Course: MAR 100-A050 | Intro to Marketing | Professor Buckler | Spring 2022

Segmentation Discussion

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    • #10941

      Brielle Buckler
      Participant

      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?

      ———-

      In order to receive full credit for this assignment, all components of this assignment are due by 11:59pm ET on Friday, March 4, 2022. You should first contribute a thoughtful post of your own before viewing/commenting on the posts of others. You must respond meaningfully to at least two classmates to receive full credit for this assignment.

      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 2 years, 5 months ago by Brielle Buckler. Reason: Updated Date / Rubric Link
      • This topic was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Brielle Buckler. Reason: Updated Date / Rubric Link
    • #11219

      Ice cream shop

      I am an entrepreneur I am and looking forward to talk about how I opened my first business, an ice cream shop!

      When we think about success, the first thing that comes up in our minds is money, but that is not the only thing that defines success, right choices define success, and that is the first thing we need to keep in mind before opening our businesses.

      Firstly, I decided to target children, they are the biggest consumers of ice cream. So, I can describe my ice cream shop a cozy place for children, with colorful walls, sofas, and animations all around, also, I have ice creams with the most variable flavors, and variable colors. Children can choose to eat it in a cup or cone, and of course, add some candy on top.

      Talking about segments, one of the things I considered before opening my business was the location, which is right next to a playground, so kids can have free access to visit there for a snack. Another point that I considered was adding some other kids of snacks, because on winter time, they can have more options instead of just having ice cream.

      I believe my method was effective because I strategized on how to make this business work, and how to be successful, considering market segmentation and targeting.

      • #11244

        Joana Berger
        Participant

        Opening an ice cream shop near a playground is a very good idea! Location can make or break a business. Not only is your location a great way to get away from the Summer sun after a long day of playing, but it can also become a hangout area for older kids who came to the park with their families but aren’t interested in the playground. You could even have a little ice cream cart and walk around the park selling ice cream. Seeing an ice cream cart will definitely get kids begging their parents for ice cream.

      • #11248

        Adrian Ceballos
        Participant

        I agree putting ice cream closer to kids like parks would definitely benefit your business.

      • #11259

        Horatiu Pui
        Participant

        Providing the same product in many other variable formats indeed leads to success. Also, it looks that your main focus is on kids which is a great idea. Kids are high influencers on the purchase decision making segment which increases significantly the sales. Finally, I would like to mention that your definition of success makes total sense, and I would add that ” Success is a journey not a destination”.

      • #11270

        Desire Acevedo
        Participant

        I think focus on your place by painting your walls colorful and have animation will attract the target you chose, you thought about the winter time when kids may not buy ice cream shop by adding snacks as another option. im definitely with you that your method will be effective.

      • #11312

        Amani Almontaser
        Participant

        I like the way you focus on children and talk about how your shop will be effective for them and with all of your providing from having the choice to choose what ever they like no matter what year season you have other options too.

    • #11243

      Joana Berger
      Participant

      Marketing my Ice Cream Shop

      With no formal marketing, my ice cream shop makes an average of $17,459 in revenue per month. My goal is to increase my average monthly revenue by more than 20%.

      Step 1. I decide to spend $1000 per month on advertising on the local free paper. My ad is in the main news section of the newspaper, and it reaches most people in not only my town but the neighboring town as well. Revenue grows by about 12.19%.

       

      Step 2. I want to continue with the newspaper approach, as it reaches a lot of people. I do a quick survey of the newspaper readers and how much they now spend at my shop. The results? Those who read the food section of the newspaper are more likely to spend money at my ice cream shop.

      Step 3. I focus my advertising budget on the food section of the newspaper and see an improvement of 21.05%!

      Bonus Section

      A competitor opens an ice cream store in another part of town and markets to food lovers. This reduces my monthly revenue by more than 17.7%!

      Step 1. I decided to focus on marketing to those near my shop with daily sales. Now my revenues are only down by 3.13%.

      Step 2. I focus on a combination of people who are both close and come with their families. My revenues are +21.23% over what they were before the competitor came in.

      This results in an outstanding outcome!

      Why?

      I think focusing on marketing to those who live near my ice cream shop (by advertising in the local free paper and later, with daily sales) made it so that coming to my ice cream store became a fun habit. People now knew what to expect from my ice cream. When a competitor came in across town, I still focus on those who live near me, knowing my ice cream shop could still be their hangout spot or weekend activity. I want my ice cream shop to become a staple in the community, and I think with the marketing steps I’m taking, it can be accomplished

      • #11256

        Jesliann Mercado
        Participant

        Agreed, by making your ice cream shop stapled in a community means the word of your shop will spread amongst the community and hopefully onto any travelers.

      • #11263

        Emmalyn
        Participant

        I think it’s very interesting to read your plan as we took very different approaches in our segmentation methods.  In this simulation, your focus on advertising and geography led to overall better outcomes by comparison to my choices that were more demographic-focused.

        Focusing your advertising on the food section of the paper is a great step in expanding your customer reach since it will directly reach those who already have an interest in the kind of product you provide.  I think that your plan to focus your marketing on your immediate geographic surroundings is very strategic and is a great way to create brand loyalty, and allows you to have return customers who will come to you multiple times throughout the week due to your proximity within the community.  This also can let you even expand outside of the immediate, local community too through word of mouth, and they can also potentially bring other customers to you.

      • #11300

        I agree, it is a very interesting idea

      • #11313

        Amani Almontaser
        Participant

        I agree, it interesting how in your project you includes many statistics that makes it useful to understand and know the salary on how much you will make and how your business will work.

    • #11245

      Branine Jackson
      Participant

      As a small business owner with little marketing experience, it can be tricky to increase sales especially on a monthly basis. My goal is to increase monthly sales by 20%. First I spent $1,000 to market in local newspapers which only led to a 12.9% due to it’s limited reach. So I decided to do deeper research into a specific segment such as demographics. I decided to target families and to do so, I sponsored a few local school sports teams during the off-season. I also provided the ice cream for a few school socials. And I sponsored the summer tennis matches and a few sailing teams. This resulted in a 20.72% sales increase.

      Overtime a competing shop opened up nearby and caused my sales to decrease. In order to sustain my business I decided to advertise to families and locals to pull in more more revenue resulting in a 21.23% increase in sales. This was an effective method because I was able to increase and sustain customers. I also drove the competition away and put my business in a position to last long.

      • #11255

        Jesliann Mercado
        Participant

        I agree anything around a school zone area will provide profit since most children typically enjoy ice cream, resulting in continuous profit.

      • #11305

        Klaudia Przybyla
        Participant

        It think it was a good idea to sponsor a few local school sports teem, and just schools in general. At the end of the day, kids enjoy ice cream the most.

    • #11246

      Kamila Soopy
      Participant

      In this situation, the ice cream shop is bringing in $17,459 a month. The goal is to increase the monthly average revenue by 20%.

      Before looking into different advertising methods, I chose to do research into the target market, specifically the demographics of the customers. This reveals the majority of customers are families or from higher income backgrounds. To target families, the solutions included sponsoring a variety of sports events as well as providing ice cream for school socials; all of which resulted in a 20.72% increase in revenue.

      After some time another ice cream shop opens up nearby, which leads to a decrease in sales. As a majority of their customers are food lovers, the initial step was to attract those customers by changing the formula. Though that helped, it wasn’t sufficient. The next step would be to develop new flavors for different family members. This combines the original familial aspect along with the new emphasis on taste. These steps lead to an increase in the revenue and the competitor decides to leave.

      • #11276

        Ferliana Cuadrado
        Participant

        We had similar methods in the way we handled the segmentation of our ice cream shops. I like the way you went about things and what you prioritized. It was interesting to see what the outcome of the other paths in the simulation were.

    • #11247

      Adrian Ceballos
      Participant

      We all know everyone loves ice cream especially around the summer. That is exactly why I chose to make a special feature for the winter time called “warm/hot ice cream. My business venture is meant to target kids and all ages who enjoy sweets. I plan on becoming mobil and putting trucks all throughout the city and shops near schools, parks, and even around malls. I plan on taking small loans in portions and making the money back to expand and pay back. I chose to research into that type of market, an I came across how the biggest target are higher income families and also when sponsoring events for sports, birthday parties, or any celebrations. I think my method is great because I mapped out how I will thrive with new limited edition flavors, different locations, becoming mobil (coming to you) and making sure I keep a smile on everyones face so they would want to come back.

      • #11268

        Edward Quinn
        Participant

        Haha!  I love the idea of “hot icecream” for the wintertime!  Winter or just cold weather in general probably is very tough on ice cream sales!  Whether it’s a particular flavor that connotes “warmth” or you actually have some “hot icecream,” I think the tongue-in-cheek approach can be a cool marketing pitch, especially if your segmentation research showed you tracking well with that crowd (perhaps younger, perhaps educated and primed for ironic, satirical type of marketing pitches?).

    • #11249

      Horatiu Pui
      Participant

      My ice cream firm, called Horatiu’s Ice Cream, was created and built up by me. The company is located in Miami, Florida. Its legal form is a Limited Liability Company since personal assets are protected. Nowadays, there are many ice cream companies all over the states, but every store has its own speciality in ice cream. In fact, since there are so many competitors, it is very hard to keep up with them, and provide the best and most convenient product. In order to be able to satisfy customers with product or service several facts must be taken in consideration, such marketing segmentation and targeting. At the time of building up my business I paid attention to whom I should be marketing, why that group of people, and how it is possible to reach them the most easy and effective way. Understanding the target market I was ready to input money and effort in the organization. The main segmentations that I considered were: geographic segmentation – the state of Florida is well known as a place with increased temperature where cooling products are highly favorable for people almost the entire year. Also, it is one of the most visited locations by tourists, which is not only seasonal. Then I combined Demographic segmentation with Decision-maker segmentation– looking at the characteristics of the population, it emerged that different aged people, but mostly youth, play significant roles in the area. So, an ice cream with a 100% natural flavor could be pleasant, in elevated temperature, at any time of the day or night . Usually, there is a primary buyer, a person who makes the final decision about what to buy. However, influencers, for example kids, are not making the final decisions of purchase, but they highly influence the choice of what to buy.
      Once the segmentations were in an actionable place, I decided to follow a multisegment strategy. Focusing the marketing efforts on more than two segments was advantageous for the company since we were able to serve different types of customers with a product at a very convenient price, thus increasing sales. My main goal always was to attract as many customers as possible, and make them become heavy users. Once the customer needs are satisfied 100% (low price for high quality) they become long term customers.
      After establishing my target market, I started to attract people by advertising and promoting on different online channels, flyers, and word-of-mouth. After the business was stable, in order to increase revenue, I started distributing ice cream all over the city with an Ice Cream truck that had loudspeakers calling people to enjoy the different tastes of my house-made ice cream.
      Finally, my message to the target market was that I’m able to serve them a price affordable and 100% natural product. In fact, thanks to the different right market segmentation decisions and to the promotions my business is successful with significant yearly revenue, and an outstanding profit.

      • This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Horatiu Pui.
      • #11252

        Rechal Kajla
        Participant

        I think your location for your store is ideal since it will not be seasonal, resulting in high levels of profit all year round.

    • #11251

      Rechal Kajla
      Participant

      As an entrepreneur, I am always looking forward to new challenges and goals. My aim as the owner of an ice cream shop is to enhance monthly sales by 20%. I started by focusing on segmentation, primarily demographic research, and discovered that families came to my shop in greater numbers than any other type of customer. As a result, I decided to promote to families by sponsoring sports teams and tennis tournaments. Due to increased family traffic, sales increased by 20.72%.
      To differentiate my business from the competitors, I would build a mini play area in the store to keep children entertained while also establishing a bond with the customers.
      I believe my method was effective because not only did it increase my revenue, but it also made my shop more family-oriented. The decision to work on demographics led to great results in my business.

      • #11262

        Horatiu Pui
        Participant

        Building a mini play area in the store for kids in order to increase revenue is a cool idea. You mentioned that your customers increased by 20.72% which is a significant amount and great, however, did you thought about how to manage the customers already in the store and the new incoming ones? For instance, what about if  the playing area’s capacity is for 20 kids, but 15 more are coming in or waiting for their round, and supposedly they will buy the ice cream only if they will have the chance to play? Did you planned anything? Also, how about the safety measures for kids? Are you taking the responsibility for any incident occurring in the playing area?

    • #11253

      Jesliann Mercado
      Participant

      My Ice cream shop

       

      My ice cream shop, called Jess Ice Cream Shop, was created in New York City and built in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. With no real training in marketing, my ice cream shop makes an average of $17,459 in revenue monthly. My overall goal is to increase revenue anywhere from 10%-20%.First off in a city like New York City, there are a ton of other ice cream shops which means a lot of competitors. I pay close attention to what flavors consumers may like by giving out samples and building around the community by talking and conversing with the locals. I pay close attention also to the location of which I chose. Especially for the summer when many tourists and travelers come to travel and visit the city and for the locals out in the hot summer days. By a school as well, preferably a highschool where students may join and invite their friends for a cold treat. I would also spend roughly $1,000 in local ads online and flyers for people. I would also resort to free internet apps to advertise my shop such as Tik Tok or Instagram. My revenue then grows about 12.19%. As I continue to focus on more advertising towards the youth and any social events the school has, I may be able to provide service too. By focusing primarily on the school near my shop my revenues are 20.98% higher than what they were with the other local ice cream shops.

       

      • #11257

        Rechal Kajla
        Participant

        I like your concept of using social media platforms to market to your consumers, especially as people nowadays rely more on media to locate places to eat.

      • #11264

        Emmalyn
        Participant

        I think the Lower East Side is a good location for a smaller ice cream shop due to the fact that it is somewhere frequented by tourists, and those who live in NYC (whether they directly live in the LES or not).  Focusing your flavors based on the local community is something that will allow you to have return customers within a single workweek, and in another way, it will potentially appeal to tourists who are interested in the flavor interests of those who live around your shop.  I also believe that your strategy of utilizing social media to market your business is smart since there have been many businesses in NYC that have had an increase in customers/revenue due to a video of their business going viral on TikTok.

        • #11266

          Edward Quinn
          Participant

          I agree with the social media angle!  I think creating content that is fun and easy to “consume” is so important for a small business — many businesses have blogs, or do instagram posts, but if you could be creative with short videos on Instagram and TikTok, I think that could help create some brand loyalty and maybe find new customers as well.  I noticed my iPhone version of YouTube is now setup to flick through videos like TikTok, so this type of quick “shorts” video content is probably a great (and free!) way to get some hype out.

    • #11258

      Emmalyn
      Participant

      As an entrepreneur working to bring more revenue in for my ice cream business, I decided that I need to begin by conducting research and looking at some of the stats for who makes up the total population of my town.  This leads me to segment my market based on demographics.  I then find out that families spend more money in my shop by comparison to people who come in by themselves or with friends.  This leads me to the decision that I will target families.

      I market to families through sponsorship and also provide ice cream for a few school socials.  I sponsor local sports teams in their off-season and then sponsor a few summer tennis matches and sailing teams.  By placing my product in this setting I’ll be able to expose the taste of my ice cream to new potential customers.  I will also be very likely to see some of my loyal, existing customers with families (as they make up 30% of my current customers). I’m hoping this will lead to new, returning customers who are a part of the family demographic.  This decision causes me to see more family traffic in my ice cream shop, which improves my monthly sale average by +20.72%.

      A competitor in another part of the town then reduces my average monthly revenue by more than -17.7%, as they target their shop to “food lovers.”  Because of the fact their business angle is “food lovers,” I decided to try to be in even more direct competition with them by similarly focusing on “food lovers,” and improve the quality of my ice cream.  The improved ice cream quality sparks some interest in my customers and increases my monthly revenue by +6.1%, but this still leaves me with a -11.6% discrepancy from where I was prior to the competition arriving.  Using this tactic of improving my quality of ice cream in this instant relies more heavily upon word of mouth, as well as advertising directly within/by my shop.  Perhaps if I chose a different way to segment my market for this choice that would have been more directly involved within the community, I would have been able to see a greater percentage increase quicker.

      I then decide I need to also place my focus on families in addition to food lovers and develop flavors specific to family members.  Since families were able to increase my revenue so greatly the first time around through my other marketing plans, I am hoping that they will also bring in a similar revenue increase again.  I then see an overall increase of +26.06%, which puts me at a +14.46% over my pre-competition revenues.  This causes my competition to make the decision to move to another town.

      I think my decision to segment my market based on demographics was very advantageous to me considering how much of my current customer base was already made up of families, and how families were likely to spend more money by comparison to other customers.  Although I slightly changed my angle by deciding to cater to food lovers, I still kept a focus on customers who have families, which was able to eventually get me to a better position overall.  I think that perhaps something I should have considered more is segmenting my market based upon geography.  If I were to advertise to my more immediate, local customers who are in close proximity to the shop to begin with, I could have potentially brought in more customers who I could see multiple times throughout the week.  I think that my demographic focus was likely to have brought in people who are more of the weekender category where I might see them once or twice in the week.  However, since I was able to promote my product through the schools’ sports teams and other school events, I believe this gave me exposure to a greater number of potential customers, which still lead to an overall positive outcome.

      • #11280

        Fioriliana Cuadrado
        Participant

        Hi Emmalyn,

        I love how you brought up school events when it comes to the family demographic. I think that was a great way of thinking beyond just families but potential opportunities that those families could bring. Very well done.

    • #11261

      Mariama Diallo
      Participant

      Ice cream shops are among the most popular businesses among both children and adults. It’s understandable because ice cream is one of the most popular sweets on the planet. People who love to eat ice cream all the time, for example, when you on a date and have a full lunch but want something sweet and cool, they will most likely choose the ice cream dessert. It is more useful to start an ice cream business in a public spot where people are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s smarter to open an ice cream shop in Manhattan because it’s one of the busiest places, and youngsters would get out of school and go downtown to hang out. And because it’s hot outside during the summer, a lot of ice cream shops make a lot of money because customers want something cold.

      Opening an ice cream shop will be cost you $40,000 or even more because of the Machine and supplies and analyze your products/services but however opening a ice cream let’s saying downtown Manhattan can Cost a lot of money and it could make a lot of money during the busiest time of the year like summer time.

      To have a good business I would use my 4 element marking mix which is product, place/Distribution,and promotion because they are careful examined, price targeting has an impact on every element of the marketing mix resulting in successful business. Using social media like Facebook and Instagram to post of the pictures too advertise business because it could draw a lot of attention from people all over..

    • #11265

      Edward Quinn
      Participant

      House-made Ice Cream – Marketing Segmentation and Targeting

      I was having quite a bit of success running my local Philly based ice cream shop that made some crazy flavors in house, with monthly sales averaging $17K, and my take home pay averaging over $4K per month. We have some amazing Philly cream cheese ice cream as well as cheese steak ice cream that my local customers love. It’s been great, making money and doing what I love!

      Unfortunately, my wife has been spending quite a large sum of money, and my credit cards are all maxed. I needed to raise sales about 20% to begin using the snow ball method to eradicate these high interest debts. So, to begin, I knew I needed to conduct some market segmentation studies to better understand my customers beyond their quest for dank Philly ice cream flavors. I decided to hire a marketing segmentation consultant, and they helped me better understand my customers. I choose to first run some segmentation around the geographic components, and as I suspected, most of my customers are from the immediate local area. That was helpful, but I still needed to understand the segments better.

      Next, I segmented based on demographics, and the wiz kid marketing consultants determined that not only are the local folks the best at supporting our little dream shop, but in particular, local families and particularly those with high disposable income were common trends. Thus, I employed some grassroots marketing efforts aimed at targeting families through local events such as sporting events like tennis and sailing (these are also consumers who, stereotypically speaking, may have more disposable income than other types of family sport events), and this increased my sales over 20%!

      Unfortunately, just as I paid off the smallest little usurious credit card balance, a new homemade ice cream vendor moved into my neighborhood from Brooklyn, catering to “food lovers” and trying to poo-poo my cheesesteak flavored ice cream as pedestrian and worst of all, unhealthy! The nerve. This hurt sales drastically, so I doubled down on improving my quality for the foodies, as well as marketing to families directly and managed to impact his sales enough that they moved back to NYC. I think this was very important to try to understand the customer base in terms of demographic, as well as the geographic factors — in real life, and not just in a simulation, this kind of information would be so valuable to try to improve one’s product, and increase sales not only to new customers but also to your existing customer base!

      • #11272

        Hi Edward,

        First I would like to say great job! You created a situation that was very realistic.

        I think your use of demographic and geographic segmentation was a great idea and obviously worked out well for you. I also agree with you that in a real life situations that kind of information is very valuable when trying to improve ones products and sales.

      • #11278

        Fioriliana Cuadrado
        Participant

        Hi Edward,

        I really love how you made a story behind the simulation. It was very entertaining to read. I agree with you that the simulation was a great way to understand different factors, and it was a very valuable and fun lesson.

      • #11304

        Klaudia Przybyla
        Participant

        Hello Edward.

        Well done! If not for the fact that we are taking the same course, I’d think that your story is true! The demographic and geographic plan was really good.

    • #11267

      Desire Acevedo
      Participant

      I am an entrepreneur of an ice cream shop and my goal is to attract more people to my store, increase my monthly income by 20% and eliminate the strongest competition that is affecting me by reducing my income. My competition is focused on foodies, so I started doing demographic research and found that the people who come to my store are especially children and families, so I target families. i sponsored some local school sports teams during the off-season, provided ice cream for some social schools, and sponsored summer tennis games and some members of the sailing teams. I also focused on foodies, which was the target of my competition. I worked with some local dairies to improve the quality of my ice cream, developed some new and interesting flavors aimed at different members of the family, and made more creative shaped ice creams. and visually fun and that customers can combine and create their own ice cream with different ingredients, toppings, so kids are attracted to creativity of the ice creams and I offer more options for my family and as a result I get a 20.72% increase in family traffic , children and my foodies and family focus result in an increase of +14.46%. on my competition’s income forcing them to move from a different town.

      • #11271

        Hi Desire,

        I also used demographic segmentation. I found it to be especially helpful in figuring out who my customer base was and i too decided to focus on Families. I think your idea of working with local dairies was a great way to improve the quality of your ice cream. Making the environment of your shop family friendly and fun was also a great idea.

         

    • #11269

      As an entrepreneur with a new house-made ice cream shop, I knew that my goal would be to increase profits by at least 20%. From my knowledge of taking Marketing 100, I knew the best way to do this would be to target my product to one or more segments of the population. With total monthly revenue of $17,459.00,  I decided to conduct some research segmentation to have a better understanding of my customer base. Through this research, I focused on the demographic of my customers. I learned that families who came to my shop spent more money than anyone else. with this research, I decided to sponsor some local sports teams during the off-season and I provided the ice to a few schools. doing this increased the number of families who came through my shop and increased revenues by 20.72%. I had reached my goal and was very satisfied with my results. I believe that using segmentation research helped me increase my revenues because it gave me insight into who my customer base was. This allowed to me invest more in the customers who were bringing in the profits.

    • #11273

      Fioriliana Cuadrado
      Participant

      As an ice cream shop owner, I want to increase the number of people who come into my shop and my monthly revenues by 20%.

      My first step would be to conduct research around segmentation and targeting. I decide to segment the market by looking at my demographics. This includes age, family status, and income. I decided to do this because I feel like it would be smarter to understand what is popular amongst different age groups and incomes to accommodate it, which would bring in more profit. As a result of this, I’ve learned that the people who come into my shop the most are families rather than friends or individuals.

      My next step is to decide who I want to target. I decide I want to target behavior instead of others because that is the most practical way. Not everyone has a family and not everyone is well off. But coming into my shop and being a loyal customer doesn’t require any type of prerequisite. By doing this, I’ve identified three promising segments: Die-hard fans (several visits per week); Weekenders (come in regularly on weekends); Pre customers (not a customer now but they might be soon). Of course, I started second-guessing myself and I decided to look at demographics again. I then realize I clicked on the same thing and went ahead with targeting behavior and using this segmentation.

      My next step is to decide how to take action on this segment. I decide I want to provide a better service. This was my decision because I believe that if I provide a better service, then more customers would want something higher quality. I marketed this to die-hard fans. If I marketed it to them, then more people would become die-hard fans because of the benefits these fans are getting. I decide that the best way to raise the quality of the product is by training employees and giving add on’s. I think this is the best way because I feel like a card would be way too much for an ice cream shop and creating a warm atmosphere would bring more customers in because they feel welcomed.

      As a result of my decisions, my revenues increased 34.72% to $23,520 per average month. But unfortunately, a competitor opens a rival ice cream store and markets to food lovers. My revenue went down by over 17.7%. I combated it by marketing to families because they come into my shop more often. After trying that, my revenues are up 6.58% instead of down 17.7%. I then decide to target food lovers to steal a few of the other shop’s customers. My food and family focus resulted in my revenues increasing by 14.46%. My competitor then moved away.

      I think my method was effective because I tried to market to be fair to my customers but also to be profitable for me. I think I made the right decisions that align with my goals and helped me gain so much revenue.

      • #11279

        Ferliana Cuadrado
        Participant

        We shared similar methods in the way we approached the segmentation simulation. The description you gave on what you did and how you did it was interesting. You did a good job on getting the revenues up.

    • #11274

      Ferliana Cuadrado
      Participant

      I am an entrepreneur at an ice cream shop. My ice cream shop’s revenue is 17k which makes my income as the owner, 4k. I decided that to increase my shop as an overall I would use segmentation and target marketing. Using demographic targeting, I looked at who my target demographic is, what they enjoy, and can spend (unlike ToysRUs). My demographic let me know that a majority of my demographic are families, summer people, and men. I decide that instead of demographic targeting, I will do behavioral targeting instead. Using this form of segmentation, I decide I want to offer better sevices to this segment. I offer the service of “training my employees to greet return shoppers by name, know their common order and offer surprise add-ons”. This method increased my shop’s revenue by a whopping 34.72%. Totaling revenue to $23,520 per average month. I now have a rival competitor. This rival competitor is focusing on food lovers which has made a strong impact on my shop costing me lose 17% in revenue. I retaliate by focusing on high income families. This sends my revenue up to + 15.97%.

    • #11303

      Klaudia Przybyla
      Participant

      As an Ice Cream Shop owner who makes my own delicious and unique flavors, I’d love to find more people who would enjoy my ice cream. People seem to enjoy homemade ice cream more than regular ones. I’m a small business owner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. My business has been quite successful. Unfortunately, New York City rents have risen a lot since the pandemic. I’d love to keep my business running smoothly. I’d like to raise the average monthly revenue by 20%.

      The target group I was targeting was local families.  Approximately 30% of my customers come with their families. The neighborhood is full of kids who love ice cream. Their parents take them to our store because everything is homemade. We also don’t use any unnecessary ingredients – We keep it simple and healthy. However, I’d love to expand my market. I wanted to have a better sense of who is out there, who would love to try my ice cream. According to the geographic segment, I have determined that local adults would also enjoy my shop. Williamsburg is known for its hipsters. What does this mean? Hipsters are foodies who enjoy healthy, homemade foods. Furthermore, they prefer to support local businesses over large corporations.

      My first step is to create a nice Instagram page. Hipsters are attracted to Instagram pages. Before shopping at a definite store, they check out how the place and food look like. I’m going to really focus on the social media side of the business. A photographer friend of mine will visit the store twice a week to take some pictures. Then I’ll edit them in Photoshop and post them on our social media platforms. Adding an Instagram story every day, as well as posting new content three times a week. I’ll repost any mentions of my store. That’s what people like. We also need to mention on our social media that our ice cream is homemade, made from simple ingredients, and is healthy. Additionally, we have a vegan option available. I would love to find a local foodie Instagram with a large following that will try our ice cream for free. My goal is to make them love our ice cream, atmosphere, and store so they will write about us.

      Creating a nice space for my customers is my second move. I want to attract families with children, as well as hipsters in the neighborhood. Interestingly, both of them enjoy the same atmosphere in the stores. It would be great if my customers posted pictures of their space on social media. I would also love to design a nice outdoor space. There are a lot of dog owners in this neighborhood. should be able to sit and enjoy without having to worry about where to leave their dogs.

      This was quite a successful decision. Expanding my market was a good idea. Though my store is not for everyone, it is not impossible to have more than one target audience. This is especially true when you own an ice cream shop. Families still visit; they love the new outside area. My hipsters enjoy spending time outside and inside the store with their friends. Thanks to social media marketing, I gained a lot of new customers. Mainly local adults who love healthy food. And who doesn’t like to eat homemade ice cream with simple ingredients? If there is someone, it’s definitely not someone who lives in Williamsburg. Generally speaking, everything went well.

    • #11309

      Amani Almontaser
      Participant

      My Ice Cream Shop!!!!

      To open an Ice Cream Shop(business) I need to think of how to manage it and where to operate it as a small location that will provide a wide selection first and make the business work.

       

      Management is committed to providing customers with quality ice cream, smoothies, and beverages at reasonable prices while conforming to all laws regarding the sale of food on both the state and local levels.

       

      My shop will be in Miami, FL with an indoor and an outdoor setting. I chose this location because it has the most generation that goes for vacation mostly and the weather is sunny which is needed and ice cream to cool down. Also, the art of my business is joyful for consumers with a lot of ice cream drawing animations, a quiet place with a low volume of joy music, and colorful walls and chairs. People have the choice to play any music they want but have to be related to the place from joy and happiness.

       

      Convincing people to buy;

      Asking them what they are allergic to before ordering to make sure I don’t hurt people.

      -First, provide many flavors with different colors of ice cream kinds

      -Second, smoothies

      -Third, frozen yogurt

      -Fourth, people have the option to choose from a cone, cup, or other form provided.

      -Last, it will be waffles that include the flavors of the ice cream inside.

       

      Who I will be selling it to > Two groups⤵️

      •  First families buy for their children the most: this group not only generates a large volume of immediate business but also creates long-term customers in the children and they have a choice to go out for ice cream more often. they all have children so tactics that are geared towards markets that relate to children or the children themselves may provide highly effective in generating trial,.

       

      •  an 18-24-year-old: half college students & half residents because they tend to spend more than they could afford prestige products. They’re reachable through music and they refer to prestige products which match our choice of product offering.

      My business will work well because what I did is what everyone wishes for and convincing consumers the most in a good way makes the marketing go as planned to have a successful business.

       

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