Marketing Stacy's Pita Chips

To Stacy, From Stacy

Marketing and Stacy's Pita Chip Company

Marketing is not just about selling and advertising products and services. In general, marketing is associated with identifying the particular wants and needs of a target market of customers, and then working to satisfy those customers better than the competition. This involves doing market research on customers, analyzing their needs, and then making strategic decisions about product design, pricing, promotion and distribution or place (Bethel, 2007). Understanding ways to identify the target market is crucial in developing market strategy. This paper is intended to define target marketing and examine a market analysis of Stacy's Pita Chip Company.

Many factors should be addressed when defining a target market. These factors include market segmentation, product life cycle, and the four "P's" that make the marketing mix. Market segmentation is the process of dividing a total market into market groups consisting of people who have relatively similar product wants and needs. There are four major segmentation variables: geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. Geographic segmentation includes world region, country region, city, density, or climate. Demographic segmentation can consist of age, gender, income, occupation, education, race, religion, or nationality. Social class, lifestyle, and personality fall into the psychographic segment. The behavioral segment divides buyers into groups based on their knowledge, attitudes, uses, or responses to a product (Bethel, 2007). Once the market segment is identified, that market can be targeted.

The backbone of marketing is the target market (Vest, 2007). Target marketing is the specific group of people that a company is trying to reach with its marketing effort. The target

market is a set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve (Bethel, 2007). When identifying the target market it is important to know who buys your product and who your customers are. Smart targeting benefits the consumer as well as the company. It allows the company to be more efficient and effective by focusing effort toward that segment; therefore maintaining the most profitable outcome. The consumer is rewarded by receiving the product or service that is customized for them.

Target Market

Once the target market has been identified it is important to develop a marketing strategy. In today's fast paced, information overloaded society; conveying a message about a product seems to be more difficult than ever. The consumer is bombarded with advertising everywhere they look. Today advertising not only exists on television, radio, magazines, and newspapers, it can be found on billboards, park benches, in our mailboxes, on buses, taxis, at sporting events, and on clothing. Deciding what to advertise and where to advertise can be a daunting task. The marketing strategy should focus on what is socially acceptable within the target group. If the product or service is marketed in a way that is unacceptable to the consumer within that group, then the product or service will fail.

If the backbone of marketing is the target market then the structure that supports the backbone is the marketing mix or the four "P's" of marketing. The four "P's" stand for: product, place, price, and promotion (Volker, 1998). It is vital to understand and implement the four "P's" in a manner that best suites the product. Without the correct assessment and implementation a product is doomed to be lost in the vast sea of advertising.

Product

The first "P" is product. A product is the item or service that a company is selling. Products fall into the following four categories: convenience products, shopping products, specialty products, and unsought products. The first type of product is a convenience product. A convenience product is a product that is relatively inexpensive, frequently purchased, and readily available. Examples of convenience products include toothpaste, magazines, and laundry detergent. A shopping product is a product that is less frequently purchased and it also requires more planning and usually involves brand or price comparisons. Home appliances and furniture are examples of shopping products. Another consumer product is a specialty product. A specialty product has unique characteristics or brand identification in which a group of buyers is willing to make a special effort to purchase. Luxury goods such as rolex watches or fine crystal can be characterized as specialty products. The last type of product is an unsought product. These products include items such as life insurance or cemetery plots. Unsought products are products that a consumer does not know about or does not normally think about buying (Bethel, 2007).

Price

The second "P" is price. Price can be defined as the value exchanged for a product, it is the perception of value that a customer gives a product (Vest, 2005). Several factors influence market pricing. Product type, stage of the life cycle, market elasticity, supply, and reference prices (Vest, 2005). Evaluating these factors and price planning is vital in the marketing strategy. Pricing too high can hinder sales. Pricing too low can deplete profit. Attractive pricing allows customers to feel good about their purchase.

Place

The third "P" is place. Place refers to distribution. The three levels of distribution are intensive, selective, and exclusive (Vest, 2007). Intensive distribution is a form of market coverage in which a product is distributed through all available wholesalers or retailers who stock and sell the product in a given market area. Selective distribution is a form of distribution in which a product is distributed through a limited number of wholesalers or retailers in a market area. Exclusive distribution is limiting the distribution of a product to a particular retail market to create an exclusive feel to the product.

Promotion

The last "P" is promotion. Promotion and advertising are often referred to as one in the same. Promotion can be defined as how to let customers know what a company has for sale (Business, 2003). There are many types of promotions. Publicity, personal selling, coupons, trials, samples, and direct mailing are all types of promotions (Vest, 2007). Promotions can come in several venues. They can appear as advertising in print, television, radio, billboards, and in-store displays. Choosing the best medium with the best promotion can ensure the best