Marketing Plans, 9th Edition

CHAPTER 3THE CUSTOMER AND MARKET AUDIT PART 1: UNDERSTANDING MARKETS AND MARKET SEGMENTATION

SUMMARY*

Market Audit Part 1

• A discussion of whom we sell to
• The difference between consumers and customers
• Why market share is important and why the market must be carefully defined
• Pareto analysis (the 80/20 rule) and its implications
• The market segmentation process is outlined. The steps are:
  • defining the market
  • market mapping
  • listing decision makers and their purchases
  • noting why these decision makers buy what they buy
  • combining like-minded decision makers into segments by means of cluster analysis
• A quick market segmentation method is provided
• The environment audit
• E-commerce introduces new routes to market including disintermediation and reintermediation
• Examples of market segmentation are provided
• Exercises to turn the theory into actionable propositions

Market Audit Part 2 (i.e. Chapter 4) focuses on the needs of segments and how to develop value propositions

Market Audit Part 3 (i.e. Chapter 5) focuses on what we sell to our customers

INTRODUCTION

Now that we understand the process of marketing planning, we can begin to look in more detail at its principal components. We have, as it were, seen the picture on the front of the jigsaw puzzle; we can now examine the individual pieces with a better understanding of where they fit.

The next three chapters are designed to help us to carry out a meaningful marketing audit. We have already looked at the issues that need ...