[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.

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, all components of this assignment are due by 11:59pm ET on Sunday, April 23, 2023. 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. Students should review others’ submissions and comment meaningfully (refer to this guide from MMSU for reference) to at least two other students. For reference, here is the difference between a comment and a post — you will be using both for this assignment. Make sure to refer to our Discussion Rubric as you work on your submission.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Brielle Buckler. Reason: Republish
• This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Brielle Buckler. Reason: Updated Links

[Naomi Stubbs]

My first “path” through this simulation got to the desired result (an “outstanding result” that put my competitor out of business), likely because I completed it right after working through the modules and this line of thinking was fresh in my mind. It’s clear that not spending too much on advertising without first doing some research is important, but also thinking carefully about what that research tells you before acting on it.

I started by clarifying my goal, and then segmented the market. I picked geography first, but what it told me didn’t present a clear path of what to do with that information so instead I looked at demographics. From there, I saw that targeting families would make the most sense, and so selected that option. As that unlocked the “bonus section,” I then had to decide if I should expand my existing audience or should instead go after those who were attracted to the new store. Working with my already identified business strength, I doubled down on the families market which increased my revenues further and led to the other ice cream store going out of business.

I did find it strange that putting the other ice cream store out of business was part of the goal, as it appears from the market research that we were pursuing decidedly different market segments. The other store closing does not mean I would get all of that business by default, as they appeared to be the food lovers with high income and they may have traveled in from elsewhere to purchase their ice cream – they might not travel the same distance for my ice cream. Besides that, having several thriving business supports the wider economic community (assuming these are all small businesses), and those food lovers who come in town specifically for my competitor would likely frequent other businesses while they are in town, helping them to thrive. In turn, there is likely overlap with people who frequent those other businesses who would also come to my store. Also, some might want to compare ice creams or even do a mini ice cream “crawl” if there was a third store. Shutting down any other store that sells ice cream would not be my primary goal, certainly!

That said, I’m glad my ice cream business is thriving and I am firmly part of the community through my support of local school and sports events!

[Ariel Peretz]

Hey Naomi,

It’s great to hear that your ice cream business is thriving and you support the local community through school and sports events. It’s also encouraging to see you reflect on the consequences of putting the other ice cream store out of your business. This shows a level of awareness of the wider impact of business decisions. It’s important to remember that competition can be healthy, and having multiple thriving businesses in a community can benefit everyone involved. While it’s natural to want to maximize profits and grow your business, it’s also important to consider the impact of your actions on the wider community.

[Aldon Lamb]

First – I always enjoy reading your posts and comments. They’re very well thought out and supportive!

Secondly, I agree with your comment about putting another business out of business. I think that’s something I wouldn’t be able to do with a clear conscience. I understand fully why it’s a necessity sometimes but it just never feels like a good karma choice. I also think that they could have created some sort of brotherhood of ice cream shops and worked together instead of fighting against one another. I, for one, would be so down for an ice cream crawl!

[Khadim Green]

Naomi, you certainly make strong business decisions. I also had thought of my overlapping customers as well! I did not want to target their customers, I wanted to target mine since competition is new and I am newly established (17% is large but not large enough to consider someone else’s customers). How can I make these people that love my ice cream business already not resist my ice cream was the question for me. I believe that the reason the other business even appeared is because they saw how well we were doing in that market and figured they can too, so it is honestly fair game at this point. I can only imagine how these people think about running their businesses in the same city of our thriving businesses. I think the bonus simulator really heightened our senses toward how competitors can intimidate us whether intentionally or unintentionally, but when you have a loyal base of customers, it might be best to keep focus on that and not someone else’s market. But it was honestly so disheartening to see them close like what if that were their dream shop? I literally want to open a dessert shop one day and I would so not like someone trying to purposefully look at my business as something to discontinue so they can thrive. I think that is why it is also important to be unique in product and/or services within your brand.

[Ariel Peretz]

As an entrepreneur that builds an ice cream business under the name of “The Ice Era.” I have two main paths regarding marketing strategies. The first is social media advertising, and the second is offering a vegan product. Those strategies are the results of the segmentation that I did base on demographic and psychographic variables.

The first marketing effort is related to demographic segmentation, and The first path involves social media advertising, specifically targeting young adults between the ages of 14 – 25 who live in the city of my ice cream shop. This demographic segmentation helps me understand that people around those ages use their own money or the money that their parents gave them to buy things they want. Also, they use social media daily, and target media advertising will grab them and make them customers in my Business. The social media advertising campaign will message the target population through Instagram, Facebook, and Tiktok. The ads I will post on social media will show my unique flavors and the use of locally-sourced ingredients, and the process of making ice cream in my business, focusing on its high quality.

My second path, based on psychographic variables, made me choose to make several ice cream flavors that are vegan or for people with a vegetarian lifestyle. Today people prefer to eat healthy things, and being a vegetarian is very common and supports environmental awareness. By offering dairy-free and plant-based ice cream options, I was able to attract this segment of the population and increase sales. Also, using eco-friendly packaging appeals to an even bigger segment of the population today.

In conclusion, market segmentation is critical to the success of any marketing strategy. By targeting a specific segment of the population with tailored marketing efforts, I increased sales and customer loyalty. Through social media advertising and offering vegan ice cream options, I successfully got my message to the target population, resulting in increased foot traffic and sales. My method was effective because I considered both geographic and psychographic variables, which enabled me to appeal to the needs and preferences of my target population.

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Ariel Peretz.
• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Ariel Peretz.

[Naomi Stubbs]

“The Ice Era” — love it! Makes me think of the films Ice Age. I love the idea of expanding your products to accommodate recent trends and popular products, such as vegan options alongside (and not in place of) traditional offerings — something for everyone! In addition, the focus on eco-friendly products and packaging serves two important purposes — appealing to a certain kind of eco-conscious consumer, but also doing your part to help the environment. Very nice, Ariel!

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Naomi Stubbs.

[Aldon Lamb]

Ariel, I agree with your choices on how to market to those demographics! The good thing about social media is that it typically costs way less than other avenues of advertising. It can be via word of mouth, like having a cute “Instagram worthy” area in your ice cream shop where people take cute photos and tag the venue or just fun goofy videos made by the staff! I love how fast the area of advertising changes.

[Nicholas Cordoba]

I like how your first instinct in regards to marketing is social media advertising, it seems like nowadays this is most vital in terms of growing small businesses & maintaining big businesses. It’s definitely more cost affective than any other strategy I can think of, not to mention the potential for reach may even outweigh the vast majority of paid advertising opportunities.

[Hunter Luciel]

Ariel, I enjoyed your outlook and how you decide to immediate expand by using social media.

Social media can help reach hundreds if not thousands of people in such a sort period of time if marketed correctly. By advertising with some awesome graphics, sales/discounts, and even your awesome ice-cream shop name “The Ice Era,” I truly believe you to be able to reach out to many new customers. Paid advertisements and posting on many different media platforms could even triple your outreach!

I also love the fact that you offer variations to your customers. By offering a ‘vegan’ option, you allow your customer demographics to expand farther. Truly exceptional!!

[Rena]

Dividing consumers into groups benefits entrepreneurs. Primarily, consumers are divided by gender and age.

The reason for this is that preferences change with age. As the stage of life changes, so do their needs. Basically, at school and at work, we are in contact with people of the same age every day. They have things in common, and their likes and fads are very similar; it is hard to imagine that a teenager and a person in his/her 50s would tend to like the same things. Also, people are influenced by their peers. Separating by age can be effective in terms of identifying the target audience.

Second, separating by gender is also significant. Even though diversification has increased, the physical size of the population is different, so what is needed will also change.

It is nearly impossible to provide what is needed for all mankind. It is important to separate consumers, even in terms of eliminating waste.

[Naomi Stubbs]

You’re right, Rena — segmenting the market is super-important. I agree that age is one of the most important demographics to consider in many cases; the priorities in terms of marget segmentation certainly vary between products/services, and locations, but age is often one of the main ones. I’m not sure I’d list gender as one of the top two criteria to look at for all situations, but there are certainly cases where this is really important to consider!

[Ariel Peretz]

Hey Rena,

I agree that segmenting the market by age will help you find your marketing target and be more focused on how you use this tool to increase your profits in the business. When our business is ice cream, it’s much more common that young people will come to eat in this place rather than much older people. But on the other hand, I’m not sure that segmenting by gender will help you because I don’t think there is much difference between women and men regarding their love of ice cream. By the end, we need to think about how this segmentation will help us increasing amount of customers and make our business more profitable.

[Jacob]

Your explanation on how companies target consumers is how most companies achieve their goal in bringing more buyers and it shows how companies want to make a profit.

[Nicholas Cordoba]

Upon attempting this simulation a couple of times & utilizing different paths/decision-making, I realized how vital segmenting the market is. My first path ended up a success, I earned the bonus points in addition to pushing the competitor out of business. I feel as if my path was successful due to the simple fact that I focused on demographics on a broad scale, purposely not spending time or resources on researching high-income families, or just people that lived next to the store since this type of targeting is very likely to limit my customer base. I immediately gravitated toward the questions in regard to customers that shop with family, in comparison to myself. It turns out families spend more than 30% more than groups that don’t come as families, so I went along with that and researched how many people are summer people, and how many kids need a place to hang out. I then chose the option to specifically target families, since I felt that it was more worth it than targeting minority groups in terms of income and location. This ended up being a success, unlike my next path which consisted of income-based research only, trying to target wealthier parties in search of more revenue. This path ended up failing and did not push the competitors out since they catered more to average-income families.

[Jacob]

I totally agree with your response, having to attract as many customers in the area was the process of making sure your business survives, in addition I think it also reflects which part of the country this is taking place like California or Texas where it’s warm.

[Tania Maree]

I admire that targeting as many people as possible was your first instinct for this exercise!

[Jacob]

Doing this simulation and pretending to be the owner of an ice cream store showed me the realism of how a business competes with others businesses and it was quite a challenge at first but going through the steps of segmentation and traget marketing and critical thinking helped my business survive. Going through with this simulation, one of my tasks was to bringing my revenue up then do a demographical research on the neighborhood and so my ideal plan was to target as many families in the area as I can in which average monthly sales going from $17,000 to $20,000 in a percentage of 20%,  but with a great business going on also comes challenges such as competitors, having to switch my area of targeting to more of a family focus targeting business and it had increase my business by 36% putting my competitor out of business.

To give an overview of this process I had to think about what was the best option for the ice cream business to thrive and attract more customers, having to target the families in the area of the neighborhood was what would bring more sales and generally it had brought the percent of customers to a higher scope achieving my goal. Seeing the outstanding outcome of my choice had made my business grow and become more of a general family’s target segment.

[Aldon Lamb]

I really enjoyed this simulation. It opened my eyes a little more to what I thought about market research and picking demographics to focus on.

I opened my new ice cream shop in a very cute part of town and while its doing well and I’m turning a great monthly profit, I would like to bring in more people so that my employees also get more tips and they stay busy so their shifts go by faster.

I first decided to do some market research and figure out what would be the best way to spend my advertising budget. Would that be focusing in on the neighborhood, the foodies or maybe the age bracket that I spend the most money on ads for. If it showed that people over the age of 65 were my biggest customers, I might spend even more money on newspaper ads or TV ads. If it were people under 40, maybe TikTok and Instagram.

So after my research I discovered that my biggest customers were actually families. Families come in and spend more to keep their kids happy. They come in to celebrate small victories like good grades or a winning soccer game. The second demographic was people in my neighborhood. Those people who are out for a walk with their dog or as my neighbor says, “on her hot girl walk”.

I think spending my money on more local advertisement would be my best bet. I want to sponsor a kids sports team and get my name on some signs around the fields. I could offer a small discount to the teams on the night that they play. I could also start a loyalty program and come up with easier and more fun ways of enjoying the ice cream for the people who are out walking around the neighborhood.

While I did end up “putting the other store out of business”, I didn’t love that part of it. I think it’s a little strong for that to end up being a goal for ethical business owners. I totally get why its a thing but it isn’t fun to do even in practice.

[Tania Maree]

Hey Aldon,

I really love that you thought about ways to support your community when considering what types of advertisements to invest in. From sponsoring a local kids’ sports team to offering discounts to developing a loyalty program, your plan sounds community-oriented and mutually beneficial. Ice cream shops, cafés, and the like often end up serving as third spaces for many people, so I always think it’s beautiful for business owners to consider how they can care for and support the people who support them!

[Djibrilla Issa Hamani]

Lamb, you are set to be a good entrepreneur, I am going to need you,Tamia and Naomi in my future company. I admire how you touch the topic by using media, technology to grow your business

[Nicholas Cordoba]

A loyalty program is a good idea, especially for a business like an ice cream shop. This will most definitely encourage customers to become loyal & repeat customers, having special leverage over shops that don’t have one. Also, I totally agree with your opinion on pushing other businesses out, and how that shouldn’t be a priority or goal for ethical business owners, as it does seem somewhat immoral.

[Khadim Green]

Aldon-

Great job with identifying ways to attract your customers. It seems to be quite more effective knowing the proper media to reach your target audiences. Also I thought the same thing about the simulator honestly. We all can be ice cream business owners can’t we? But I think ultimately the goal was to show us how to survive through different obstacles in business development. In today’s time it appears that no one truly shares a market by themselves and I think that is the hard truth that the simulator showed us. I wonder how how partnerships within a market or what a healthy endless competition would look like in today’s time. Very great visualization and imagination by the way; use it to your advantage!

[Hunter Luciel]

Lamb, I truly enjoyed reading your strategies. Not only were you interesting in targeting more toward families, by the way you talk, you genuinely care about your customers, your community.

I also appreciate your concern for ‘shutting the competitor down.’ It seems harsh that we all can’t strive to make our customers happy! Who knows, maybe a good marketing strategy could be to conjoin with other shops as one. 🙂

[Medusa Gamble]

Market Segmentation:

 

The name of my ice cream business is called Mintymoo ice cream (mintymoo™). Mintymoo sells both ice cream and gelato, in flavors such as minty chocolate chip, chocolate, vanilla, coffee, strawberry, pisachio, cookies and cream, butter pecan and banana, with dairy free options available. We offer cone or cup options in three sizes, along with toasted almonds, toasted coconut flakes, chocolate pretzels, chocolate raisins, expresso and homemade chopped donuts as toppings. We operate out of a food truck and set up shop near various parks in New York City, traveling through every borough. We also have an online website at mintymoo.com where customers can place orders, view information on where we source our ingredients, view special recipes that pair well with our ice creams, nutritional information, view our FAQs and our contact information. Their items will usually be delivered to their home within two business days packaged in an insulated styrofoam cooler to avoid melting.

 

Mintymoo believes in treating one’s self to some guilty pleasures every now and then, after all life is about balance, right? That doesn’t mean it has to be unhealthy, which is why at Mintymoo we value clean quality ingredients in our ice cream above all else. You will never find high fructose corn syrup, artificial dyes or flavors, synthetic preservatives, partially hydrogenated oils, hormones, or other harmful additives in our ice cream. Instead we use four simple ingredients: grass-fed milk/coconut milk, pure maple syrup and pure vanilla extract. Our cones and toppings also contain only pure simple ingredients. Mintymoo is also allergy friendly as none of our menu items contain gluten, lupin or hidden nuts of any kind.

 

Since it is a small business in its early beginnings and not well known, I decided to choose behaviorial segmentation as a marketing strategy. I thought it best for Mintymoo to focus primarily on building the brand by first focusing on customer feedback and certain behaviors towards Mintymoo in order to build a stronger reputation and loyalty. I did this by studying the reasons why different types of customers buy, don’t buy or are hesitant to buy from Mintymoo. So for my business, I market and advertise our ice cream on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook where I can see their feedback. I utilize email marketing where multiple choice surveys are sent to customers a few days after each purchase asking if they liked our ice cream, or what they didn’t like about our ice cream, how likely they are to re-purchase and feedback about delivery quality. On a monthly basis, we surveys/polls are sent asking customers what their favorite/least favorite flavors are, what flavors or toppings would they like added and what could be improved on generally (i.e, pricing, delivery times, improved website navigation, etc).

 

We offer a Loyalty Rewards Program to mega ice cream lovers who refer friends and family to Mintymoo; they will have the option for free ice cream of their choice with one minimum purchase, or with loyalty points that will lead to an even bigger reward with regular purchases. Our website is also embedded with an activity tracker tool that monitors what product users clicked on the most, what they clicked on least, what times of the month they were most active on the site and how long they were active, so their habits can be recorded and  studied so as to create stronger marketing tactics while also tweaking any weak areas. For example, a potential customer that has hesitations about making a purchase, I would work on addressing their objections by providing testimonials that both validate their concerns but also reassure them that the product will change their life in a positive way, along with more transparency about our processes behind the scenes.

 

At Mintymoo we love to offer discounts on holidays, especially a buy one get one free special on National Ice Cream day. Sometimes based on customer responses to our products in surveys (i.e, requesting a new flavor or a unique combo swirl), we will offer a limited edition flavor. If that flavor remains popular within that time period we will keep it as a regular menu item for customer satisfaction. By focusing on consumers wants for Mintymoo – improving our products while maintaining our integrity, core values and dedication to pure quality ingredients, adding new products or removing the least liked products, improving delivery services, and always maintaining exceptional customer service through in-person and online service interactions – Mintymoo has seen an increase of retention rates for our business (about 6% higher) using the path of behaviorial segmentation. Using this path to study the behaviors of our frequent customers, our regular customers, first-time buyers, and even our defectors (former Mintymoo customers who switched to another ice cream brand), I can get a better understanding of what keeps customers returning back to Mintymoo as time passes, how to persuade a customer into making their first purchase, how to refine our product/service to appease former Mintymoo customers and how to fulfill the needs of Mintymoo’s most loyal customer base.

[Tania Maree]

After receiving information about my ice cream shop’s monthly revenue + owner’s monthly pay, I asked the assistant for information about what my marketing goal is. I learned that the goal was to increase my shop’s traffic and to increase my revenue by 20%.

Based on that information, I chose to perform research instead of spending on advertising right away because it didn’t make sense to me to spend money without knowing who I wanted to target. By segmenting by geography, I learned that most of the people who visit my ice cream shop live or work nearby. I chose to target this group of people. The simulation told me that I spent $750/month which increased my store’s traffic by 17.36%. Though I was satisfied with this, I chose to complete the activity again to see if I could unlock the bonus.

When I tried the simulation the second time, I chose to segment by demographics instead of geographics and chose to target families since their average spending would be higher than individuals visiting my shop. This boosted my monthly revenue by 20.72% and unlocked the bonus.

After learning that a new competitor caused a large decrease in my revenue, I decided to target those who lived or worked near my shop and those who had a higher income. This led to my revenue being 5.79% higher than my revenue before the competitor opened. The simulation told me that I could do better if I tried again, but to me, the only way to do better would be to make decisions that would allow me to increase my revenue by so much that my competitor would be forced to close. I suppose it would be interesting to see which decisions in the activity would lead to that result, but I’m not really interested in causing another business to close.

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Tania Maree.

[Djibrilla Issa Hamani]

Tania, I like how you data in our work to demonstrate how you were able to reach your goal. But I think at some point, some business close because some others have better marketing strategies and they are moving with the technology. lol

[Joanne C.]

Hi Tania, I felt similar to you in the sense I was content with any decision made if it would keep my business open and successful to the point that sales were increasing. I would not want another business to have to close its doors either, however, I felt this stimulation was useful to learn how different choices made based on research will get you different outcomes which can be positive or negative on your business. At the end of the day, the goal is to keep your business open and thriving and if another business is stopping you from doing that, then you must know how to target your market effectively to prevent having to close your own business.

[Danming Li]

Hey Naomi,

I think your ice cream shop is very popular, and you are through the school community, which is very good, but it is enviable to think about how you can make the business better, how you can outperform other ice cream shops. This is your understanding of the business. The important thing is that competition is okay, but you have to look at how influential the community is, which is one of the important things

[Danming Li]

I agree with your idea of securing possibly more customers in the region, as well as how to make the business bigger and survive, I think we should also go to translate other countries, try it.

[Djibrilla Issa Hamani]

The desire to eat healthfully is becoming increasingly important. As a result, the popularity of veganism has grown throughout time, as has the desire for plant-based alternatives to traditional cuisine. This includes vegan and non-dairy ice cream, which is in high demand. To fulfill this need, I launched VEGANELLA, an online marketplace for vegan and non-dairy ice cream vendors. As technology advances and becomes more integrated into our lives, I wanted to improve the notion of selling Ice cream by incorporating technology and allowing people of all ages and backgrounds to receive their vegan and no dairy sweets just with few clicks.

Coming up with this idea was challenging, as it required extensive prospecting and segmentation of the clientele. I had to spend a significant amount of time researching and analyzing data on the demand for vegan and non-dairy ice cream products, the demographics of the target audience, their attitudes and values, and the different use cases for these products. First, I did a lot of research geographically and based on the data, I discovered that cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and Portland have a higher demand for these products, so I focused my marketing efforts on these regions by partnering with local vegan and non-dairy ice cream sellers in these areas. It turns out that the sellers did not have a lot of exposition as they were located in the suburbs or the country meanwhile the demand is in the metropolitan areas. But with is marketplace, the supply will meet demand and the product will be available to the customer anywhere in the country.

Secondly, I wanted to understand how my future customers will psychologically buy from my platform. I analyzed data on the attitudes and values of consumers who are likely to purchase vegan and non-dairy ice cream and discovered that consumers who choose plant-based options value health, sustainability, and animal welfare. As a result, I created a marketing campaign emphasizing the ethical and environmental benefits of vegan and non-dairy ice cream. And at some point, we used social media and had some influencers to be our brand ambassador so that we could reach the younger generation as well as the elders. Thank God, we have not spend money on that as these influencers were also working on gaining followers.

And finally, I compared sales and customer satisfaction with competitors in the market using data. According to the research, I knew that to be the best in the ice cream game, Veganella has to have a greater customer satisfaction and to achieve that we need to diversify our product and services, innovate with ethical ideals, and make user-friendly website. All these politics have helped Veganella’s sales to gradually climbed and demonstrated an increasing demand for vegan and non-dairy ice cream products.

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Djibrilla Issa Hamani.

[Veronica Del Rio]

Djibrilla your plan sounds super thorough and thought out. I love the name by the way as well VEGANELLA it sounds so boujee lol. This is a great concept and brand ambassadors are key in these times.

[Joanne C.]

I enjoyed working through the stimulator for segmenting the ice cream market. It was interesting how it can tell you the different outcomes of choices, like business planning and market strategy, in real life. I made it to the bonus level and beat the competition on the first attempt. However, I tried different routes because of curiosity. As learned in the course materials, it proved the point that asking and answering specific questions related to your goal is key to a good market strategy.

When deciding between doing research and the two other choices of spending on marketing to grow sales, I chose to research because, as mentioned in the course material is a crucial step before making any decision involving expenditures. From general knowledge and assumption, families would be the apparent market target because even though adults eat ice cream, kids and young people consume it and usually want it the most. Parents also buy it as a treat for their kids, so going to the ice cream shop is a family affair. This decision increased the sales over the goal of 20% and unlocked the bonus level. I then selected families again, which had a slight increase in sales, and had the option to add another target, which I chose to be high-income. I decided on high-income because they have more money to spend on ice cream, which is more of a want than a need item. These combined targets increased my revenue to the level before my competitor came in. When deciding between target options to beat the competition, I did not want to select the same target as them, food lovers, because we would be fighting to take the same customers; instead, I wanted to be general with families chosen. However, when testing this route out families plus food lovers, the sales increased to before my competition came in, but less than my first choice.

Even though my first chosen route beat my goals, I could have chosen a more successful option. When I continued to try different paths, doubling down on families would have made my competition close its business. It goes back to my original assumption of families being the ideal target market for ice cream. Market segmentation and research are critical when deciding where to allocate your spending to bring in sales because, as shown, some ideas may work, but there still might be the best option not used to set your business up for success.

[Joanne C.]

Hi Naomi,

I like that you were set on your target and decided to double down. That is similar to the saying if it’s not broken don’t fix it. You were able to make your competition close its doors at the first attempt, however, without intention that usually is what happens in the business world. I think it would be cool if more businesses worked together to share the market and still be successful but that would be more in an ideal world than the reality unfortunately. It was great to be able to give back to the community through outreach and sports games which should be a main focus for all business to support their community and make money.

[Khadim Green]

Beginning the simulation, I acknowledged my sales and established a goal. I figured if I compare to see the most rewarding segment to contribute to my accomplishing my goal and understand why my ice cream is not selling as well as it could be sold. I considered my location to focus on where I am; is it too far and is it around any other ice cream shops because that may be insightful information. I found that many customers live and work in the area so it can either be two things geographic: they know about the shop and have not/do not plan to visit or they just have not seen it. I decided to learn more about the demographic and found that 30% of my customers have visited with family which is a great deal of numbers in my opinion. Group sales can be great but would it be consistent group sales if business is already not selling well regularly? It left me wondering are there groups that make up the 70% and do they at least make up a good percentage of the 70 percent? How can I please these people and know nothing about them? Choosing to focus on demographic would feel like a blind market plan. Finally I checked behavioral research and survey says most of my customers are die hard fans of ice cream. Majority rules so I chose to focus on my behavioral segment because if they make up most of my base sales (also more than 30% from families) then that means instead of trying to find more ways to bring up sales of groups I have no idea what they would like, I have a great chance to experiment positively with the majority of my consumers by doing things to bring them back and/or make them talk. Word of mouth is still the most influential within communication! Revenue went up 67%!

Now comes my competitor who apparently brings down 17 % of my business sales! Apparently these guys attract food lovers but I will show them that this is my city to sell ice cream! I figured that if they were new that they could possibly have some attention because of that. I remembered that most people lived in worked in the city so I thought maybe if I put my brand out there a bit more visually that maybe I can achieve getting my sales back to normal or better. After making signs I found that it was not enough to bring my business back to 17% of of my sales. Once again the thought of a blind marker plan came to me: are these people that contribute to my 17% are regular customers or potential customers. So once again I thought maybe I do not have what it takes to please their customers that’d put them out of business since I have die hard fans of ice cream and they have a different type of customer. I remembered that my past research showed that family was 30% of my sales, and that alone can outnumber the sales lost. I targeted families and trumped put my competitor.

I think that most of my experiment was effective because I identified a problem and planned research, then conducted research and experiment and came up with better results and understanding of my markets. I am now a proud business owner. I loved interacting with this simulator.

[Hunter Luciel]

In opening my ice-cream business, I did some research on my own to figure out how to get more customers and more money. I believe that if I wanted to bring in more money, I shouldn’t be spending any on extra employees or advertisements. Let’s take the real world into consideration for the options given. We could hire a sign spinner for $500 a month. When we drive around the city, do we typically pay attention to those spinning signs? I know I don’t. (sorry) Although it may attract some attention, it won’t be for the correct reasons.

What about the local paper? For $1000 a month, you sure are putting a lot of faith into these papers in an electronic world. By doing my own research, I learn about my environment and take these decisions into my own hands. I chose to target families, and this is because ‘families’ typically means more customers, and more money. I ended up working with schools and similar social outreach points to attract more attention to families specifically. It worked! I gained a boost of 20.72%

A competitor came into town and marketed towards ‘food lovers’ and ended up gaining slightly more business. My sales went down, but understanding why they were gaining traction, I did my own research once more. I understood ‘food lovers’ had their attention, but this did not mean to drop my focus from families and target food lovers only. I ended up expanding and targeting both families and food lovers, and ended up running my competitor out of town. (Yay me!)

I enjoyed this simulation, as it displayed how to use critical thinking skills to really determine a plan, and strategically understand how to authentically attract more customers in without simply ‘following the leader’ of my competitor.

[Veronica Del Rio]

Hey Hunter

I loved how you worked with schools and social outreaches to target family. Schools are a great way to spread the word and get the community involved. Also taking your own route and not following which means your remained focus on your goal.

[Veronica Del Rio]

My ice cream shop has been open for a few months now and things have been going smooth but i feel we can do better. We had asked customers who came into store to fill out a questionnaire to gather data to help with insight. The questions were age, if they were a student , and if they were accompanied ( dog, kids, significant other, etc.). It came back that the people that came in the most were parents with kids, and people with dogs. There were also some college students but it wasn’t really significant as most the students in the area are from elementary and middle school. With that being said my team and I decided to implement an after school special between 3-5pm Monday-Friday which was a mini ice cream of your choice with one topping at a fraction of the price. Also added to our menu to serve little “doggie ice cream” coming in 3 flavors peanut butter, pumpkin and banana. Made with yogurt and organic ingredients. All things were taken into consideration as far as cost, supply and demand, and these small changes would not hurt us greatly if all was to fail. We targeted our audience with a sign in front of our store as our community and store had a great rapport so i know customers would look. Also across our social media platforms (Instagram and Facebook). The turn out was way better than i thought. Word spread quick and the after school special was a hit! It was cost effective and targeted both adults and children. The doggie ice cream excelled as many shops do not have choices for your furry friend. They fell in love. I also wanted to keep my data updated so i had asked customers this time to choose where the heard about us. This way i know where i should keep marketing/advertising my business to increase revenue and have a better target audience. Word of mouth also played a part of its success as well.

I think my method was affective for using demographic and psychographic segmentation because they played such a important role for business. These segmentations as well contain variables that as a consumer you find to be very important when looking into how something can benefit you or fulfill your needs. I paid close attention and did my own research to see where i can help better my business. I saw where i can deliver something new, different, and beneficial. The turn out was great and exciting and taught me to take baby steps in order to take the right path to a bigger win. Research is a must

[Author]

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