Segmenting the Market

The Marketing Planning Process can be summarized in four steps. The first is the situation analysis, which includes the scanning of the external environment, analysis of Porter's five forces, and subsequent development of a SWOT analysis. From this situation analysis, your second step is the development of a segmentation strategy of the market, from which you select a target market. Remember that your target market must come from this list of segments! Your marketing strategy, or third step, is based on how to best position the firm competitively to penetrate this target market. Lastly, your market programs are the ways that you design and implement your marketing mix to support this strategy. What seems to be particularly confusing to the non-marketing manager is how to segment the market, so that a target market can be identified. This mini-lecture will help you learn how to segment the market.<br>