Marketing

The first step in formulating an advertising strategy is to determine the product or service you have to offer to the marketplace and the objective of the store. For an example, we'll use an imaginary store named Third World that is located in an urban area.

Define Product or Service: Third World is a whole foods store servicing the metropolitan area with the finest in fresh foods, including produce, dairy, cheeses, freshly prepared foods, coffees and teas. The store also carries a large assortment of bulk foods, herbs, vitamins, body care products and natural food groceries.

In a simple paragraph, the product or service being offered by the store has been clearly defined; the next step is to state the foremost objective of the storefront.

The objective of Third World is to service its customers with the highest quality foodstuffs and to educate the consumer on the benefits of the products offered and their contribution to a healthy lifestyle.

The storefront may have many objectives, but it is important to concentrate on what you consider to be the primary one. This could be a rewording or a larger version of your mission statement, included in your strategic plan.

The next step is to define what your target markets are. Once again, this should be determined by the results of your market surveys.

Target Markets: Third World has the fortunate distinction of being located in a downtown area that is close to a university and office buildings, and is also surrounded by its own residential area. There are four distinct markets targeted as Third World customers. Each market has its own distinct buying patterns, demographics, and psychographics. Therefore, each market must have a different advertising approach and product mix. But at the same time, the Third World "message" must be consistent in each advertising group.

The four targeted groups are:

university students;

residential neighborhood;

office workers;

natural food community.

This store is unusual in that it serves four distinct markets; your store may service one or two, or could also have as many as four. Now that the market has been defined, the actual strategy for each market is ready to take form. Each market has to be defined for its demographic characteristics, its psychographic characteristics, and the products to be targeted for each group.

Demographic Characteristics:

University students-targeted group #1

Age: 18-26 Sex: mixed

Race: mixed Marital status: single

Income level: low, 5-15,000

Percent of meals at home: 30 percent

Psychographic Characteristics:

Type A: undergraduate, young, single, physically active lifestyle, health conscious, eat on the go.

Type B: graduate student, middle 20s, single or married, physically active, more settled, apt to eat at home more, holding down expenses.

Type C: employees of university, middle 30s to SOs, large income, educated, health conscious, physically active, large percent of meals at home.

By breaking down further the targeted group by psychographic characteristics, we can better segment the market and devise a strategy for each. Next is to define the targeted product per psychographic group.

Targeted Products:

Type A: vitamins, cosmetics, prepared foods, quick energy foods, bulk cereals, juice, yogurt.

Type