Segmenting and Targeting Your Market: Strategies and Limitations

Abstract

[Excerpt] Almost any marketing textbook will tell you that the key to successful marketing can be summed up by the STP strategy—that is, segmentation, targeting, and positioning. This approach suggests that the mass market consists of some number of relatively homogeneous groups, each with distinct needs and desires. STP marketers attempt to identify those market segments, direct marketing activities at the segments which the marketers believe that their company can satisfy better than their competitors, and position their product offering so as to appeal to the targeted segments. Undoubtedly, your hospitality firm uses some form of this approach.