MBA7003 Marketing Assignment Sample
Module code and Title: MBA7003 Marketing Assignment Sample
Section A
Question 1: Market Segmentation
Market segmentation can be described as the procedure or practice of dividing the target market into approachable groups. It helps in developing subsets of a market based on needs, demographics, priorities, common interests, behavioural traits, and many more that are beneficial for understanding the target audience effectively (Dolnicar et. al. 2018).
Segmenting the market also helps in powering the product development cycles by informing the way of creating products to offer different segments like women vs. men, low income or high income, and many more. Market segmentation is complicated sometimes because the competitiveness in the market is increasing leading to continuous change in customer preference. The trend of marketing is also increased among customers and they make choices after researching a particular product and service.
In the real world, market segmentation is far too complicated because the customer taste and preferences are changing frequently because of technological advancements and continuous innovations. Marketers and organisations need to bring product development and innovation continuously to meet market and consumer demands.
Along with that, they have to change their segmentation as per the demand due to which complexity increases (Cortez et. al. 2021). Further, it requires the development of effective marketing strategies, targeted digital advertising, attracting the right customers, differentiating the brand from the competition and the organisation must not create click-bait content.
These are some factors that increase complexity as segmenting the target audience is not enough; it is necessary to attract them effectively using efficient strategies.
Market segmentation for iPhone
Apple has segmented its market based on different segmentation forms including geographic, behavioural, psychographic, and demographic. These segmentation forms are further segmented into different elements to make the targeting strategies more efficient. The product chosen for analysing market segmentation is iPhone.
Geographical segmentation: Apple has segmented its market in the region, and density. Apple product iPhone primarily aims at targeting customers from US and international markets based on region and as per density, they focus on targeting customers living in urban areas.
Demographic segmentation: They majorly segment their customer in this form based on age, gender, occupation, life-cycle stage, and income. They primarily target people between 18-45 years belonging to high-income group’s individuals. Based on occupation, they aim at targeting individuals that have high profile jobs, businessmen, and high-earners as the price of the product is high and can’t be afforded by every individual (Van De Vliert, 2021).
On the other hand, in the segment of the life-cycle stage, they primarily target people from the bachelor stage as they highly care about their social status and living a luxurious life and newly married couples as well. They target individuals from both genders.
Behavioural segmentation: In behavioural segmentation, they segment customers based on the degree of loyalty, benefits sought, user status, and personality. As per degree of loyalty, iPhone is majorly targeted towards hard-core loyal and switchers that would switch from other brands to the iPhone. Based on benefits sought, their primary segmented group is that have some sense of belonging and achievement, self-expression, require speed of service, quality and advanced features along with strong social status (Jia, 2021).
On the other sight, based on the personality they target individuals that are ambitious and determined. At last, they segmented non-users and potential users into user status segmented groups.
Psychographic segmentation: In this category, they have three further segments including social class, lifestyle, and risk aversion. In social class, they aim at targeting middle and upper-class individuals who are capable of affording an iPhone and want to maintain strong social status (Liao et. al. 2022). Based on lifestyle, they segment customers into aspirer, resigned, explorer, and succeeded groups. Lastly, risk aversion targets people that are risk-neutral and avoiding.
Question 2: Promotional mix of products
The promotional mix is described as the combination of diverse marketing methods like advertising, public relations, direct marketing, and sales to achieve a marketing goal (Qian et. al. 2019). Some examples of the promotional mix are sweepstakes, contests, coupons, product samples, rebates, trade shows, and exhibitions. In simpler terms, it is an organisation’s strategy to combine marketing and promotion for enhancing business growth.
A push marketing strategy is a strategy in which an organisation attempts to push its products onto consumers. The companies use diverse marketing techniques for pushing their products so they can be seen by consumers primarily right at the time of purchase (Kostelijk and Alsem, 2020). It is primarily used for increasing product exposure and it relies on traditional advertising and marketing techniques like television ads and direct mail pieces.
On the other hand, a pull marketing strategy is an approach to attracting customers to a brand using search engine optimisation (SEO) and diverse non-intrusive methods. The primary goal of this strategy is to strengthen consumer awareness of a particular product and increase demand (Vieira et. al. 2021). It includes strategies like social media marketing, product placement, content marketing, native advertising, and corporate sponsorship.
Figure 1: Pull marketing strategy. (Source: Pull marketing strategy, 2022)
In contrast with both the marketing strategies, the organisation has to choose between push and pull marketing strategies based on the market segmentation. It can be observed that traditional promotional and advertising techniques are useful but when it comes to older people today’s generation primarily relies on online advertising and promotions for making choices.
The scenario is developing a promotional mix for iPhone. Based on the market segmentation of the iPhone, it can be observed that the product is targeted toward the high-income, younger generation, and potential users. As per this, the most beneficial marketing strategy would be the pull marketing strategy. It can be observed that individuals are highly utilising internet and social media platforms to a great extent.
Using a pull marketing strategy, they can increase product and brand exposure. Promotional mix for marketing this product and increasing demand drive of the product, the company should use social media platforms, SEO, sales promotion and discounts, and e-mail marketing.
With the help of social media platforms, the company would be able to target bachelors and younger age individuals as they highly research social media before making a purchasing decision (Arrigo, 2018). On the other hand, utilisation of SEO would help increase their website ranking on search engine platforms which is beneficial for increasing product exposure whenever a new product is launched.
Moving ahead, sales promotion and discounts would help the product in reaching the customers from the middle class as they always focus on grabbing discounts. Discounts like the first 15 customers will get 10% off or some free vouchers on their next purchase help in attracting consumers. At last, e-mail marketing helps in targeting the potential users of the iPhone by sending them customised e-mails about new product launches and exciting offers they can grab. In this way, they can increase their product exposure, and using a pull marketing strategy would help them in reaching their segmented customers.
Using a pull marketing strategy, the organisation can get some other benefits as well. They would be able to establish direct contact with customers and it would result in increased customer loyalty and trust (Nabieva, 2021). It helps in focusing on creating brand equity with distributors and retailers. It reduces the pressure of conducting outbound marketing and it can be used to test the product acceptance in the market along with receiving consumer feedback on the product.
Section B
Question 4: Macro Environmental analysis
Both micro and macro environment factors have significant impact on the success of any organisation. Every business organisation is a part of the business environment in which it operates. There are diverse factors that closely surround the business environment and it is necessary for any organisation to focus on both the environmental factor for continuous growth and success of the company (Pereverzieva et. al. 2021).
Microenvironment refers to activities or factors that directly impact the business activities; whereas macro environment is the external business environment in which an organisation is operating. Macro environment is the environment that affects all the other organisations operating in that environment; while micro only affects the one organisation.
| Basis for comparison | Microenvironment | Macro environment |
| Definition | A nearby environment under which the organisation operates. | It is the general environment including external factors that impact the entire organisation operating. |
| Elements | COSMIC including competitors, organisation, suppliers, market intermediaries and customers. | PESTLE including political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and environmental. |
| Nature of elements | Specific | Dynamic or General |
| Are these elements controllable | Yes | No |
| Impact | Short-term | Long-term |
| Influence | Directly and Regularly | Distantly and Indirectly |
Furthermore, from the above table, the difference between both environments can be observed. It can be said that the impact of the macro-environment is long-term and it can leave a drastic impact on the company’s business activities (Chen et. al. 2022). Looking at this, it can be said that the organisation must focus on analysing macro-environment factors as they can leave a negative impact for a long time on the organisation.
Figure 2: Elements of microenvironment. (Source: Surbhi, 2020)
Based on the analysis, it can be stated that the micro-environment is the environment that is in direct contact with the business organisation and has an impact on its daily activities (Martins et. al. 2021). These factors impact the business activities in the short term and don’t have any long-term or severe impact on the organisation.
Furthermore, a macro-environment is described as a general environment that influences the decision-making, working, performance, and strategies of all the businesses at the same time. It is dynamic and keeps changing. It comprises those external forces that are not controllable but can leave a powerful impact on an organisation’s functioning (Mihajlović and Raguz, 2018).
The most relevant and recent external force that leaves a drastic impact on every organisation is Covid-19. Every organisation has faced economic declination, change in political rules and regulations along with the change in consumer demands as well.
Macro-environment analysis of Starbucks
Political: Keeping the case of Covid-19 in concern, it can be observed that this unpredictable event was responsible for bringing significant changes in political rules and regulations that impact the organisation in the long term. It includes rules and regulations like social distancing norms, lockdowns, and store closures that were responsible for affecting the business activities and it was not in the organisation’s control (City, 2021).
On the other sight, during the pandemic Starbucks has also faced difficulty in sourcing the raw materials because of lockdown and transportation restrictions. The company operates internationally so they have to follow the rules and regulations of the particular country they are operating.
Economic: During the pandemic, the global economic recession affected Starbucks to a huge extent. There can be observed huge declination in GDP and economy of the countries that has affected the spending power of consumers as well (Pettinger, 2020). Other economic factors that can have an impact on Starbuck’s international operations include local currency exchange rates, taxation level, the local economic environment in different markets, rising labour costs, and operational costs.
Figure 3: Macro-environment analysis. (Source: Surbhi, 2020)
Social: The market-changing demands and consumer trends are changing frequently, and it affects the sales and revenue of the organisation. Other than that, the products Starbucks offer expensive products and they must start offering cheaper products. They must start targeting Gen X and Z and millennials as consumers.
Technological: The emergence of innovative technology, developments in agriculture methods, and biotechnological development has been increased. Starbucks already has diverse technological facilities like Wi-Fi capabilities, and different technologies to offer excellent customer service (Océane, 2020). Continuous technological innovation offers both opportunities and challenges to the organisation.
Legal: Starbucks has to follow legal laws and ensure that they are not violating any rules in the country they are operating. They must be aware of policies and regulations related to caffeine production and its consumption by health authorities. Introduction to stricter trade and customs regulations and licensing regulations concerning the industry can also affect the business activities.
Environmental: Diverse environmental rules and regulations have been developed that needs to be followed by the organisation so to avoid any violations or fine (Qiao, 2020). They should be aware of environmental disasters in countries they are producing coffee beans along with diverse issues related to coffee production.
Based on the analysis, it can be observed that the analysis of these factors helps the organisation in planning and implementing strategies accordingly to lessen the impact and influence of these factors on business functioning.
References
Arrigo, E., (2018). Social media marketing in luxury brands: A systematic literature review and implications for management research. Management Research Review.
Chen, C.F., Dietz, T., Fefferman, N.H., Greig, J., Cetin, K., Robinson, C., Arpan, L., Schweiker, M., Dong, B., Wu, W. and Li, Y., (2022). Extreme events, energy security and equality through micro-and macro-levels: Concepts, challenges and methods. Energy Research & Social Science, 85, p.102401.
City, Q., (2021). STARBUCKS CORPORATION.
Cortez, R.M., Clarke, A.H. and Freytag, P.V., (2021). B2B market segmentation: A systematic review and research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 126, pp.415-428.
Dolnicar, S., Grün, B. and Leisch, F., (2018). Market segmentation analysis: Understanding it, doing it, and making it useful (p. 324). Springer Nature.
Jia, B., (2021, March). Research on Marketing Segmentation. In 6th International Conference on Financial Innovation and Economic Development (ICFIED 2021) (pp. 62-66). Atlantis Press.
Kostelijk, E. and Alsem, K.J., (2020). Brand positioning: Connecting marketing strategy and communications. Routledge.
Liao, X., Li, B. and Li, J., (2022, March). Impacts of Apple’s M1 SoC on the Technology Industry. In 2022 7th International Conference on Financial Innovation and Economic Development (ICFIED 2022) (pp. 355-360). Atlantis Press.
Martins, R., Cerdeira, J., Fonseca, M. and Barrie, M., (2021). Foreign direct investment determinants in Mano River Union countries: Micro and macro evidence. South African Journal of Economics.
Mihajlović, I. and Raguz, L., (2018), April. Transformation of Business of Travel Intermediaries in Terms of Dynamic Changes in Macro environment–Towards New Challenges. In 2018 International Conference on Applied Mathematics & Computer Science (ICAMCS) (pp. 77-7709). IEEE.
Nabieva, N.M., (2021). DIGITAL MARKETING: CURRENT TRENDS IN DEVELOPMENT. Theoretical & Applied Science, (2), pp.333-340.
Océane, C., (2020). Analyse PESTEL-Starbucks. Publications Études & Analyses.
Pereverzieva, A., Hubar, O. and Moskalenko, O., (2021). ASSESSMENT OF THE FACTORS OF MICRO-AND MACRO-MARKETING ENVIRONMENT OF THE FIRM ACTIVITY IN THE MARKET. INNOVATIVE ECONOMY, (3-4), pp.112-117.
Pettinger, R., (2020). The Economic Environment. In The Socio-Economic Foundations of Sustainable Business (pp. 45-55). Palgrave Pivot, Cham.
Qian, C., Wu, C.F., Zhang, Z. and Huang, H.Y., (2019). A study on the promotional mix of pre-service in the view of service design. Industrial Management & Data Systems.
Qiao, Y., (2020). Research on Cost Management of Retail Industry Such as Starbucks. International Journal of Social Sciences in Universities, p.31.
Van De Vliert, D., (2021). Apple iPhone: A Market Case Study. MacEwan University Student eJournal, 5(1).
Vieira, V.A., Severo de Almeida, M.I., Gabler, C.B., Limongi, R., Costa, M. and Pires da Costa, M., (2021). Optimising digital marketing and social media strategy: from push to pull to performance. Journal of Marketing Management, pp.1-31.
Online
Pull marketing strategy. (2022). [Online]. Accessed through: <https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/pull-marketing-strategy/>
Surbhi. S. (2020). [Online]. Accessed through: <https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-micro-internal-and-macro-external-environment.html>
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