Marketing Channel Strategy
• Assess segment attractiveness
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• Assess segment attractiveness. • Target a subset of the segments identified. • Customize the marketing channel system solution to sell to each targeted segment. Targeting a channel segment means choosing to focus on that segment, with the goal of achieving significant sales and profits from selling to it, just as Albert Karoll, the custom men’s suit seller, has done. He recognizes that his target end-users “are business executives, men who are short on time, who work their brains out.” 35 Note that this description excludes most buyers, as well as most buyers of business suits. Furthermore, Karoll’s segmentation definition hinges not on the product being pur- chased but rather on the services that accompany it. Therefore, Karoll’s high-service (and high-price) offering fails to meet the demands of most suit buyers, but it is ideal for Karoll’s identified target buyers. More generally, if the channel segmentation process has proceeded appropriately, targeting multiple channel segments for channel system design purposes implies the need to build different marketing channels for each segment. Because doing so can be a costly, hard-to-manage activity, channel managers likely choose an “attrac- tive” subset of all the identified segments to target. We thus suggest a corollary to the targeting concept: targeting means choosing which segments not to target. Such choices represent difficult challenges for channel management teams, because all segments seemingly offer the potential for revenue dollars (though not always prof- its). Segmented service output demand information can help the channel manager choose which segments offer the greatest relative growth and profit opportunities for targeting. Even though other segments also offer some potential, only the best should be chosen for targeting. “Best” has different meanings for different compa- nies, but it should include the size and sales potential of the targeted segment, the cost to serve them, the fit with the selling firm’s competencies, and the intensity of competition for their business, among other factors. Information on the targeted segments then can be used to design new market- ing channels to meet needs or to modify existing marketing channels to better respond to demands for service outputs. A service output demand analysis can identify a new market opportunity that leads to the development of entirely new ways to sell to a particular segment. For example, fandango.com is a business formed by seven of the ten largest movie exhibitors in the United States, to sell movie tickets online (or by phone). 36 Instead of going to a movie theater the evening one wants to see a particular movie, standing in line, and perhaps finding out that the showing of that movie is sold out, fandango.com allows moviego- ers to go online and purchase a ticket for a particular showing of a particular END-USER ANALYSIS 336 movie at a particular movie theater in advance, for a small fee per ticket. Tickets can be printed at home or picked up at the theater at convenient kiosks, saving time and lessening uncertainty for the consumer. This purchase channel provides consumers with a shorter waiting/delivery time (because there is no wait at the theater), higher spatial convenience (because they can search for and buy theater tickets online), and a very broad assortment and variety (fandango.com sells tick- ets to nearly 70 percent of all theaters in the United States that are enabled for remote ticketing). Clearly, fandango.com is not for every moviegoer, though, not least because of the extra charge per ticket it imposes. But fandango.com allows theaters to compete effectively against non-fandango theaters among a target seg- ment of time-constrained moviegoers. It also might expand the total market for in-theater movie watching, because of the greater convenience it offers. Ideally, the end-user analysis performed on service outputs supports segmenting, targeting, and positioning (channel design). Pursuing a channel strategy without this information is risky, because it is impossible to be sure that it has been exe- cuted properly, without knowing what the marketplace wants in its marketing channel. Considering the expense of setting up or modifying a marketing channel, it is prudent to perform the end-user analysis before proceeding to upstream chan- nel decisions, which are also critical to any successful channel strategy. Performed correctly, an analysis of target segments’ service output needs can be the foundation for higher profits, due to the achievement of high-margin sales with intensely loyal end-users. O M N I - C H A N N E L S A N D E N D - U S E R S E G M E N T S Omni-channel markets grant consumers many more and varied ways to interact with a firm; however, firms face a greater challenge to track offline interactions compared with the ease of doing so online. 37 Moreover, the proliferation of multi- and omni-channel strategies implies substantial increases in the number of end-user segments, each of which prefers and incorporates online or alternative purchasing options and interactions to varying degrees. For example, for customer service, some end-users prefer to place a call to a company; others embrace email or chat func- tions. Similarly, some customers prefer to browse through a paper catalog and then call a sales representative to place an order, but clearly, many others complete the entire purchase process online. Even if they adopt similar behaviors, some end-users may be webroomers while others are showroomers, so the channel strategy needs to accommodate both groups. The greater variety of channels available, along with firms’ efforts to integrate all of them into a seamless experience, also appears to have given rise to increased con- sumer tendencies to engage in “research shopping”: research the purchase in one channel, buy in another. Such behaviors create further distinct end-user segments, END-USER ANALYSIS 337 each with varying degrees of knowledge and uses of online and offline channels. 38 Each channel’s unique characteristics lead it to appeal distinctly to a certain seg- ment of end-users. Thus, a key challenge of channel integration is finding ways to ensure that the unique features of a channel, which appeal to a certain group of end-users (e.g., attentive salespeople and social interactions), do not get lost (e.g., if the firm deploys self-service technologies in stores to facilitate integration of online and offline channels). 39 Technologies such as virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence are quickly and dramatically changing both distribution and retailing practices. 40 Their adoption by retailers and end-users suggests the notable potential to alter existing end-user channel segments even further, because technol- ogy tools can readily shift consumer channel preferences. In the beginning of this chapter, we clarified the difference between channel segmentation and customer segmentation based on product preferences. We also caution that the two forms also could be interrelated, in that channel preferences could affect brand choice. 41 For example, an end-user who prefers shopping online might buy only those items that are available through that channel, so brands with- out an online presence would never even enter the consideration set. On the flipside, an end-user who strongly prefers a particular brand and likes to visit its stores still might search across many channels to gain access to that brand; if the local store suffers a stockout for example, this shopper likely goes online to make a purchase. Take-Aways • An end-user’s decision about where or from whom to purchase a product (or service) depends not just on what the end-user is buying but also on how the end-user wants to buy. • The elements that describe how the product or service can be bought are called tải về 5.39 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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