Pure play is a purely online company. The business and marketing strategy process for Internet pure plays such as Yahoo! And eBay is depicted. First, the business-unit strategy is defined. Then, the marketing strategy is specified, following the traditional processes of segmentation, targeting, and positioning. It should also be noted that while Internet marketing strategy is employed for the online business, it is highly likely that both online and offline marketing levers for example customer e-mails and print advertisements are going to be used to build a customer relationship. In this scenario, the processes of segmentation, targeting and positioning remain largely the same as for a completely offline business.
Marketing literature often cites four broad segmentation categories. Examples of variables within each category are included in the following list.
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Demographic: age, gender, occupation, ethnicity, income, family status, and life stage.
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Geographic: ISP domain, country, region, city and density( urban, sub urban, rural)
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Psychographic: lifestyle, social class, and personality.
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Cognitive and behavioral: benefits sought, usage rate, loyalty status, and attitude toward product.
The effective segmentation must be:-
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Meaningful.
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Actionable.
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Financially
The marketing strategy now changes to targeting, or the process of evaluation market segments for overall attractiveness, and choosing segments that are consistent with the firm’s marketing strategy and capabilities.
In evaluating market segments for overall attractiveness, firms can look at three factors; segment size and growth, structural attractiveness and company resources.
Once markets have been segmented and targeted, positioning then becomes the next step in the marketing strategy. There are positioning strategies;-
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The best in a particular product or service attribute, like style.
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Effectively providing benefits such as happiness.
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Specific usage occasions such as functional for a given purpose.
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User category based on specific type of user .
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Against another product better than competitor.
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Product class positioning different type of product from what customer expect.
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Hybrid/combination of the above.
Once markets have been segmented and targeted and a positioning strategy has been chosen, a positioning plan can be put into place.
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Identify actual product positioning.
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Determine ideal product position.
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Develop alternative strategies for achieving ideal product position
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Select & implement the most promising alternative.
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Compare new actual position with ideal position.
Bricks-and-Mortar is now considering the marketing strategy formulation for the retail firm Gap. The first task is to define the scope of the business unit. Let us assume that the business unit has both an offline retail store (GAP) and an online store (www.gap.com). Gap must first consider its overall business-unit strategy-mission, goals, competitive advantage, and revenue model. Within this context, the firm must develop an integrative marketing plan, one that reflects both the online and offline efforts. This integrative marketing planning effort combines the marketing effort for the retail stores (noted as marketing strategy for offline business) and the marketing effort for the online store (noted as marketing strategy for online business).
The basis for segmenting markets will naturally change when offline companies begin looking at customers on the internet, where variables such as geography were of primary importance in the past, ISP domain might now be considered.
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No change.
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Market expansion.
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Market reclassification.
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Reclassified expansion.
Targeting for BAMs moving online involve;-
Positioning for BAMs moving online involve;-
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