Marketing Reading

Sunil  Gupta

Other Teaching and Training Material | 2014

Marketing Reading: Segmentation and Targeting

Abstract

This Reading introduces two of the integral parts of any marketing strategy: segmentation and targeting. It covers, first, all of the methods, techniques, and variables with which a business first uncovers the full range of its potential customers and then distinguishes between them. It then takes up how a company judges the potential of each market segment, selects the segments worth pursuing, and designs marketing programs to serve them. The Reading includes two interactive illustrations. Both drive the students to think more carefully about segmentation and targeting. The first, "Segmenting the Dog Food Market," shows how successfully marketing a product consumed by dogs depends on first understanding and segmenting their owners. The second, "Segmenting the Market for Early Pregnancy Test Devices," shows how the most important category for segmentation is not demographic or geographic, but concerned rather with consumer psychology and motivation. The Reading also includes a six-part video mini-case study on how GE Healthcare developed and applied segmentation for its Imaging Systems business.

Keywords: behavioral segmentation; Conjoint Analysis; demographic segmentation; geographic segmentation; market opportunities; Market segmentation; marketing; marketing strategy; psychographic segmentation; unethical marketing practices; United States;

Language: English

Format: Print

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Citation:

Gupta, Sunil. "Marketing Reading: Segmentation and Targeting." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing 8219, 2014.

Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2020

Pattern Brands

Sunil Gupta, Elie Ofek and Julia Kelley

In March 2020, direct-to-consumer (DTC) company Pattern Brands needed to decide how to allocate resources across its different brands. Pattern Co-Founders Nick Ling and Emmett Shine hoped to avoid the pitfalls faced by some DTC companies—such as inability to scale and lack of competitive differentiation—by relying on their previous experience running a successful branding and marketing agency. Rather than focusing on a single brand, they conceived Pattern as a “DTC 2.0” model—a portfolio of 5 to 10 brands that shared a common theme of activities related to the home and a common mission of helping millennials enjoy daily life. Since its founding in August 2019, Pattern had launched cookware brand Equal Parts and home organization brand Open Spaces. Although Pattern’s team still believed strongly in the benefits of a multi-brand strategy, Open Spaces’ sales and unit economics had significantly outperformed Equal Parts’ to date. Pattern’s leadership wanted to build on Open Spaces’ early momentum with new product colors and product lines, but they debated whether to act on the results of a recent customer survey indicating a positive response to an Equal Parts product redesign. Ling and Shine now had several decisions to consider. How should they allocate resources between repositioning Equal Parts and continuing to grow Open Spaces? How and when should they continue building Pattern’s portfolio by developing a third brand? How much should they invest in marketing parent brand Pattern? More broadly, did Pattern’s model represent the future of DTC brands?

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Business Model; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Business Strategy; Diversification; Competitive Advantage; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; North and Central America; United States; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US);

Citation:

Gupta, Sunil, Elie Ofek, and Julia Kelley. "Pattern Brands." Harvard Business School Case 521-009, July 2020. View Details

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Marketing Reading: Segmentation and Targeting

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