Customer Experience as Segmentation Basis: The ‘Luxury’ in Question
Perched in one of the bustling corners of the campus, flanked on one side by canopy of trees and on the other by the basketball court – always crammed with participants (MBAs, Executive MBAs and the Research Scholars), the cafeteria at KVJ School of Business, Hyderabad was the favorite joint for the students to take a break. Seated at a far corner, looking at the message on his phone intently was Anshuman Rai, (Anshu) holding a stack of reading material (set of assorted articles). He was ruminating over the previous day’s logjam in the case discussion on Segmentation in Strategic Marketing course.
After his stint as an Assistant Marketing Manager with one of the leading FMCG companies (with an annual turnover of ₹125 crore), he had enrolled for an Executive MBA course to fast track his career with a good lateral placement. Fondly called Anshu, he was pragmatic, industrious, ambitious and easily figured amongst the top percentile of the class. His marketing acumen during the case discussions and other debates was very well-appreciated. Everyone from junior MBAs to his peers at Executive MBA held him in high esteem due to his breadth and depth of knowledge and unusual maturity.
Manav Gupta (Manav), his batch-mate in Executive MBA program, carrying two case studies that were scheduled for discussion for post-noon’s sessions, joined Anshu
Manav: Hi, Anshu, good to see you in canteen…Rare sight. How come you are here? Lost your way?
Anshu: No, I am in the process of preparing a class note that I want to circulate for tomorrow’s Strategic Marketing class
Manav: Oh! You are referring to yesterday’s animated case discussion
Anshu: Yes.
Manav: You were unusually vociferous and seemed quite adamant to get your point across.........
Assignment Questions
I. What are the conventional bases of segmenting the target audience? What relevance do segmentation platforms like Demographic, Geographic, Psychographic and Behavioral (including VALS & PRIZM models) hold in the wake of increased competition, private label proliferation, rivalry from unorganized sector and e-tailing gaining traction?
II. How do you characterize the nature of competition (between the companies in an industry and also the intense rivalry from private labels/unorganized sector) and the efficacy of segmentation bases?
III. On what basis do you think the companies/in the industries featured in the Exhibit I of the case study across the product-price pyramid have segmented their markets, targeted their customers and positioned their products?
IV. .................
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Product Categories
Exhibit II: Product Categories/Segmentation Bases
Exhibit III: The Six Stages of the Buyer Experience Cycle
Exhibit IV: 5 Levels of EBD model
Exhibit V: Pyramid of Product Lines
Exhibit VI: Inverted Pyramid of Product Lines