potential target segment?”

[Leslie]

As the owner of “Leslie’s Frozen Hideout”, so far my business has been doing pretty good. However, I have realized that I would like to grow my business and make it more known. I wanted more for my business and I wanted to expand. My plan was to multiply my business and make another establishment at another location. Where would I put my business? Well that’s where I begin my research.

“My ice scream shop makes an average of $17,459 a month which means I make about $4015 on average. My goal is for my monthly revenue to increase by 20%. I decided to base my research not only on segmentation but demographic segmentation. This way I can mainly focus on age groups, and gender. I chose demographic segmentation because I feel as though I usually have people from the ages 6-37 since it is mostly kids and their parents coming in for ice cream.

I also wanted to put it in a place that wasn’t too busy but not too empty either. I decided to locate my business in the town of Far Rockaway. I think this was the perfect location because it is right by the beach which is perfect for when summer comes around, but also perfect because it is located less than a 1 mile radius from a middle school and high school.

By the third month of my second shop being open, my shop ended up making 21.32% more revenue than it was before. That means my revenue went from $17,459 to an average of $21,181

In conclusion, to really figure out business segmentation, you should do your research on the parts you feel are more important because it can really help in the long run.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Leslie.

[Sindi]

Hi Leslie, I fully agree with your conclusion because in my own personal run of the simulation I didn’t explore every aspect that was possible, such as geography, I only focused on demographics. If I had chosen to explore other areas, I probably would’ve been more successful. Thank you for your insights.

[Jazmin Valdovinos]

Hi Leslie,

I think you made a great decision by expanding your ice cream business. Your idea of placing it in that location was great, you were able to view different scenarios to have your business running and prospering the whole year around. Also, my segmentation was made base in your conclusion so I fully agree with you.

[Taylor (Taye)]

Hello Leslie,

I love your businesses name, it’s very catchy!

The approach to what you did with your business is very in depth and makes so much logical sense. I really like that you chose a location and then expanded. Your placement has meaning too, which is really intelligent. I like that you also looked into age and demographics, which I did also. I am in agreement with you there. Your response is very creative and I really enjoyed reading it!

[Gio Blanco]

I love that you talked about location. Location is important too when running your business! Putting it next to a middle school and high school is a good idea because your ice cream shop is big with families. That means it’s easier to be seen by these families! The beach is also a good one because who doesn’t want ice cream at a sunny day in the beach!

[Sindi]

Without any official marketing initiatives, the simulated ice cream shop has been functioning for the past year, bringing in an average of $17,459 every month, earning the owner $4,015 in profit. I first decided to do some research. About 35% of our patrons are “summer people,” 3% are young people searching for a place to hang out, and 30% are families. The typical household income of our clients is $64,500. With this, I made the choice of going into segmentation and targeting in an effort to increase the shop’s sales by 20%. I divided customers into three groups based on how loyal they were, and I found three divisions of customers: die-hard fans, weekenders, and pre-customers. I then decided to target “pre-customers”, as it tapped into a previously untapped market segment with growth potential. I opened ice cream carts, which increased accessibility and visibility, likely attracting more foot traffic and impulse buyers. Monthly revenues increased by 14% as a result of this marketing plan. This strategy was somewhat effective in bringing in more clients and boosting sales, but it was ineffective overall because it fell short of the target of 20% revenue growth. Next time, I should investigate additional segmentation factors like geographic location, demographic traits, psychographics, and behavioral patterns to further improve my marketing strategy and maintain revenue growth.

[naomi rokah]

In this simulation, I’m the owner of Naomi’s Gelato. The shop’s monthly revenue is $17,459, and my monthly income is $4,015. My goal is to work harder to increase my revenue by 20%. I decided to conduct some research around segmentation and targeting to get a better sense of my customers and area.
After I conducted demographic research, I learned that my clients who spend more are mostly families that come together and spend time in my ice cream shop, so I targeted families and everything related to them. I knew I needed to connect with them and show myself and my business around town, so I sponsored new T-shirts for the tennis match and also sponsored the sports teams of the schools in the closest range to my shop. I got to advertise myself to those families while helping the community, and as a result, I got a boost in family traffic. My monthly average sales went from $17,459 to $21,076 – a boost of 20.72%, even a little bit higher than my goal.
Plot twist… a competitor opened a new ice cream store in another part of town and markets to food lovers. It’s impacted my average monthly revenue by 17.7%. Based on my experience, I wanted to focus on another segment – food lovers. I started to improve my ice cream and worked with dairies that have better quality and better ingredients.
It’s almost worked; now the revenue is down just 11.6% instead of 17.7%, but I do want to get back to my goals. I decided I needed to focus more on food lovers and be a real competition for other businesses, so I added 10 more interesting and trending flavors.
In this journey, I initially targeted families, successfully increasing my revenue by over 20% through community involvement and tailored marketing efforts.
However, the unexpected competition from a food-loving ice cream store impacted my earnings negatively. I adapted by improving the quality of my products and slightly moderated the revenue loss. My ultimate decision to focus on food lovers and innovate with new flavors demonstrates my commitment to remaining competitive in the dynamic ice cream market.

[Taylor (Taye)]

In my simulation my goal was to increase my average monthly revenues by 20%. I did this by conducting research to define my demographic. I found out that families buy more at said shop so I then leaned harder in targeting families. It worked as my monthly sales boosted to 20.72%.

This then unlocked the bonus level. To which I had a competitor Ice Cream place open shop. Instead of leaning into their demographic, I choose to cater more to my family demographic which resulted in me unfortunately running them out of business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zakaria Serroukh]

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Hi Taylor, that was smart you didn’t follow the competitors and you kept your business the same for local family’s who stayed loyal to the business.</span>

 

[Gio Blanco]

Yes, I went through the same thing you did with the ice cream shop stimulation. I was trying to cater to the other ice cream shop’s demographic, which is people who like good quality foods, but it didn’t really make a big difference. But then I did what you did, which was to just market to families, and it made a really big difference in sales. I learned that this happened because families was already one of my biggest demographic, so it’s a good decision to focus on them!

[Jazmin Valdovinos]

As the owner of Jazzy’s Ice Cream Shop, I decided to make an improvement in my shop. Over the last year, my ice cream shop made an average of $17,459 in revenue a month, which paid me $4,015. Even though my Ice Cream shop has been doing pretty good, I would still like to target more customers and increase the revenues of my sales. My goal is to segment the graphic and increase my monthly revenues by more than 20%. I will do that by focusing in my costumers demographic.

I made a research about segmentation and targeting to define my market to have a better sense and understanding of who’s out there, who might want my ice cream and has the means to buy it. After my demographic research I found out that 35% of my customers each year are seasonal summer people and about 30% are people that come with their families, which shows that most of my sales depend on this people.

Being said that, I decided to segment by age, family status, and income. I market to families. to do this I sponsor a few local school sports teams during the off-season. I after provided the ice cream for a few school socials. And I sponsor the summer tennis matches and a few sailings teams.

As a result, I got a boost in family traffic. I started seeing my revenues getting bigger and after my 4th month marketing, my average monthly sales went from $17,459 to $21,076, a boost of %20.72 percent.

In conclusion, I succeeded in my goal to segment more customers and increase my revenues. I learned new ways and techniques to target specific types of customers. This is definitely a lesson to apply in my future businesses to have them thrive and outsell difficult challenges.

[Taylor (Taye)]

Jazmin, it seems like you were really successful, you got a very large increase in revenue equal to your profit before! Age family status and income are probably highly correlated but give you multiple measures of the most important factors to a business.

 

[Zakaria Serroukh]

Hi Jazmin!

Great job on 20% gain thats how you do it. The summer teams is a great way to promote and gain more attention.

[naomi rokah]

Hi Leslie!
This is a great idea to make this kind of research and to open an ice cream shop by the beach and who doesn’t want ice cream after a day at the beach?
Im happy to see that you met your goals! good luck.

[naomi rokah]

Hi Bridget,

That is a great method, i liked that you chose “die hard” fans .
im glad your competitor moved out of town thanks to the path that you chose.
good luck.

[Gio Blanco]

In my homemade ice cream making business, I wanted to target different demographics. I noticed that when I targeted the demographic that buys a lot, I got the bonus reward. I tried to switch it up to target another demographic at the same time (marketing to two demographics), but it wasn’t the best answer. That’s okay though. I stuck to only marketing to the big demographic and the ice cream sales were to the roof.

Families was a big demographic for my business. So spending money on sponsoring games for families help reach other families too! I’m basically following the trend. When the competition came, I went for marketing to the higher income demographic, but that wasn’t the best answer. Marketing to families even more gave me a bigger income! So I learned that it’s best to market to one demographic than trying to market to a lot of demographics at once. I learned to follow the trend, if families are buying the most ice cream, it’s a good choice to put your all to them!

[Zakaria Serroukh]

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>In this situation, if  I want to better the sales of my ice cream business I will invest in promotion videos and try to gain more online attention. The target customers are children and young adults. To sell to adults I will leave the shop open till late, and also add more small products like water, coffee and pastry.This shop is local and for the community prices can’t be increased much however expansion can. To target children we will start  Catering parties and events allowing us to promote and make more without raising prices. </span>

 

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