Submitted by

Md sabbir sarker

Id: 1611386030

Serial :19

Section :04

Submitted to

Mr. Rafsan elahi

Senior Lecturer, Department of marketing and international business

North south university

Assignment Mid

MKT 460
1. In affluent societies, consumers are increasingly seeking solutions adapted to their specific
problems. For the firm, the question is to know how far to go in segmenting a market.
Analyze the factors in favor of fine market segmentation strategy (hyper segmentation) and
the arguments, which, in contrast, suggest a standardized strategy. (Counter segmentation).

Answer:
In recent market we have seen the customers being very intelligent and sharp. They are up-to-date
about the products, and they know their need. We see huge market availability for one segment,
and so to get the best of the market share, company offer specific product according to their needs
and demands. There is very hard chance for a product to get the mass market share because
people have different needs. Fine market is a segmentation to offer right product to the right
group of people. The firm should have knowledge to know how massive can they go with their
segmentation.

Fine market is known as segmentation which is a procedure where the market is shattered into
probable customers groups depends on similar interest, needs, location, behaves and income
level. It helps the marketers to focus on their potential target customers and plan the campaigns.
The plan is to focus on their target market into one group and rather than focusing on every single
customers. Segmentation is efficient along with less money, less time and others. One of the
advantages is less risk of ineffective promotional activities. When company knows their
customers properly it’s easy for them to get success rather than targeting mass market and
creating generic campaign.

Getting the mass market using one product is rare. But we have seen examples from different
company such as pen, matchbox, lighter and Sim Company. Other massive example is walmart as
a whole because they have almost everything. So it’s not impossible but hard. If a company target
mass market, they are more likely to be successful in a geographical area but hardly success in
other area. If marketers want to gain more they should not focus on every channel because it’s
risky and required a lot of money. Only the big company does the mass marketing. Small
company should not focus on mass marketing. Mass marketing does not have the ability to adopt
changes in today’s fast changing market environment. In recent time, many factors such as price
preference, needs are changing so if price increases consumers look for an alternative that will
satisfy their needs which need to be affordable. One concern for marketers is of customers
changes their preferences then it becomes tough to get them back even using advertising. So the
changes in business environment can have very bad impact especially mass marketers. That’s
why marketers chose a flexible strategy for the ever changing environment.

For example if we take the case of Kellogg which is leading international brand who have
massive consumers around the world. Their product lineup is ‘ice cream cones, crackers, cereal
bars, cookies, frozen waffles, pie. (“Kellogg’s Indian Experience”, 2020). This Indian market has
a huge opportunity back in 1994 when Kellogg launched their products: cornflakes, basmati rice
flakes, wheat flakes and unfortunately they failed. The reason behind this is they didn’t study
about Indian markets; they launched exactly how they offered for western market. They needed to
modify their product according to Indian consumers. One top of that Kellogg was getting
negative media coverage’s which had a bad impact. So in 1994 they had a bad start. Also one big
cultural difference and preferred choice of Indian were “drinking hot boiled milk”. But Kellogg’s
crispy flakes advertised with refrigerator cold milk. This supposed to make it soggy. As western
people like flakes with cold milk Kellogg though the same about India. And it didn’t work.
Normally Indian middle class people like rooti, partaha, curd, pao vaji and curry in their
breakfast. This is where Kellogg made a mistake in changing breakfast with crispy flakes. The
misunderstood the vibrant culture of India, their preference and taste. Kellogg offered same thing
that they were successful at other region. This big company failed because of no proper research.
Later on they identified their mistake and changed their strategy. They focused on healthy food
category and got succeed. Now they focused on behavioral segmentation i.e the people who
prefer a healthy food. They somehow failed in mass marketing but later got succeed when they
focused on fine segmentation.

If we talk about the giants in the market like apex, Bata, they also have segmentation for their
shows. They have good marketing channel and able to make their outlet in different cities. And
they have carefully put segmentation in their marketing strategy as per age, gender

Bata is one of the resourceful brands with very high consumers; they offer a big number of
different segments of footwear. They are the best example of fine segmentation. They have shoes
for young boys and girls a whole different category for school shoe. North Star is a sub brand of
Bata which is famous in young boys and girls. For causal people they have some common ever
green design which can be wearable in any ages. And they have different outlet where they
carefully sell shoes which is not available in other Branch. Example: basundhara shopping mall
and zamuna Future Park have the biggest outlet than other places. This two outlet offer special
exclusive shoes which are not found in other outlet such as mirpur, outlet. This is why they are
market leading (BATA).
A product can’t impress all the customers because the needs and demands vary. Also customers
dislike the fact seeing same product name everywhere. It may lose their interest. Targeting mass
people needs money and if it’s not successful then it will be a big loss. In marketing, being
strategic is extremely important. For marketers conducting research to find their customers for
specific product is the key to success. In case if they plan to go for mass marketing, they’ll not be
happy with the return. Mass marketing is appropriate for some products. But the cons are more
compared to the pros. This is applicable especially for middle to small companies. Before
launching a product companies should understand how the product is and who may like to use
them. According to that they can segment their customers. Planning and segmenting helps to get
an effective result. So it’s better to go for a fine segmentation because it’ll be economical reliable
and effective for them than counter segmentation or mass segmentation. So fine segmentation is
way better for many reasons.

2 Attacking a leader is always difficult. Some strategies recommend attacking a leader

‘head-on’ by targeting its strengths. Other strategies disagree and recommend flanking and
attempting to avoid leader’s strength. Take a position: The best way to attack a leader is to
attack its strength versus the best way to attack a leader is to avoid a head on assault and to
adopt a flanking strategy. Do you relevant industry examples and incorporate theoretical
framework.

Answer
Competitive positioning tactics are the widely using term using by many companies. First movers
are the fewer one. Mostly other company follows them or challenges them. There are four types
of market position. 1. The leader 2.challenger 3. Followers 4. Nicer. First the market leader leads
the market with some innovative ideas, and then challengers try to catch the leader. Followers are
behind the challengers, followers have 2 motives either they follow the leader or defends the
challengers. On the other hand niches only target the specific market. Challengers use some
technique and attack market leader or the competitors. Their aim is to steal leader’s market share
along with new customers. Attacking strategies are very necessary, despite of the product types or
service a company sell. It is quite important to know their position, tactics and plan for attacking.
With these strategies challengers will gain great market share and increase their visibility, profit
margin and loyalty. These strategies are already accrued by market leaders. There are five attacks
that are used by challengers and others. 1. Frontal attack 2. By-pass attack 3. Encircle attack
4.guerilla attack 5. Flanking attack.
Frontal attack: In frontal attack, the challengers attack direct to the leader. In this way challenger captive
on the leader “head-on”. This refers to focusing on the strength on the leader. They attack face to face
with the leader. Challenger’s matches with their offerings, pricing even promotional activities. Frontal
attack is pretty risky. In this fight challengers put their best on leader’s idea. If not match one will fall.
We have seen how Samsung mock apple in their advertisement, there were direct attack toward apple.
Samsung is known as the biggest rival for apple. Samsung always provides some more than apple in term
of technology, but apple used to be the first mover. Although recent scenario is different. Same goes with
Pepsi and Coca-Cola. They used counter product whenever they could. Coca-Cola lunched diet coke,
Pepsi come up with diet Pepsi. To become successful in frontal attack one party must have competitive
advantage.

For not having competitive advantage company like : Xerox, Univac failed with competition to IMB.
Flanker attack

A flanking attack refers to an offensive strategy. It is used to feat opponent’s weakness and evades the
risk linked to offensive strategies such as head on or frontal attacks. In flanking attack is based on
attacking opponent in such areas where they are least capable. There are some segments that aren’t served
specially by the leaders as they don’t find them important enough to give special attention. In flanking
attack the attacker focus on these markets. The attacker focuses on a specific market (BOP/cheap) and
offer them value added services. The offers might be tiny and not very useful but this is significant for the
target market.

Some example like soft-soap who used product innovation as a flanking attack by proving first liquid
soap to their customers and it was a huge successful (“Flanking Marketing”, 2020). Saas is a startup
company operating is a market that has big players. They got invitation from RFPs but “mostly to round
out the number of bids” (Williams, n.d). So they had some disadvantages as their opponent was larger and
well known. SaaS were rising with an exceptional solution. They couldn’t afford a head-on attack so they
adopt a flanking strategy. Their new strategy had a complete different experience of sales which delay the
details of product features and demo. The sales call converted to a cooperative workshop to re-scope the
views issue and create the path. It was successful by helping the customers understanding better about
their situation also improve and give them solution. The message and sale process of SaaS provide an
experience to strengthen belief to their clients. The how they got success by adopting flaking strategy.
(Williams, n.d). in 1950 Mercedes- Benz used flaking method against general motors’ by targeting the
prestige market. They willingly increase the price of their luxury cars than Cadillac. They represented
their cars as superior cars. It was a long term strategy and General motors’ never answer them. By 2004,
the sale of Mercedes was more the Cadillac and by then Cadillac already lost their image as a luxury car.

From my point of view avoiding a head on assault (frontal attack) and adopting a flanking strategy is the
best way of attacking. Frontal attack has much risk, you a company don’t have competitive advantage,
and it’s more likely their attack will go in vain. And if the failed they will lose their sales, customers,
images and reputation. Also they will develop an animosity with the attacked company which will have a
bad effect on them. On the other hand flank attacker made their offer different in such a way that avoid
head-on with the opponent company so they don’t establish any animosity with opponents. They attack
from the side, it is very effective as opponent’s strength is focused in the front so when the attacker is
attacking from side, they hit on the weaker spot to be specific on the field where opponent don’t focus.
This gives an advantage to attacker so if they even failed it doesn’t have any bad impact on their
reputation or images. They easily can move to another tactics if needed. Flanking requires extra planning
and it is effective as well. So it’s better to adopt a flanking strategy rather than frontal or head-on strategy.

3 In the context of Bangladesh, pick an industry of your choice. Classify the firms according to the
four different roles they might play: leader, challenger, follower and niches. How would you
characterize the nature of the competition? Do the firms follow the principles discussed in theory?

Answer :

Mobile financial service industry is the most appropriate industry for these questions. This is a wireless
network which is helpful in banking transaction. Currently there is a numerals’ number of MFS operating.
Bkash is first mover and become an instant hit when come to the market. In Bangladesh it’s not a very old
concept and gone through many ups and downs. But it got popular among mass people. Now a large
number of people using this service but a major part of population is still remain unpacked. Now coming
to competitive position tactics, all the firms in an industry play four roles. Those are leaders, challengers,
followers and niches. A company needs to find their position relative to the other competition in the
industry. This will ease their moves

Below the firms in MFS industry as classified accordingly.

Leader: In the context of Bangladesh, bKash is now leading the MFS industry. bKash is operating under
BRAC Bank. Bkash is currently holding the highest market share in Bangladesh. But that doesn’t
stopping them, they are still focusing offensive strategy which means they are expanding their business.
The reason can be, a large number of people are still unbanked or not using this service. bKash is
continuously trying to grab new customers by using defensive tactics. They are focusing a lot on creating
awareness and education the population about this tech. They also take immediate action when some
fraud people misused this technology and tried to defame them by betraying their consumer.

Challengers: Bangladesh post office introduced “Nagad” as a digital financing. Nagad is the challenger
in MFS industry. Bangladesh government for the first time started this service. They became popular
within a short period of time. Nagad is the challenger in here. They are behind bKash and trying to catch
them. They are using Encircle attack; they are challenging bKash in every possible way. Wherever offer
or option bKash provides, they also provide those. When bKash decreased their cash-out charge, Nagad
also did it. They decreased their cash-out charge to the extent that bKash had to persuade them to rise the
charge to create a level playing field (Express, 2020). They even made Mashrafee Bin Mortaza as their
brand ambassador. Earlier he used to be the brand ambassador of bKash. Even though this is not a good
move but they are attacking bKash face to face.

Followers: Rocket was the first mobile finance service in Bangaldesh launched by Dutch Bangla Bank
Limited. But they couldn’t succeed initially. But Rocket is now doing great in the market as a follower.
They are playing smartly having a good share in market. From my point of view, they are following
bKash by keeping a distance. They’ve taken bKash as their idol. They see what bKash is doing, take into
action the successful parts and avoid the unsuccessful parts. This is helping them to remain safe.

Niches: Ucash is a nicher as it provide special services. Ucash also have some advantages such as any
DMP fined or Ticket can be played off by Ucash, we can also pay bills like gas bill, electricity bill, and
other govt organization payment through Ucash. ucash have specific target customers and they are
dominating that. As they have a unique proposition.

From the above discussion I can say that all the firms discussed above have the nature of their respective
positions and they are following the principles discussed in theory.

4 Your task is to come up with a strategic plan for an online shop www.evaly.com.bd. Discuss the
approach to marketing, your mission statement and include Ansoff’s matrix. You are also
encouraged to discuss your core competencies along with the alliances you are about to form.

Answer:

E-valy is an e-commerce site which will be capable of providing every kind of goods and products from
every sector to every consumer located in Bangladesh. The world’s market place will be only finger-tips
away for any customer in possession of a Smartphone/computer and an internet connection. They will be
able to purchase everything; from a safety-pin to an apartment building from our website. We have
gathered the brightest minds of Bangladesh and given them the platform to perform to their fullest extent.
All the data-mining and optimization has been done in-house and no outsourcing from any organization
has taken place. We are utilizing 100% Bangladeshi personnel and resources and keeping the flow of cash
within our borders. It is a platform where people can purchase all kinds of goods from a single website.
Business Communication MODEL

Model that e-commerce usually designed to communicate with clients. More effectively organisation will
able to design more customers they will attract and more profit they will gain. E-valy develop their own
model which to communicate with their customer. They design their communication model such an easy
way so that it will easy for every customer. Because easy communication model can create better
customer experience which create satisfied and loyal customer. Hear the communication start while the
customer visit the website and order. After order he/she have select payment option. He/she can select
cash on delivery or online payment. After payment confirmation E-valy inform the seller about the
product to prepare it. After seller feedback E-valy collects the product and brings it to their warehouse
and then they pack it by their packing unit and then deliver by their logistic system. After successful
delivery payment has been done to seller if delivery is not successful then E-valy return the product.
Sellers are urged to mention in their shops if any product is a duplicate/replica. Failure to do so will result
in penalisation for that specific store and the seller will be held liable for any complaints regarding replica
products by the customer. It could range from financial penalisation to the dismissal of the store from E-
valy’s platform. E-valy will ensure the return of products within 3 days from the customer’s end if the
customer faces the aforementioned difficulties. E-valy always looks out for the best interest of its users.

Ansoff matrix

Market development

This is where evaly can target new market and non penetrated market, so they can sell more products
which also will help them to solve their money problem. Their new market can be shylet, Barisal and
rangpur rajshahi etc. as this is business model like alibaba.com and its first mover as its new strategy,
expanding will be a great option for evaly. They are targeting a mass market so I will definitely work with
more organization for availability. One more important thing about their app need to be improved and I
will make sure the app is working properly with a developer team.

Diversifications
This strategy is very risky threes often little scope for using existing expertise or for achieving econimis
of scale. But I think in term of our Bangladeshi market it is a great opportunity. We could introduce our
own individual food delivery system.

Market penetration

We will introduce loyalty scheme for our regular customers,

Sales force activities can be increased

And later on we will buy our competitive company

And with proper investment we will sell more popular product.

For reducing operational Cost, Reducing Operational Cost increase the efficiency .Some practical actions
recommended for e-commerce business are as following: Reducing energy usage without productivity
loss by virtualization – running various computers on only single one, cloud computing – putting data in
one server instead of several and PC power management – centralized energy in one software. Frequently
managing and analyzing data in order to avoid using large amount of energy to store redundant data.
Extending the IT products’ lifecycle so that it does not need to be eliminated, instead, it can be reused,
renewed and updated. Green IT initiatives refer to recycling of electronic products. Companies are
advised to use recyclable-material-products and consider those recycling rate.

Recommendation

For Security, In order to ensure e-commerce security, business has to create a strong data system
management. A model for e-commerce security which is recommended is shown below in Figure 2.5.1.
Figure 2.5.1: Recommendation for Security The model combines many components of e-commerce:
commitment, people, process, training and technology. As it is shown in this model, e-commerce security
begins with the commitment and support of the manager in which insecure procedure or immoral
activities will not be accepted. Data will be conducted, protected and access to data will also be controlled
from attack vectors or criminal communities by company’s strict policies with the help of hardware and
software such as firewalls or anti-virus program. Employees would be trained on such policies, for
instance, to not download data by Smartphone or use the data outside the company in order to avoid
information leakages. Solutions for security breaches should be pre-planned by the company for any
instant problems