3rd Assignment Strategic Marketing

Date: 21st October, 2021

Deadline:31st October, 2021
Faculty: Pervez Ghazi
Name of Student: Abira Farooq

Q1. Markets are increasingly complex, turbulent and interrelated and in this
scenario what challenges managers face to understand the markets? Discuss.
Q2. Discuss the levels and types of Market Segmentation and why is it an
important tool in Strategic Marketing?
Q3 Strategic agility demanded by rapidly changing markets mandates strategic
sensitivity. Discuss.
Q4. Elaborate your understanding about market sensing processes.
ANSWER: 1
There are two eternal truths: life is about change, and managing people is never easy. To
compound the issue, managers are now facing new challenges. The pandemic has produced a
rapidly changing business environment and created a number of new obstacles, top challenges
facing management, being a manager in the ever-evolving business world today comes with
many challenges. Managers today are the leaders of change; they inspire the teams to
accomplish the goals and objectives while guiding them and directing them through the
process. And while leading the rest of the team and helping its members achieve individual and
collective goals is often rewarding, the challenges of managers’ responsibilities may keep many
up at night and cause them to lose sleep.
There are many issues that could occupy a manager’s mind; however, overcoming these are the
top challenges managers often face on a daily basis.
Retaining the best talent
Human capital is the most valuable asset a modern company has today. The success of any
company directly depends on its employees’ happiness and satisfaction, and employee loyalty
should be at the core of any manager’s goals.
Managing remote employees
With the managers always on the go and traveling as well, lack of communication and clarity
becomes an inherent problem despite all the technological tools that are meant to facilitate
human interaction. So, facilitating communication between team members, ensuring clarity
and timeliness of shared information despite the logistical obstacles are major responsibilities
of a manager today.
Conflicts within teams
Managers often find themselves amidst conflicts between their employees, and effectively
resolving them and ensuring an uninterrupted workflow within teams and achievement of
collective and individual goals. When conflicts are openly talked about and voiced, managers
often happen to be in the difficult position of a “judge” in the situation, and the outcome of the
dispute relies on their discretion and considerate decision-making.

Employee burnout
Managers strategically allocate team members to different projects, effectively maneuvering
and juggling different tasks at once. Besides efficiently attaining personal and company goals for
different projects, managers are the ones responsible for matching each employee’s skill set
with the requirements of a given assignment; however, there is so much more to a manager’s
job than simply understanding the employees’ strengths and areas of expertise. It’s also about
being perceptive enough to notice when employees work themselves out and need a change of
responsibilities for excitement.

ANSWER 2:
Market segmentation is an increasingly important part of a strong marketing strategy and can
make all the difference for companies in competitive market landscapes, such as e-commerce.
Market segmentation offers an opportunity to pinpoint exactly what messaging will drive your
customers to make a purchase.
The 4 basic types of market segmentation are:
1. Demographic
2. Psychographic
3. Geographic
4. Behavioral
Demographic segmentation
Demographic segmentation might be the first thing people think of when they hear ‘market
segmentation’. This is perhaps the most straightforward way of defining customer groups, but it remains
powerful. Demographic segmentation looks at identifiable non-character traits such as:

 Age
 Gender
 Ethnicity
 Income
 Level of education
 Religion
 Profession/role in a company

For example. demographic segmentation might target potential customers based on their income, so
your marketing budget isn’t wasted directing your messaging at people who likely can’t afford your
product.

Psychographic segmentation
Psychographic segmentation is focused on your customers’ personalities and interests. Here we might
look at customers and define them by their:

 Personality traits
 Hobbies
 Life goals
 Values
 Beliefs
 Lifestyles
Compared to demographic segmentation, this can be a harder set to identify. Good research is vital and,
when done well, psychographic segmentation can allow for incredibly effective marketing that
consumers will feel speaks to them on a much more personal level.

Geographic segmentation
By comparison, geographic segmentation is often one of the easiest to identify, grouping
customers with regards to their physical location. This can be defined in any number of ways:

 Country
 Region
 City
 Postal code
For example, it’s possible to group customers within a set radius of a certain location – an
excellent option for marketers of live events looking to reach local audiences. Being aware of
your customers’ location allows for all sorts of considerations when advertising to consumers .

Behavioral segmentation
Behavioral segmentation is possibly the most useful of all for e-commerce businesses. As with
psychographic segmentation, it requires a little data to be truly effective – but much of this can be
gathered via your website itself. Here we group customers with regards to their:

 Spending habits
 Purchasing habits
 Browsing habits
 Interactions with the brand
 Loyalty to brand
 Previous product ratings

ANSWER: 3
Strategic agility, demanded by rapidly changing markets, mandates strategic sensitivity
awareness of what is happening and what is going to happen next, as a basis for rapidly
developing effective responses to change or new opportunities.
In the current environment, firms utilize all available assets to accomplish their strategic
mission. Information is a resource that provides the foundation for the firm to recognize
opportunities, exploit strengths and correct weaknesses. Identifying the market that the
company can best serve with its distinctive capabilities require information. Efficient and
effective information, collection and organization allow the firm to target the market that
would obtain the most value from its capabilities. Without the information, the firm is ignorant
of its ability to offer a high value service.
ANSWER: 4
We live in a ubiquitous culture where brands are constantly trying to engage with us through a
variety of different mediums. From the evolution of print media in magazines and newspapers,
through to the boom of social media content. There has constantly been news and information
that brands force on us.
However, this trend is beginning to die down. Marketers have evolved with the times. Using
different approaches to attract attention like the the recent Christmas Sainsbury's adverts,
linking the festive holiday with family and sharing. Combined with an emotional score and
clever narration. Sainsbury's have yet again differentiated themselves from other super stores
of produce. John Lewis have become notorious for using different emotive links to combine
Christmas with aspirational desires. Coca Cola have used Christmas to signify the importance of
Santa Clause to children. The trend is emerging, creating emotive links to services and products
has seen a shift in consumer awareness. This is all down to Market Sensing research data.
Market Sensing is a type of research technique that involves collecting qualitative data through
a series of interviews, focus groups and in-depth questionnaires designed to help management
teams understand the external market in a more effective, efficient and emotive style. It can
yield magnificent results as its main aim is to identify why consumers choose the brand and
what are their feeling towards the business. An example of this would be that of Lush or Body
Shop. Two equally engaging brands that have created a brand image of fairness, equality and
sustainability.
Market sensing research would seek to understand why consumers choose these brands over
conventional brands such as Boots.
what the customer really wants is key for any business to succeed in this economy. Creating
content based on a buyer persona you and your management team have collaboratively
discussed and created, is the first stage in the process of many to retain your roster of clients. If
your marketing team can identify what emotive links your clients have with your brand, and
then mirror this belief into the company ethos and development stage, you will see your
business increasing in both awareness and involvement from other perspective clients.
If you need help with identifying your buyer personas, who to market towards or any questions
on how you can improve your marketing department.
If your market sensing data showed your customers wanted reward schemes in your chosen
business. Developing this scheme as a result of the research will yield benefits as it shows to
your customers that your organization cares about their opinions. What differentiates this from
regular marketing research, is that the data you collected showed an emotional link to reward
schemes.
Market Sensing can also be used to identify your buyer personas. Research has shown those
that create Buyer Personas from market sensing have yielded greater results than those who
didn't. This is because the research is identifying deeper needs and desires from the clients.
Therefore, when products are created via the development stage, customers are more likely to
become engaged with the new service as the product will mirror their core ethos.