Me- As Defined by Market Research

It is impossible for Marketeers to effectively target individual, although I'm sure it's something that they often dream of. Instead people must be grouped, patterns are looked for. A prime example of this is Amazon. It knows that, for example, 45% of people who bought a Harry Potter DVD also bought a some other product. I couldn't think of anything that 45% of Harry Potter fans would buy, so I logged onto Amazon to see what I could find, and up popped a pair of Suga boots, on sale, which I almost bought in Office at the weekend, but thought they were to expensive. So I added them to my basket, and up popped four other versions that I might like. How helpful. So now I'm wondering which one to buy, very tempted just to not eat for the next month and buy all four. At least I'd have warm feet. After I have painstakingly made my decision, gone through the checkout, I am faced with a whole host of new headings, lovingly chosen by Amazon:

What Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item? (Apparently 30% go down the same route as I do and buy the item, 22% buy an alternative very similar and 9% go on to buy a more expensive variety of the same shoe)

Recommended Based on Your Buying: This came up with a pair of converse (I hate converse), a DVD called Ballet Shoes and a pair of 'Hip Emu Australian Fur Boots' (wannabe Uggs).

This all stems from the idea of STP Marketing. Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning, as seen in the figure at the top of the page. Segmentation is the ability to subdivide the market by way of similar needs, and how you can turn these into want and, finally, desires. Segmentation often looks at the market in terms of demographics; geographical location, age/gender, socio-economic situation. Another way of slicing up the population is using psycographics, such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow states that there are five main stages of needs; starting with biological and physiological needs, such as food and air, above is safety needs, belonging and loving needs, then esteem needs, with self-actualisation needs at the top. Understanding this hierarchy means that you can successfully market each stage of the pyramid, either on it's own, or with another demographic. When aiming to target the most likely group, the size of the group and the level of involvement must be looked at. Quite a funny video to watch on targeting your market, from Nokia, is below.

In class we were given a task to illustrate how we might segment, or 'stereotype', people. Each team was given a till receipt from a different person and asked to analyse to see what sort of person might have bought these items. The team I was part of got given a long receipt from Tesco, with lots of snack items, lots of multi-buy savings, lots of convenience foods on it. From this we deduced that it was, perhaps, a working Mum with lots of mouths to feed, but limited time, energy and money. To a certain extent we were right. It was one of Ruth's weekly shops. She said that she didn't really enjoy cooking, and didn't have the time for it, and therefore bought lots of fast, convenient items. If we had been looking at this in more depth we might have been able to predict, or offer, other things that each shopper might be interested in buying, just as Tesco do through their Clubcard scheme.
All this brought me to think about how I might be viewed through market research. I would be defined by where I live, eat, shop, go to university, how I travel. Transport for London knows whenever and where ever I travel in London. Nationwide knows how much I spend, where I spend it and what I buy. Orange knows whether I'm a texter or a caller, who I call and how often I call them. I thought about how often I give out personal details to complete strangers, hoping that they will not abuse this information.
So, in conclusion, I am a female teenager who goes to university. She has a student loan, but still likes to treat herself with clothes. She goes out with her friends, clubbing, to the cinema, for a meal. She travels through London on the Tube and the bus, mainly around Piccadilly Circus and up to Islington. She call her parents most weeks, but texts more than calls her friends.

market share dictates profitability- not market size