KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMERS 2 BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE (ADVANCED)

 

BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE (ADVANCED) 25. KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMERS 2

 

A Segmentation A segment is a group of customers or potential customers with similar characteristics, needs and requirements. Segmentation, which can be done in various ways, allows marketers to identify and differentiate between the needs of the target groups of customers that make up a particular market. They may offer different products to different segments, or the same product, marketing it in different ways. For example, power tools are designed and marketed differently for professional users and do-it-yourself enthusiasts. B Customer groups: demographic and behavioural segmentation In demographic segmentation customers are divided up on the basis of occupation and social class: middle class, working class, etc. In the UK, marketers classify customers demographically as: A professionals such as senior business executives and senior civil servants B people with very responsible jobs such as middle managers, heads of local government departments, and so on C1 all others doing non-manual jobs: technicians, nurses, etc. C2 skilled manual workers D semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers E those on the lowest income levels, such as pensioners.   In Britain, marketers also use a system called ACORN, which is a classification of residential neighbourhoods, a system that assumes that people from a particular area will have a similar social background. It can be used to predict likely purchases of everything from cat food to financial products. C Customer groups: lifestyle and psychographic segmentation People from a particular social class may spend their money in particular ways, but it can be more useful to look at people’s lifestyles, the overall pattern of how they live, what they buy etc. Here, values, opinions, activities and interests are important. EXERCISES 25.1 Complete the statements by people working for different organizations with appropriate forms of expressions from A and B opposite. (Some expressions are used more than once.) 1. ‘I work for a food products company. We make a powder that can be added to hot milk to make a nutritious drink. It is used to make two different products and is sold under two different names, to mothers who feed it to their babies, and to old people who drink it to get important vitamins. This is the basis of our ____________. Of course, these are two entirely different ____________. 25.2 Look at C opposite and match the two parts of these descriptions of VALS types. (The first one has been done for you.) 1 Experiences are young enthusiastic people who spend a lot on clothes, a to familiar brands. 2 Strugglers are poorer, elderly people who are loyal b cultivated, expensive tastes.

ANSWER KEY