Business Economics Master Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Economics Master - Essay Example Market segmentation is a two step process of naming broad product markets and segmenting these broad product markets in order to select target markets and develop suitable marketing mixes. For example, before 1960, the Coca-Cola Company produced only one beverage and aimed it at the entire soft drink market. Today Coca-Cola offers over a dozen different products to market segments based on diverse consumer preferences for flavors and calorie and caffeine content (Michael & Ash, 2004). It is now possible (especially in urban areas) to do all of one's shopping through an Internet connection. Groceries can be ordered online and delivered to keyed freezers in the driveway. Pizza can be ordered online and delivered within 30 minutes. Clothes, shoes, music, books, condoms, shampoo, jewelry, and even cars can be ordered online and delivered to your home. Tse and Yim (2001) conducted a study in HongKong interviewing book buyers regarding their choice to purchase a book online or at the store. SanFrancisco holds the lead for Internet purchases, with 22.3% of survey respondents indicating they had purchased online in the last 30 days (Fetto, 2002). Although this may not seem like a huge number, consider that most online purchases are made by people who have at least some expendable income. Consumers with expendable income are the ones most carefully targeted by marketing and advertising agencies. Consumers use the Internet not only to make purchases but to comparison shop, gather information about the product from a variety of sources, read the opinions or reviews of the product posted by other consumers, and so on. McKinney (2004) has proposed that there are five Internet consumer segments: confident/convenience oriented/ comparison, store preferred, highly involved, apathetic, and apprehensive. These segments represent five basic attitudes that consumers have toward Internet shopping. Interestingly, most of the respondents in the study were in the first segment (3 C's); they were confident in using the Internet, felt it was convenient, and provided a good way to comparison shop. The smallest consumer segment was the store preferred segment-individuals who preferred traditional mortar-and-bricks shopping to online shopping. However, even this segment did report shopping online occasionally. Thus, the Internet is pervasive in consumer culture, and this is likely to increase over time. The advent of wireless networking may mean that eventually someone standing in a store could use the Internet to comparison shop the same item they are seeing on the store shelf. When considering the impact of the Internet on consumer behavior, it is important to consider the new "world brand" or global community implications of Internet advertising and buying. Though not everyone has an outlet for a particular store in their vicinity, if they have Internet access they can still buy the product. This presents special issues. Colors have different meanings across various cultures. Global mass marketing has moved beyond Coca-Cola, which sells essentially the same product worldwide. However, other corporations market globally in much the way that Nabisco markets Oreos. The increase in the number of online consumers is