The segmentation strategies and market positioning of Slim Fit Singapore

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

Published: 15th of March 2014

Introduction

Marketing management is an important aspect of modern day business, and this is based on the notion that it allows for the company to closely monitor the activities in its business environment by configuring their performance to be shifted towards the positive outlook through a closer understanding of the needs of the market and tailoring their production towards meeting these needs. While it is the job of the companies to product, the decision made by customer as to purchase or not to purchase form them depends on a number of factors. No matter the factors that it depends on, the common agreement in modern literature is that meeting the needs of customers will increase the satisfaction level and as such increase the performance of company as satisfied customers will repurchase form the same brand. Weinstein (2002) is amongst the authors that have looked to understand the need of keeping customers satisfied, with his view being that meeting the needs of customers will increase their satisfaction level towards the brand and it will also yield a subsequent increase in their repurchase intention and recommendation to other people, which will have a direct positive impact on the performance of the company.  In order to improve the level of customer retention, it has been discussed that company initiate a number of activities such as on customer satisfaction (Rust &Zahorik, 1993), complaint management (Fornell&Wernerfelt, 2003), and loyalty (Reichheld, 2000). Speed and Smith (1992) advocate the use of segmentation as a way to improve customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer retention.

Based on the above argument, this paper is designed to conduct an analysis of the segmentation strategies and market positioning of Slim Fit Singapore, a brand that is focused on natural breast enhancement. In order to achieve such, this paper will be divided into four sections, with the first being introduction, followed by literature review, and then an analysis of the brand’s strategies then ending with a conclusion of the research.

About Slim fit Singapore

The company was founded in 1997, and since then, it has experienced tremendous growth in business for over 15 years, with focus on women and their core business offering being natural breast enhancement (Slim Fit, 2013).

While the company now boost numerous therapeutic services that include stretch mark removal, body massage and customers’ weight-loss programs, it is important to understand that the company actually started with pigmentation services are the root of their current service offerings. However, the most significant business setting of the company is that it has now become a pioneer in natural bust enhances in Singapore and have ever since been useful to women in solving their breast problems (Slim Fit, 2013). The company noted that the result of their decision to expand into the Malaysian market in 2004 is because of the high demand from the country when considering the amount of women flying in from Malaysia to obtain the service in Singapore.

The success of the company doesn’t lay on the breast enhancement services alone, but it can instead be reflected in the continued professionalism exhibited by their staff and their attitude towards enhanced customer privacy and confidentiality. This is patrolled by the level of privacy and exclusivity that the guest experience while in the company as a result of the cuss design that it boost in all of its outlets (Slim Fit, 2013).  On that account, the focus of this paper is to understand the factors that have helped the company become so successful in relation to the market segmentation and positioning approaches adopted by the company.

The concept of market segmentation

Based on the earlier discussions, it has been noted that market segmentation is very important because it would help to identify the needs of customers and define the best approaches to tailor the production of the company towards meeting these needs. However, what the introductory page doesn’t have is a clear definition of what segmentation means, and the concept actually means to divide customers into groups based on their needs(Gunter and Furnham, 1992: 1).The market is fast becoming very competitive and companies can longer hope to serve all customers with the same formula, instead they will have to redefine their approach to business and segment this customer in order to be better positioned to meet their individual needs (Dibb and Simkin, 1996: 3). Market segmentation can be described in different ways and it depends on the preference of customers and one of such ways is: homogenous preference, which is used to described customers that have roughly similar preferences. The second classification is diffused preference, which is used to describe customers that have variation in preferences and the final is clustered preference, which is used to describe the situation in which the natural market segment is gotten from shared preferences of the customers (Kotler and Keller, 2009: 249).

A number of factors are necessary to be included in discussions on market segmentation and this helps to define a more clear ground on the topic. Mass marketing is one of these elements and it is used to describe a situation in which the company produces the same products for all its market segments(Gunter and Furnham, 1992: 2).However, it has been described earlier that different customers have different needs and this differences in customers’ needs have brought about a new understanding of market segmentation which is focused on differentiating the needs of customers and providing them with service that meets their individual needs (Dibb and Simkin, 1996: 4).

The second factor comes in the form of differentiated marketing, which is used to describe a situation in which different product are made available to different market segments based on their needs. The final approach is target marketing, which involved designing a particular product or services and targeting it precisely to a given customer segment with these new products certain to meet the needs of this particular segment(Gunter and Furnham, 1992: 2).

From the above discussions, it is now clear that an understanding of the different market segments is very important as it would be used to measure the form of market segmentation adopted by a company.Armstrong and Kotler (2005: 187) presented a description of the firm form of segmentation which is demographic segmentation, and it involves grouping the customers by their demographic variables such as age, gender, race, income, family size and others(Kotler and Keller, 2009: 257).

Pickton and Broderick (2005: 376) described the second form as geographic segmentation and it is a form of segmentation in which the customers are targeted based on their location such as country, religion, cities and states. This form of segmentation can be focused on a single variable or combinations of variables.

The third aspect is psychological segmentation and it is more like a support to the demographic and geographic forms of segmentation, as it is focused on segmenting customers based on their psychological variables which come in the form of personality and lifestyle(Gunter and Furnham, 1992: 26).This form of segmentation is common in high value brands such as luxurious commodities.

The final form of segmentation comes in the form of behavioral, which is used to describe a situation in which the customers are segmented based on their behavior and attitude towards a brand usage(Kotler and Keller, 2009: 263). The focus is understanding the customers’ level of loyalty and tailoring the products and services towards meeting the needs of customers that are extremely loyal to the brand as such will further increase their satisfaction and convert them into permanent customers for that specific brand.

Market targeting

Once the customers have been segmented, the next step is to understand which of the customer segments the brand will target its products and services. Since customer segments are used to describe customers in terms of their individual needs, the next step of targeting involves deciding which of the needs to offer in relation to the customers. With respect to that decision, the marketer will decided on whether to adopt a differentiated or undifferentiated targeting (Dibb and Simkin, 1996: 15-16), and it should be understood that differentiated targeting involves offering different products to the same target based on their individual needs, while undifferentiated targeting involves offering products that meet the general needs of the segment.

Positioning

This is the final step involved in market segmentation, and this deals with understanding the best approach to be adopted in order to make sure that the targeted customers demand for that particular products or services. Positioning is concerned with how the customers view the given product or services in relation to their perceived value obtained from using the product (Kotler and Keller, 2009: 308).The importance of positioning is defined by the fact that when marketers properly position their products in the market’s mind, the chances of success is increased as the market will always seek for that particular product whenever the need arises, and it helps to differentiate a brand from its competitors.

In order to understand the position occupied by a brand in a market, the position mapping can be used as a tool for measuring the market position occupied by a brand. This tool is has been adopted in numerous settings as it measures a given variable in terms of influence on purchase. For instance, high price against low price as it influences the volume of sales. Understanding the market position occupied by a brand is very important as it would help to illustrate whether the brand has been able to stand in the position  defined based on corporate objectives of if the position is different with what the company wants. As such, it will help the company to understand how its product are viewed in the market and how to reposition it.

How slim fit segments its market

With a clear background presented on the understanding of segmentation and approaches to such concepts, the focus of this paper now becomes to illustrate how slim fit has been able to adopt the theories discussed in order to position itself in the market. earlier discussion noted that segmentation involves grouping customers according to their individual needs based on demographic, geographic, behavioral or psychological variables, and the discussion presented in the analysis of the company shows that Slim Fit adopts a demographic based segmentation, in which the company focused on providing services only for women. Additionally, it can also be stated that the company adopts a psychological form of segmentation by focusing on the psychological view that women with nice bust are more attractive and centered its services on natural breast enhancement as can be seen from the figure 1 below, in which the company asks the question of which of the breast issue is bordering women and gives assurance that it is best positioned to solve these issues.

Targeting in slim fit

From the above description, it is clear that slim fit mainly target women who seek for breast enhancement as this is their core business offering. However, the company is also involves in beauty and health services, and Spa, but specifically targets its services to women.

Positioning in slim fit

In order to understand the positioning strategy adopted in the company, the positioning map will be drawn below as a demonstration of where the company currently stands in the market, with the variables used in such description coming from the company website and advertisements.

From the above analysis, it can be seen that the company is currently positioned as a natural breast enhancement company that offers high quality and privacy in terms of customers’ confidentiality and needs.

Conclusion

Right from the introduction, the purpose of this paper was clearly described as to understand the concepts of market segmentation and how they can be applied in real life settings. As such, the introductory page laid down the right foundation for the whole paper by clearly stating that market segmentation is very important in the company setting as it allows the marketer to clearly identify the needs of customers and tailor the production process of companies towards meeting these needs. The benefit of such comes in the form of increased repurchase intention form the company as a result of the fact that the company has been identified by the customers as having the capability to meet their needs. Still on the note of benefits, it was also stated that it is helpful in differentiation as it marks the line between what the company offers and what other companies offer, and as such increases customer loyalty.

The importance of segmentation was demonstrated with the case of slim fit, a Singaporean based beauty and wellness service provider that started only as pigmentation service provide but went on to expand their business offerings, which now boost an awesome demand from numerous customers. The success of the company has hugely been linked to their high quality services, which now means that customers trust their services are being able to meet their needs. The company also segmented their customers to target only women and this business focus offers them more advantage in the sense that they are better positioned to understand the needs of the customers as compared with when they target customers from different market segments. In conclusion, this paper is in support of the idea that market segmentation is the right tool for increased success because it helps to identify customers and tailor services towards meeting their individual needs.

References

Armstrong, Gary &Kotler, Philip (2005) Marketing: An Introduction Upper Saddle River, N.J. Prentice Hall, 7. Edition.

Dibb, Sally and Simkin, Lyndon (1996)  The market segmentation workbook: Target marketing for marketing managers  Routledge, London.

Fornell, C and Wernerfelt, B (2003).‘’Defensive marketing strategy by customer complaint management: A theoretical analysis’’. Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 24, Pp 337-346.

Gunter, Barrie and Adrian Furnham (1992) Consumer profiles: An introduction to psychographics Routledge, London, 1992.

Kotler, Philip & Keller, Kevin Lane (2009)  Marketing Management  Pearson Education International, 13. Edition.

Pickton, David & Broderick, Amanda (2005) Chapter 17: Identifying target audiences and profiling target markets In Pickton, David & Broderick, Amanda: Integrated marketing communications, 2.edition, pp.371-398

Reichheld, F and Sasser, W. (2000). ‘’Zero defections: quality comes to services’’. Harvard – Business Review, September-October, pp 105-111

Rust R and Zahonik, A, (1993).‘’Customer satisfaction, customer retention, and market share’’.Journal of Retailing, 2(69), Pp193-215.

Slim Fit (2012), “get a beautiful busty breast.” Available at: http://www.slimfitspa.com/index.php [Accessed on: 25/06/5023].

Speed, R. and Smith, G. (1992).“Retailing financial services segmentation”.The Service Industries Journal.Volume 12, July, Pp 368-83.

Weinstein, A. (2002). ‘’Customer-specific strategies- Customer retention: A usage segmentation and customer value approach’’, journal of Targeting Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, 10(3), 259-268.American Marketing Association.