Xm Satellite Radio Case

Between 1964 and 1967 Motown recorded sixty top fifteen pop chart hits, fourteen of which were number ones. But Motown’s success was almost unfathomable to the music industry as a record label ran by an African American with African American musicians and producers. Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, managed to create black music and commercialize it directly to a white American audience that was often times only willing to consume music that was at least covered by a white musician. This all occurred in the wake of the “British Invasion”, from 1964 to 1966, where young white Americans became drawn to male-dominated guitar-based groups. With Billboard’s decision to combine

African American influence in music has been an ever present and controversial subject in American history. Stemming from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds, large portions of American music was introduced by, and credited to African Americans. Although in many cases, this music was used for entertainment by the masses or majority, contrary to popular belief, black music served a greater purpose than just recreation. Dating all the way back to the beginning of slavery in the U.S. during the 17th century, music has been used to make a statement and send a message. As African American music progressed over the years, there were common themes expressed as the genres evolved. It has been an open letter to the world, documenting and protesting the ongoing oppression faced by blacks in the United States, as well as an outlet for frustration. For many African Americans, the music gave them the only voice that couldn’t be silenced by their oppressors.

The Hispanic-American culture in the United States is becoming increasingly important in marketing and consumer behavior. This segment has different preferences, values and attitudes towards a variety of products than "average" United States consumer. The Hispanic population in America is the fastest growing, not only the largest minority population now, but their collective purchasing power exceeds $400 billion (Mongrain). In conjunction with this, the internet has also proven to be a vital marketing tool in the last decade. Internet uses typically represent a population segment with higher incomes and greater levels of education. Two of the fastest growing marketing opportunities lie in Hispanics and users of the internet - companies

In the book Latinos INC, Arlene Davila discusses and explores many of the dimensions and elements of Hispanic Marketing. In the beginning of the book she states that the Hispanic market is a multi-billion dollar industry. This market has grown tremendously and it is most prominent in densely populated Latino cities, such as Miami and Los Angeles. In these cities the main percentage of these Latino Americans tend to be Cuban. Davila explains and argues many points about Hispanic Marketing that bring great insight into this billion dollar industry.

Does the firms’ value proposition match with the benefits asked for by the consumers from the target segment?

In the case of Consumer Segmentation Telstra targets seven segments and offers different models which provide different benefits to each segment. The seven segments are: “Friends, Fun & Fashion”, “Work Hard, Play Hard”, “Family& Fun”, “Family Safe Keeper”, “Family & Self Development”, “Principled Professional” and “Safe & Respected”.

Every company and/or organization starts and operates to achieve a single major goal, which is normally included in the company’s mission statement. Setting a goal, however, does not translate into success on its own; it is only the fist step. Understanding market segmentation is the second most important aspect of doing business. “Sellers and advertisers want to be able to determine what the potential market is for their product or service, as well as the best ways to reach potential consumers” (Terrell, 2013). Once a goal is set, an organization first must decide if it wants to operate locally, regionally, nationally, and/or internationally, as the size of the geographic coverage has a large

Market segmentation allows marketers to understand customers’ needs and identify target markets (Peter & Donnelly, 2011). Bright Light Innovations will be able to evaluate different segments to determine differential advantages in each of those segments. Furthermore, management will be able to determine any of the particular marketing mix for a more successful strategic plan. Market segmentation can be obtained by researching geographic data (zip code, region, etc), demographic data (age, occupation, nationality, etc), psychographic data (social status, personal type, etc), behavioral data (customer behavior), or any other data that can be beneficial to the research (Kawasaki, 2004).

In order to market the product into the market successfully, marketers need to have some marketing strategy to enter the desired market and make profit. Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into subsets of consumers with common needs or characteristics (Schiffman et al., 2011). Understanding the market size and segmentation is valuable, but the keys to effective targeting is to know just how valuable specific consumer groups are, and being able to quantify the impact of consumer trends ( Berry, 1999).

This process helps a firm or organisation in focusing its marketing effort towards a specific segment or a group of segments. Depending on the product, organisational goals, the size of the firm and the marketing resources available a firm may target only one ‘niche’ segment or alternatively focus on several related segments. Another method can be to start with one segment and add more when business grows successfully. Large companies often target all market segments and try to serve them by offering a large variety of products to suit all their needs, wants and demands.

Please read and analyze this case on market segmentation and targeting options for a cable television network dedicated to fashion programming. No research into the industry or firm is necessary. Please use only the information provided by the case.

Unfortunately, the competition has caught up and networks such as CNN and Lifetime have begun to offer competitive programs and thus competitive advertising outlets for the target audience. As a result, advertising sales is projecting a 10% decrease in the price for a unit of advertising (CPM) if the current strategy does not change. An internal weakness of TFC is that it does not know its customers intimately; as stated in the case “the channel didn’t have much in the way of detailed information about its viewers” (Stahl, 2007). Without this information TFC is unable to compete effectively against other networks who do know the target audience and their attributes and trends. If TFC is unable to maintain or increase its overall satisfaction ratings, they might face the possibility of being dropped by a network and lose a second source of revenue, affiliate fees.

‘Market segmentation represents an effort to identify and catergorise groups of customers and countries according to common characteristics’ (Keegan and Green 2016, p.228). For any business, it is crucial that they segment their market accordingly or they will risk forgoing sales opportunities. Fahy and Jobber (2015) identify the objective of market segmentation as distinguishing groups of customers with similar requirements so

“A task force concluded, the past segmentation did not fully address the emerging shift in customer needs” “(Xiameter Case Study). Dow Corning had to thus try different segmentation variables, alone and in combination to find the best way to view the market structure. (Kotler et al, 2008).

Market segmentation is based on the assumption that not all consumers are alike and each have different needs for the products and services provided by MTN. Based on this premise, the broader market can then be split into groups of consumers who have similar needs and requirements. The characteristics of the product and services may determine the criteria in which the market may be divided by factors such as geographic location, income, age or gender. In this regard marketing activities and campaigns can be developed and implemented to target specific customer segments.