Market segmentation and targeting in practice: A case sample

1. Suggest four additional potential market segments:

The set of customers, or the individuals who have common demands, is the segment of the market where an organization could hit with its marketing strategies to sell its products. Market segmentation is an art that marketers practice in order to identify people's needs in order to identify those who might buy a particular brand's or organization's products.Segmentation refers to the techniques that organizations apply to know who could be the purchasers of their products. To do this, it is very important for organizations to identify the needs of their potential customers. The assessment of the demands for the products is important as it helps the organizations to know the products that could be manufactured or the services that could be provided. The four types of market segmentation are as follows:

Students who work part-time

This market includes all the students that are not able to attend a regular course due to time constraints. For instance, these students might be working or living far away from the university, something that they won’t likely forgo in order to obtain a degree. They represent an important market segment as they have the necessary resources to sponsor their academic program (since they are working). Additionally, there are a large number of people that fall into this category considering that the UAE populace is highly employed. Thus, targeting them is essential for the university to enhance its enrolment programs. These segments can be targeted with courses that are offered on weekends or after working hours—something they would greatly value as it will not interfere with their daily programs.

Details: In this segment, the focus of the university should be to design the curriculum in such a way that it does not interfere with their daily programs.

Students who study online

Profile: There are a number of students that are restricted from attending the campus-based educational systems, although they will be open to online courses. Thus, this segment is important for the university as it would allow them to target both local and international students at the same time. They can offer various courses online, providing the right platform for all students to learn limitlessly.

Targeting these students is important, and the university can do that by offering online courses through a well-designed platform that allows for an interactive learning process. Once the system is established, it can be used to target both local and foreign students, effectively increasing enrolment.

Students of vocational education

Besides the well-known professional courses, the university also needs to target the vocational education students, equipping them with the opportunity to enhance their trade and expertise. Crafts courses (such as sewing and tailoring) and design and arts courses are examples.The importance is that they represent a target segment that is not largely served, so serving them creates the right opportunity for the university to enhance its overall enrolment.

Targeting this segment will entail offering courses that feature vocational development. If the online segment is targeted as advised, it will also offer the opportunity for the university to target vocational students both at home and abroad at once. Thus, this is an important segment for the university to look into.

Description: International Students:

International students are going to be the primary focus of the institute. This will give them an edge over the competing institutes. The courses that will be offered will be extremely modern, and the teaching will follow an extremely high-quality technological line of processes. Thus, there is a good opportunity to target international students. This is a part of the geographic segmentation. This segment needs to be targeted to exploit the potential benefits of achieving increased growth and profitability. The shrinking segment of the university that is a cause of concern can be revived if admission is provided to international students in a variety of modern bachelor and master's degree courses like BBA, BSC, BA, BCom, MBA, MCom, etc. This section of international students can be targeted through a diligent advertising and marketing strategy. For example, the university can publish the new courses and curriculums it will undertake in the local newspapers, local cable channels, and also through distributing leaflets and brochures at different points of the city. The best way of reaching out to the maximum number of international students is through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. The university can also publish the news on its own website for the local students. For acquiring the international students, the social media accounts need to be opened up where details about the university, the courses it currently offers and the new courses that are offered to international students will be mentioned in detail, including the course fees, admission fees and other information related to the courses. This will help the students abroad learn about the university and its modern and updated curriculum that it is proposed to offer. It is quite possible that this marketing and advertising strategy will help to attract the attention of international students.

The targeted marketing and advertising strategy is to attract the international students that can give the opportunity for a revival to the shrinking market of the university. This forms a part of the geographic segmentation strategy of the university, and it is thought to be the most effective segmentation strategy for the desired outcome.

2. Discuss the criteria you should consider to ensure that the identified segments are useful:

a. Use The Targeting Criteria:

Segment size and growth opportunities are the criteria for the segmentation of the target. The university could segment the size of the target depending on the capacity of the university's campus. Online educational facilities could be implemented so that students who live far away from the university location could also enroll.This will also enhance the growth opportunities of the university.

Competition is the driving force that would make the university perform efficiently with quality-best services and course offerings. The quality of the services and the infrastructural facilities of the university would be the aspects that would attract the target.

The university has to retain the values and resources so that the students do not face any issues. The values of the university have to be maintained throughout its activities and operations. The deliverables of the university and the retention of the ethical codes would motivate the students to remain loyal to the university and, automatically, the heritage of the university would be retained (Marketing Flexibility, 2014).

Criteria for targeting part-time students

The part-time student segment is very large and fruitful considering that the majority of them are working adults that can comfortably fund their academic process. Thus, they need to be targeted with the right course designs that do not conflict with their working or occupational periods. Additionally, advertising and necessary direct marketing strategies need to be established in order to attract students in this segment towards enrolling at the university.

Criteria for targeting online students

The beauty of online education, as highlighted earlier, is that the university can target both local and international students. Thus, necessary strategies need to be drafted to that effect. This can include offering more courses in Arabic and English to allow for broader target markets. Other languages can also be included as time goes by. Additionally, the university should offer an interactive learning platform that will allow students across the world to come together and enjoy their academic life. If such success is attained, it becomes easy for the university to experience huge enrolment from both local and foreign students—enhancing their overall enrolment volume in the process.

Criteria for targeting vocational education students

Vocational students also represent a huge market size as they are poorly served. Thus, they present an important opportunity for the continued growth and performance of the university when properly targeted.

Considering that competition is not high here when compared with other target markets, it is advised that the university should target them by offering quality courses at an affordable price in order to attract more people within this segment. Additionally, the learning process can also be designed to incorporate online learning, providing the right opportunity for more students to be reached and overall enrolment to increase in the process.

Criteria for Targeting International Students:

The segment size and growth opportunities for international students are quite substantial, provided the marketing strategies are adopted prudently and the marketing mix is selected effectively.

The competition is evident in this sector as nowadays the majority of the colleges and universities are focusing on international students as the major revenue earners for the institutions. The influx of international students increases the reputation and brand value of the college.

This segment provides an attractive proposition for the institute. This is because the modern techniques of teaching along with the most updated curriculums help to attract students from abroad, and if tie-ups can be made with foreign colleges in order to follow their style of teaching, then this segment will really prove to be a revelation for the institute.

The university's values are to provide ethical and honest educational services to students. The solutions to different problems and issues are also endeavoured to be solved with the most modern approaches, like online support for students in case of any problem. This assistance is available 24x7 via the website of the college.

b. Evaluation:

The evaluation of the criteria for targeting is necessary to ensure that the best criterion is being selected. The marketers of the universities have to ensure that the services of the universities are in conformance with their commitments and are capable of satisfying the target with the enhanced quality of the services. The university has to retain its position in the market, and its value must be retained through its reputation. The students have to be satisfied with value-added services. The university has to analyze the needs of the competitors. The cost of the course has to be competitive. The university has to ensure that the services it provides are quality-wise better than those of its competitors. The monitoring of the services is also very important to ensure an effective evaluation of the services. The university has to identify the challenges associated with the targeting. The best criterion has to be evaluated before being implemented into the method of targeting (Padveen, 2014).

Part-time students

These students can be evaluated based on their free time and desired courses. Thus, the admitted students can be grouped to offer a central learning time. It will allow the university to adopt a flexible approach towards enhancing enrolment volume.

Online students

This segment can be evaluated based on their ability to effectively take part in the online learning process and also their ability to pay the school fees without hassles. Thus, the segment should be provided with different enrolment and payment options.

Vocational education students

They can be evaluated based on their desire to acquire new skills to enhance their trade and the potential for them to successfully complete the courses offered by the university within specified time and standards.

International students

International students can be considered for admission so that the institution can justify the investment in the modern methods of teaching and the modern courses that are to be incorporated into the curriculum. This is the reason geographic segmentation is found to be one of the most effective measures to tap the international market.

3. Provide an explanation for the best segment.

The best segment is the one where the most potential purchasers are involved. The marketing mix of the university has to be structured depending on the best segment. The university could target the teenagers of the region and also the teenagers beyond the borders of the region. For example, the university could attract students from foreign countries. The courses of the university must be highly planned and structured based on market research on the demands of the target. For example, nowadays students are more inclined towards the availability of study materials on the internet. The students have to be given access to the online portals for easy and ready access to the materials. Higher studies are necessary for the new generation of people, so the geographic segmentation and psychographic segmentation have to be considered for the selection of the best segment of the market (Hopps, 2008). After the evaluation, it can be said that the geographic segmentation seems to be the most promising because it has the opportunity to bring in international students into the college, which will increase the reputation, and the inclusion of modern, updated teaching methods and curriculum will ensure growth and sustainability. Additionally, international students can also be served through online educational platforms, which makes targeting them vital for the success of the university.

References:

Bhasin, H. (2016, August 12). What are the four types of market segmentation and how do you segment with them?Marketing91: http://www.marketing91.com/4-types-market-segmentation-segmentation/

Hopps, J. (2008, August 6). Target Market Selection: Segmentation and Positioning. https://blog.demandmetric.com/2008/08/06/target-market-selection-segmentation-and-positioning/

(15 January 2014).4 Types of Market Segmentation. Marketingflexibility, http://marketingflexibility.com/4-types-of-market-segmentation/

Padveen, C. (2014, february 10). 8 Criteria for Determining Your Target Audience . Retrieved from t2marketinginternational: https://t2marketinginternational.com/target-audience-criteria/