Principles of marketing
Introduction
Marketing involves the process that the producers are using to find customers in the market. The customers always need certain kinds of goods from producers. Besides, consumers may be faced with different types of problems, and thus, they seek a solution from the sellers. In this regard, the act of marketing is consumer-based due to the reason that marketing has a direct relationship with consumers.
The logical sequence is used with the marketing principle. It is because the consumers needing a particular product are targeted. The process of identifying consumer needs is critically important in understanding the wants of consumers and how the solutions that can be useful in addressing them. It is beneficial for organizations working in free markets because of the reason that their success is dependent on the identification and retaining of consumers (Palmatier & Crecelius, 2019). It is a process useful in ensuring that the organization is profitable and sustainable. One of the critical marketing principles is marketing segmentation, pricing, and targeting, which has various factors to ensure that business is successful when they sell their goods and services. Thus, this paper will look at the marketing segmentation, targeting, and pricing of Pocky in Japan and Mikado in Europe.
Pocky in Japan
Information about the product
In 1963, there was the creation of Prezt by Ezaki Glico food corporation. The product was bread, which was made in the form of a stick. In 1966, the corporation introduced chocolate to Prezt, as a new form of the product. However, covering all of the sticks with chocolate was not easy. Holding it also was a challenging experience and, thus, the organization through the need for covering one end with removable foil. It was a costly endeavour. The company decided to us the handle calling it chocotekku. Due to trademarking of the name, they changed it to pokkin and, thus, Pocky. In this regard, the brand started grew in popularity among the Japanese. In the year of 1983, S. Korean introduced a similar product known as Pepero. After ten years, there was an emergence of a holiday known as Pepero Day. These similarities never amused the Glico company in Japan. However, school children became the primary target audience for Glico Company.
Marketing Segmentation and Targeting
The business cannot target the total market with their product. In this regard, there is a need for creating the marketing mix, which is challenging to create for every target market. In n this regard, it has to target specific segments, which will ensure success in targeting. The business has identified the primary target audience as the school going children and teenagers. Teenagers and school-going children tend to use Pocky. The different forms of segmentation include psychographic, demographic, geographic, and behavioral segmentation.
Demographic Segmentation
It employs the use of different characteristics like age, gender, education, and income, which are critically important in differentiating markets. The business has been able to gain demographic data from its customers. In this regard, the main target group for the business is teenagers and school-going children. When marketing Pocky, it is critical to use messages targeting them. Even though obtaining this information is easy, it is challenging to approach this segmentation due to the limitations on the customers’ information (Gilbert, 2015). The organization’s products are targeted towards teenagers, and persons under the year of twenty-five years old. Income is also other ways that can be useful in targeting customers. It will be influencing the ability of the customers to buy Pocky from the organization (Venter, Wright & Dibb, 2015).
Geographic Segmentation
The geographic segmentation involves segmentation of the market by region country and city. The main target market for Pocky is Japan, where the business is targeting the school going children and teenagers, as they are the primary customers of the business. In the region, there is also the aspect of market density, where there are several businesses providing chocolate products to customers. However, the organization has been able to segment the market by meeting the regional preference and identifying buying habits. For example, the business has been providing new products to customers during promotional activities.
Psychographic Segmentation
The demographics like income, race, age gas been useful in helping business development strategies. However, they do not paint the total picture of the needs of consumers. The use of psychographics has been providing prerequisite information that is useful for the business to craft messages. Demographics provide a skeleton when marketing Pocky in Japan provides the personality or lifestyle details. The organization has been putting the customers into lifestyle groups. The primary target audience is teenagers and school-going children (Cross, Belich & Rudelius, 2015) as the marketers can create adverts that can be reaching the customers. The messages are designed in different means for it to be successful.
Behavioral segmentation
It is an aspect of segmentation, where people are divided into different groups based on their behaviors. The users are sharing the same lifecycle stage, as they are in the same age group. Teenagers and school-going children have the same kind of carving habits, which is critically important for the organization in designing advertising messages. Also, these groups of teenagers have the same reaction to marketing messages. As a result, Japanese teenagers and school-going children will be a target market for the business.
Pricing
The pricing involves the value that a product is valued. In this case, it refers to the value of Pocky chocolate sold in Japan. Different calculations are useful in setting the price of products like Pocky products. The above-described segments will be useful in setting the price of the product. Also, the business has to consider the actions of the competitors, trade margins, as well as input costs, and conditions of the market. The pricing process is targeting defined customers, as well as competitors. Due to the presence of reduced complexities in the Japanese market, the business is using the economy pricing. In this regard, the price for Pocky purchased outside Japan can be costly. The organization has a high market share in the country, which implies that it is highly to make increased sales compared to other regions in the world that offer stiff competition. The cheapest type of Pocky is 1.30 dollars, whereas the expensive one is 9.90 dollars in Japan.
Mikado in Europe
Mikado is a name used in referring to Japanese food, Pocky. Pocky is a popular treat in pan among school-going children and teenagers. It is a prominent product in various Asian countries. In European nations, Mondalez International is involved with its production, and its called Mikado.
Japan introduced new suggestions in the snack industry, which was a unique view from the one that had been produced before until now. The Pocky product under the name Mikado in Europe created interest from consumers due to the reason that they considered it a unique brand of product. The brand in Europe is unique because of its creativity. The biscuit sticks have been coated with chocolate. With a few improvements, it has been easy for individuals to carry it in their bags from one place to another. Besides, modern packaging enables customers to avoid chocolate fingerprints.
However, the business is suffering from stiff competition from the Isobar Company, which offers almost similar elements as Mikado; for example, the shape of the product is nearly similar. It has been challenging for every person to enjoy the products since the style that consumers use Mikado to show their personality. The business has a slogan; Do it your way.
The marketers have been presenting various people in various situations of different aspects of lives uniquely consuming Mikado. The marketers are using communication, which brings humor, as well as involves the use of smart slogans.
Marketing Segmentation and Targeting
Geographic segmentation
The use of geographic segmentation for the business is the easiest because there is the creation of different customer groups based on their geographical boundaries. The locations include European countries like France, Belgium, Greece, Spain, the U.K., Switzerland, Luxemburg, Ireland, Italy, and Austria. These consumers from these countries are of high socioeconomic status, which implies that there is an increased consumption of the products. Due to the reason that clients have needs, interests, and preferences, which is based on different geographic boundaries, the organization needs to understand the climate and their geographical areas as this will be critical in determining where they will be selling and advertising their business (Porral & Stanton, 2017).
Demographic segmentation
It sorts of marketing conditions, which are based on different kinds of elements like education, age, income, gender, nationality, and race. In this regard, the organization uses demographic segmentation in targeting customers because they can determine their preferences.
Behavioral segmentation
The organization has been able to consider the behavior of its customers like consumption habits, lifestyle, usage, as well as purchase. For example, teenagers who are the leading group of customers have a high rate of cravings. In this regard, the business will start marketing its products based on a more targeted approach.
Psychographic segmentation
It considers different aspects of consumers that delve into different kinds of issues of consumers based on their lifestyle, values, traits, opinions, and personality, as well as the interest of consumers. Larger businesses-like Mikado employs the use of psychographic segmentation when sorting consumers into various categories.
Pricing
The business is employing the use of premium pricing in European markets. The high price is considered as a defining criterion. It is because the business considers itself to be having a strong competitive advantage over its competitors. Due to this, it has raised its chocolate prices for the European market. The cheapest type of Mikado is 1.50 dollars, whereas the expensive one is 9.90 dollars in Japan. The Mikado product sold in Europe is expensive compared to the one sold in Japan.
Comparison
From this analysis, the business is using different kinds of pricing strategies in selling Pocky in Japan and Mikado in Europe. For example, it is involving the use of premium pricing in the European markets since it has a highly competitive advantage even though the Isobar Company is offering similar products. On the other side, the business is using economy pricing in Japan due to the reason that it has a high market coverage. However, the primary customers buying the product from the two regions are the school going children and teenagers, who have high craving habits. In this regard, there is a need for marketers to target these groups of individuals with their messages.
Conclusion
The marketers of Mikado in Europe and Pocky in Japan always seek to use tailor messages that will be essential in increasing the number of customers. Market segmentation is critical for businesses because they will be targeting a specific group of customers. As a result, there are various approaches that an organization can use when segmenting the market. These include geographic, demographic psychographic, and behavioral segmentation. Due to this, the business can put the customers into different kinds of segments, who will receive the target messages. Also, the main groups of customers using the organization’s products include teenagers. Thus, it is easy for the business to advertise their products targeting this group of individuals.
References
Cross, J. C., Belich, T. J., & Rudelius, W. (2015). How marketing managers use market segmentation: An exploratory study. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 531-536). Springer, Cham.
Gilbert, W. S. (2015). The Mikado. Courier Dover Publications.
Palmatier, R. W., & Crecelius, A. T. (2019). The “first principles” of the marketing strategy. Ams Review, 9(1-2), 5-26.
Porral, C. C., & Stanton, J. L. (2017). Principles of marketing. ESIC Editorial.
Venter, P., Wright, A., & Dibb, S. (2015). Performing market segmentation: a performative perspective. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(1-2), 62-83.