[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, November 27, 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. 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, 2 months ago by Brielle Buckler. Reason: Republish
• This topic was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by Brielle Buckler.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by Brielle Buckler.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by Brielle Buckler.

[Masayuki Kirsch]

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?

Initially, I was offered insight into many statistics regarding % of customers with pets, % of customers that come with their families, and much more. Only three statistics would help me maximize my shop the most: the percentage of customers that came with their families, the number of kids that needed a hang-out spot, and the percentage of people who are summer people. These three data allowed me to grasp my audience, that being summer folks and kids, and I also applied real-life logic, as I believe those who travel with their families are much more likely to purchase ice cream, as I doubt that kids would purchase as much ice cream on their own with such limited money. These steps led me to invest 500$ to hire a sign spinner as the other investment option cost 1000$, which would be a risk at such an early stage of the company. As sales increased by 14%, I chose to invest 1000$ due to our recent success in being advertised in local newspapers, ultimately leading to another 12.19% increase. I decided to look into the data of people who purchased the most from our store via the papers, and I found a correlating factor, how pet owners spend much less than those without pets. This in mind led me to not invest in marketing around pets due to our success with customers without pets. I invested 1000$ into food advertising, which ultimately led to the 20% increase I have been aiming for. As the next part of the simulation occurred, I wanted to prioritize the area surrounding the company. Taking away local customers from competitors is essential and prevents further regional competition. At the end of the simulation, it was a success, and my methods were effective.

My success stemmed from making smart financial investments early on, as companies I have researched in the previous work weeks of our class had many economic issues later on due to being so chaotic with their budget early on. I allowed more data to come in to assess where the company’s finances should truly go.

[Roshanna Young]

I think it’s great that you researched on other companies mistakes and made sure to have a plan and be  prepare so that you wouldn’t be in their position.

[Faten Gondal]

I agree with you, targeting and limiting your marketing strategies to a specific audience helps you to be successful, but the first and most important step is to identify your audience and you do that with research. This is exactly what you did and it earned you success.I was also surprised with the data that pet owners spent less than other people. Research can sometimes give you unexpected data which is very interesting.

[Caden Lamont]

I wanted to ask you if you think you would have the same success in your ice cream shop without investing a lot of money in things like a sign spinner and being advertised in local newspapers?

[Roshanna Young]

Marketing an ice cream house-made business can factor in a lot of work. The main climate of the area should be taken into consideration. I chose an area where the weather varies so I had my facility reconstructed to have seating for outdoor and indoor customers. Warm weather puts people in a good mood to be outdoors and want to go to an ice cream shop for a good time with friends and family and eat it out doors and if it becomes a little chilly or it rains, they can enjoy the rest of their time inside. For my ice cream shop, I have added indoor and outdoor seating, music, a brighter interior and exterior with fun welcoming designs and colors, I have improved the ice cream menu with more of a variety of treats and flavors, and I’ve even added coffee to the menu and it brings a lot of customers in the mornings. These new arrangements have improved my business and has attracted more costumers that have as well become regular consumers.

[Faten Gondal]

It is a great idea that you took weather into consideration for your business. Some people like to sit outside in fresh air to enjoy their food. Spending on your interior and exterior decor can also attract many customers as I am one of them that likes shops with a unique decor. I also like the idea of adding coffee to your menu. Introducing variety in the menu is an approach many restaurants and cafes take.

[Liora Sarah Cohen]

I think is was very smart of you to take the climat into consideration. It would affect the sales greatly. I also believe that a fun and friendly place is the best way to start.

 

[Aisultan]

Hello,

 

I think that you did everything right by taking into account the weather and the right atmosphere in your premises, which is one of the main factors that help attract the attention of customers and also stimulates their return, and thereby you increase the number of your customers and also leave them a good impression.

[Masayuki Kirsch]

I really love how you specified the setting of the shop and how it correlates to the warm weather, I thought that was a very unique way of approaching such a problem. This approach is sort of taking another step in considering how to maintain your customers, and I think you did great at that.

[Elisjoe Ramirez]

<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″>Yes perfect im a firm believer that the atmosphere created<span class=”Apple-converted-space”>  </span>in your business draws more sales. As your create this warm friendly environment the customer wouldn’t just come for some ice cream when their craving it. If not they’ll take their girlfriend their to leave off a strong impression on the first date.</span></p>

[Faten Gondal]

Week E Assignment:

I imagined myself as an entrepreneur that opened an ice cream shop that sells home-made ice cream. I completed the stimulation. During the stimulation i assessed answers to different questions, like how many of my customers are seasonal summer people, how many come with families and their average income etc. I decided to choose the path to conduct research around segmentation and marketing. As I learned in unit 7 the importance of market segmentation, targeting a specific audience, allows for a better use of a firm’s limited sources and can give a the business a temporary commercial advantage. I chose the demographic segmenting variable as it is the one that is most commonly used and considering age is an important factor for marketing as well as family, income etc. The demographic research showed that people as a family buy more than friends or individuals in this shop, making families as 30% of the total customers. I decided to target families. I sponsored a few local school sports teams and provided my ice creams to school socials. As a result, my business’s average monthly sales increased by 20%, which was a significant impact. The target population received the message that the shop is nearby and is family-friendly. I think my method was successful because i focused on researching the demographics and other factors, which made it easy to segment my target customers. I think research is very important in marketing strategies and especially market segmentation, because it allows the business to spend less time on trial and error, lesser failure and risks.

[Isabella Miranda Lopez]

Faten,

I would first like to say I like how you start off by explaining your point of view and imagining yourself as an entrepreneur. I also imagined myself as a business owner and tried to think in their shoes. I also strongly agree with your point on research and its importance. Having a clear understanding of who you are marketing too and what your goal is does save you time and mistakes. Thank you for your point of view and response!

 

 

[Aisultan]

Hello,

I believe that you did everything exactly as it should be, you even took into account the received advertising in the way of charity and analyzed the market and consumer audience, which was what you had to do in order to succeed. Thank you for your answer, it definitely helped me in writing mine!

[Liora Sarah Cohen]

I agree with you completely on how important is is to focus on marketing towards familys. I also agree on how marketing by sponsering events was a great way to have a significant impact on the revenue. I would go about it the same way with everything l learnt.

I realy like your point on how it was a taught out risk that had more pros than cons.

[Masayuki Kirsch]

I like how you really put yourself into the situation, giving a clear understanding of whats next to come and what you prioritize. I believe this straightforward process worked very effectively and allowed you to better grasp the circumstances within the simulation.

[Syed Rahman]

Faten,

I really liked the part where you mentioned unit 7 and highlighted the fact of targeting a specific audience and in this case, it was families/loyal customers

[May Turgeman]

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Week E assignment – MAR100
market segmentation</p>
Segmentation is a central aspect of a marketing strategy and must be constantly assessed, measured, validated, and refined through financial and statistical methods. Working through the simulation, I tried different paths to see which one will be the most successful and will maximize and grow my ice cream business. As my goal is to get more people into your ice cream shop, I found a path that was helpful and helped me to reach my business to more customers. First, I chose to conduct some research on segmentation and targeting. I found the demographic path the best segmenting path to attract and serve families. I did this by sponsoring a few local school sports teams during the off-season. Provide the ice cream for a few school socials. And I sponsored the summer tennis matches and a few sailing teams. Targeting families and marketing my ice cream to them, helped me to you get a boost in family traffic. My average monthly sales go from $17,459 to $21,076, a boost of 20.72% percent. I think that this is the best and the most effective path because families are more likely to go get ice cream more a person alone himself. When families are getting ice cream, it means each family member is getting ice cream, so it increases the number of sales. Each purchase includes in it more than one product immediately.

Farther on, if a competitor opened an ice cream store in another part of town and markets to “food lovers” with the quality of their ice cream. This impacts me significantly, reducing the average monthly revenue by more than 17.7%. I would choose first to focus on segment targets and serve people who are close to my shop to combat this by daily sales advertised on a big, outdoor sign. This led to my revenues being down just 3.13% instead of 17.7% so I will continue and focus on targeting and serving families which made my revenues up 6.58% instead of down 17.7%. This is good but not enough so I would also focus on targeting “food lovers”. I developed some interesting new flavors aimed at the different family members. My food and family focus resulted in an increase of +14.46% over my pre-competition revenue. My competitor decides to move to a different town! I found that spending 500$ per month to hire a sign spinner to point more foot traffic to my store is helpful and can help to increase my business income. The sign spinner program reaches 12.76% of my target audience – the foot traffic. This program increases my shop’s income by 8.65%, the result of some new people coming in and more frequent visits by current customers. The program seems to work well with families, but it didn’t reach my goal to boost 20.72% so this path seems to not be good and effective enough.

[Isabella Miranda Lopez]

May,

I really liked the way you explained segmentation in the beginning, making it clear in my Ming throughout reading your response. I also relate to your beginning stages of the marketing strategy but had a different path to the end. I wonder if you had tried a different form of advertisement at the end how your revenue would change. Either way I think you described your paths clearly and I learned from your experience. Thank you!

 

[Syed Rahman]

I liked how you took different approaches in your marketing approach as you didn’t just stay to one topic. Once the competitor came into the picture it can be seen as how you really wanted to push your store even more and tried anything.

[Liora Sarah Cohen]

When running an ice cream shop, many things come into account, but marketing is a priority in order for a business to be successful. Before anything I conducted my research on how to start by focusing on segmentation and targeting customers. I decided to learn more about segmentation and targeting. The demographic target was the most important to focus on. Family, Status, Income?. Families were the #1 customers that would increase revenue. I would need to learn ways on how to market towards that demographic. First we would need to build loyalty with the community. I made sure this would be a family and friendly environment. Their needs to be comfortable indoor and outdoor seating, free wifi and free water. This allows customers to come in with their families and friends to hang out. Building loyalty is crucial. I also found out sponsoring events is a great way to market the ice cream shop and is extremely benifical. This allows the business to show their loyalty while attracting customers. This marketing strategy boosts up sales.

This is a great first step that is the most calculated to have the less risk.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Liora Sarah Cohen.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Liora Sarah Cohen.

[May Turgeman]

Liora,

I like how you thought outside the box as to what changes the business can make to further affect its marketing efforts. I agree that building brand loyalty is important to the growth of the business, and targeting your best customers is always a good idea to continue being a competitive and lasting business.

[Elisjoe Ramirez]

Hey, yes im in complete agreement with you. The loyalty is exactly what i would implement. The customer loves feeling welcome and special. This is why VIP exist because customer love recieving attention that maybe they can find anywhere else.

[Isabella Miranda Lopez]

<p style=”font-weight: 400;”><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>I have recently opened up my very own ice cream shop named IceCream World. I am excited to not only make profit but to give customers the best ice cream experience. I am a new business owner with no formal marketing and an average revenue from sales of $17,459 a month. I take home a percentage after paying my bills of $4015 a month. In order for me to make the best decisions possible for my business I make a clear goal to increase customer sales by 20%. Instead of spending money on quick advertisements I decide to conduct my own research around segmentation and targeting. This tactic allows me to understand my customer better and their reason to come into my ice cream store. I decided to segment my customer group demographically. This means I focus on the ideal customer’s age, family status and income. From my research I discovered the highest percentage of customers that purchase from my store are families. Families are also accompanied by friends which means they tend to purchase more ice cream as a whole, as well as higher income people tend to purchase more overall. I decide to focus my marketing strategies on families by sponsoring a few local sport teams, providing ice cream to a few school socials, sponsoring summer tennis matches and sailing teams. The decision to focus solely on families was a big success in my ice cream business. The results clearly showed a large increase in family customers while increasing the average monthly sales by 20.72% percent. I celebrated my victories too soon and came across local competition. An ice cream store in another part of town just opened and markets towards the quality of their ice cream and experience. This causes a major drop in my monthly revenue by more than 17.7% percent. In an emergency I decide to refocus on my goal and segment my marketing techniques toward local customers. I make an effort to invest in daily advertisements outside my shop. My decision has helped increase my revenue monthly, but not fully recovered to my previous income. Finally I have decided to increase my marketing efforts towards customers who are near my ice cream shop, which result in exponential increase in revenue. My efforts to recover my decline in revenue has now completely surpassed my initial amount and plus 11.51% percent increase in sales compared to my competition. I believe my methods were effective but time costly. How I could improve my segment marketing in the future is initially focusing on families of higher income combined. This way I can drive more sales with an increase of  higher income families being able to purchase more ice cream and more frequently. I believe I did my best in marketing my ice cream shop and only see it growing from here. </span></p>
 

[May Turgeman]

Isabella,

I liked the way you described the different paths of success that you discovered worked to increase your store’s revenue and performance, and how you segmented your target market based on demographics. While you were able to increase revenue to a competitive level using targeted advertising for tennis matches and sailing teams, I found my results to be somewhat subpar to the competition. Your analysis is thorough and clear, this is a great summary.

[Aisultan]

After I decided to open a business selling homemade ice cream, I will first start small in order to find the market and aim at prices so that they do not confuse my consumers and so that the pricing policy is reasonable for my target audience. I decided to start selling ice cream from the truck because I decided that my consumer audience would be children, and I think children already have a positive impression of the ice cream from the trucks. And so I will start selling my ice cream for children I will drive with challenging children’s music so that when children hear the sound they want to see what’s there and I will drive to places where children walk most often with their parents or older children so that they can buy it to begin with, I will sell ice cream at the bottom of the market to see how much my product is in demand and then from the time I make a name for myself and raise the authority of my business, I will start raising prices because parents who will buy ice cream for their children will be sure that it is worth contacting me and not competitors.

To attract my audience, children are my children, I will make the truck very colorful so that it attracts the attention of children, the music will be played by children or the typical music of an ice cream maker from the truck.

Since my business is seasonal, I would also think about the option of adding any products to quench thirst. During the conduct of this type of business, it is necessary to take into account the climate and location of your truck.

By all the above methods, I think it is easy to get a good benefit in time for the summer season. I believe that before doing business, you need to decide with your audience and the price, because if the audience is chosen correctly but the price does not fit, then you can burn out. In my first season, I will keep a record of customers how many children bought frozen for themselves, how many came with roidtels and how many adults were attracted by my truck with ice cream and for the next season I would improve everything and prepare.

I believe that my business would definitely succeed or at least not fail.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Aisultan.

[Liora Sarah Cohen]

When running an ice cream shop, many things come into account, but marketing is a priority in order for a business to be successful. Before anything I conducted my research on how to start.<span class=”Apple-converted-space”> </span>The ice cream shop was making $17,459 per month, on average and I was motivated to increase the revenue. I started researching on ways to do so.<span class=”Apple-converted-space”> </span>I was persuaded to learn more about segmentation and targeting. That led me to knowing how important it is to target a demographic. After doing more research I thought about what to take into consideration. Family, Status, Income? While trying to reach my goal a competitor opened up in the same neighborhood that was catered to “food lovers”. This impacted my business greatly since it was losing<span class=”Apple-converted-space”>  </span>about $3,090 in revenue. I found out that 30% of the customers would come with their families. Families were great customers that can increase revenue. Sales went up by 7%. It was looking better but was still wasn’t enough. I would need to learn ways on how to market towards a demographic. First we would need to build loyalty with the community. I made sure this would be a family and friendly environment. Their needs to be comfortable indoor and outdoor seating, free wifi and free water. This allows customers to come in with their families and friends to hang out. I still wanted to reach a higher goal and was motivated to increase revenue. I found out loyalty was crucial. Sponsoring events was a great way to market the ice cream shop and join the community. This allows the business to show their loyalty while attracting customers. At first my sales went up by 7%, but when I incorporated the whole neighborhood my sales went up by 21.23%.

[Syed Rahman]

Opening up an ice cream shop was a huge accomplishment. Within the very first year, It made $17,459 in revenue and brought me in $4,015. With no prior marketing of the shop, the goal is to increase the monthly revenues by 20%. Now to do that I conducted more research on who actually comes to my shop. By targeting the demographic it is shown that families are the ones that buy more ice cream than either friends or people who come by themselves. With that said we decide to go that route and target them.
I decided to sponsor a few local school sports teams during the off-season. You provide the ice cream for a few school socials. And you sponsor the summer tennis matches and a few sailing teams. As a result, I get a boost in family traffic. My average monthly sales go from $17,459 to $21,076, a boost of 20.72% percent.
A new competitor comes into town and brings down our revenue by 17%. With our strategy of targeting families, we keep pushing the idea and see it bring us back up to 6%. Now the saying is if it ain’t broke don’t fix it so we keep targeting families and we drive our revenue up to 36.15% and run them out of business.
We can see how marketing your store has a good ideal. Researching your demographic and seeing what is the right thing to push can lead to a better result. You can’t just market anything and hope for the best. With the right research and breaking it down and seeing what is the best possible outcome can keep you going far in your business no matter what it is.

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