Global Marketing Management

Chapter 7 Segmentation,
Targeting and Positioning

Warren J. Keegan
 Overview

❚ Global Market Segmentation

❚ Global Targeting
❚ Global Product Positioning
❚ High-Tech Positioning
❚ High-Touch Positioning
❚ Summary

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 Learning Objectives
❚ To understand the objectives and usefulness of
global market segmentation
❚ To know the approaches to global market
segmentation using different segmentation criteria to
define target groups
❚ To learn different ways of positioning products in
global markets

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Global Market Segmentation

... is the process of dividing the world market

into distinct subsets of customers
that have similar needs
(eg country groups or individual interest groups).

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 Criteria for
Global Market Segmentation
❚ Geographic segmentation
❚ Demographic segmentation
❚ Psychographic segmentation
❚ Behaviour segmentation
❚ Benefit segmentation
❚ Vertical v. horizontal segmentation
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 Psychographic Segmentation

❚ ... is based on attitudes, values and lifestyle

❚ ... is measured through extensive item
batteries which cover activities, interests
and opinions (AIO-studies)
❚ lifestyle surveys,
❙ the Values and Life Styles (VALS) by SRI
International

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 Psychographic Profiles of
Porsche’s American Customers
Category % of all owners Description
Top Guns 27% Driven and ambitious; care about power and control;
expect to be noticed
Old money; a car—even an expensive one—is just a car,
Elitists 24% not an extension of one’s personality
Ownership is what counts; a car is a trophy,
Proud Patrons 23%
a reward for working hard; being noticed doesn’t matter

Bon Vivants 17% Cosmopolitan jet setters and thrill seekers;

car heightens excitement
Car represents a form of escape;
Fantasists 9%
don’t care about impressing others;
may even feel guilty about owning car
Source: ALEX III Taylor, „Porsche Slices up its Buyers“, Fortune, 16 January 1995, p. 24

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 Backer Spielvogel & Bates’
Global Scan (BSB Global Scan )

❚ ... encompasses 18 countries, mostly in the Triad

❚ The researchers studied
❙ consumer attitudes & values,
❙ media viewership/readership,
❙ buying patterns,
❙ product use.
❚ 5 global psychographic segments represent 95% of
the adult populations in the countries surveyed.

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The Target Groups of
BSB’s Global Scan

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 D’arcy Massius Benton & Bowles’
Euroconsumer Study

❚ ... focuses on Europe

❚ ... identified four lifestyle groups:
❙ Successful idealists
❙ Affluent materialists
❙ Comfortable belongers
❙ Disaffected survivors

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 Behaviour and Benefit
Segmentation
❚ Behaviour segmentation
Focus on whether & how much people buy or use a
product;
• usage rates: heavy , medium, light users, nonusers
• user status: potential users, nonusers, ex-users, regulars,
first timers & users of competitors’ products
❚ Benefit segmentation
Today, consumers basic needs are fulfilled. Therefore,
consumers seek additional value from purchase decisions
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Global Targeting

After markets have been segmented, targeting

aims at evaluating and comparing the indentified
segments in order to select one or more as
prospect(s) with the highest potential.

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Criteria for Targeting
Current size of the segment & growth
potential

Potential competition

Compatibility & feasibility

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 Selecting a
Global Target Market Strategy
❚ standardised global marketing
❙ mass marketing, the same marketing mix for a
broad market of potential buyers
❚ concentrated global marketing
❙ targeted at a single segment of the global
market
❚ differentiated global marketing
❙ 2 or more different segments

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 Global Product Positioning
❚ is the location of a product in the mind of the
consumer
❚ is partly controlled by the marketer (marketing
mix) and partly not!
❚ is visualised by a “positioning map”
❙ 2 dimensions
❙ or multidimensional (MDS)

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Positioning Map of American Fast-Food-
Restaurants in the Mind of Consumers

Source: adapted from James H.

Myers, Segmentation and
Positioning for Strategic Marketing
Decisions (American Marketing
Association, Chicago, 1996), S. 187

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 High-Tech Positioning
❚ Positioning stragtegy for products which are
purchased on concrete product features;
buyers typically already possess or wish to
acquire considerable technical information
❚ Suitable for
❙ technical products, such as computers or
chemicals,
❙ special-interest products, such as sporting
goods
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 High-Touch Positioning

❚ The emphasis lies more on the product’s

image; specialised information appears of
minor relevance
❚ Suitable for
❙ products that solve a common problem: soft
drinks
❙ global village products: cosmetics or fashion
❙ products that use universal themes
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 Summary
❚ Before a company expands to foreign markets it must
analyse the global environment.
❚ Global market segmentation aims at identifying
similarities and differences of potential customers.
❚ Global targeting: The market segments are evaluated
and compared and an appropriate targeting strategy is
developed.
❚ To reach the targeted market segment(s) a positioning
strategy must be chosen; in a global context high-tech
or high-touch positioning are promising.
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