Registration Number: 2005889

Module: BE511 Marketing Management

Coursework One

Introduction

In this essay, I will analyze the marketing strategy and the competitiveness of my company

Dese Jeans inside the current jeans market in the United Kingdom. Primarily, I will discuss

and explain a marketing strategy called the Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP)

Process, which will calculate the company's competitiveness. Secondly, I will explain my

company's positioning inside the simulation that it took part in. Next, I will assess how

competitive my company's simulation positioning would be in the current United Kingdom

jeans market by using the STP Process as evaluation. I will be comparing my company with

other companies in the United Kingdom current market. I'll also discuss the advantages and

the disadvantages my company might face in the current United Kingdom market. Lastly, I

will summarize the analysis I made upon my company and suggest how its positioning can

improve its competitiveness in the United Kingdom jeans market.

STP Process

Every company and brand tries to find a way to be successful in today's markets, and to do

so; they usually use different marketing strategies and theories. A common marketing

strategy that is generally utilized by companies and brands in today's market is the STP

Process. The Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) Process is a marketing strategy

in which the whole market gets divided into different areas (segmentation) to target a more

specific amount of customers with the exact needs (targeting), and therefore being able to

make a brand or product which will appeal to the targeted customer's desire (positioning).

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Segmentation

Segmentation, as stated, is dividing the market into specific groups of customers, but for

segmentation to be valid, it needs requirements to be met. Based on what was stated by

Hooley (2017, p. 163), the customers must have a distinct difference to be able to segment

the customer market; if not, it would be useless to try to divide the market because the

customers would all fall into the same category. Segmentation started to be used in the middle

of the 20th century because of shifts in industries, focusing on manufacturing needs to

customer needs, as Brian (2015, p. 4) stated. To have an efficient segmentation, there has to

be market research. The data gathered by market research is classified as segmentation

criteria, such as profile, behavioral, and psychological criteria. For profile criteria, they

usually use demographic, socio-economic, and geographic variables. For behavioral criteria,

the companies research the customer's purchases and transactions and media and technology

usage. While for the psychological criteria, the companies analyze the customer's personality,

lifestyle, attitudes, and benefits that the customer gains from the purchase.

Targeting

Targeting is the second step of the STP process, which consists in analyzing the data from the

segmentation of the customer market and determining which customer groups to approach.

Perner (2018) makes an interesting point in which our targeting decisions should depend on

various factors. First of all, how well are the customer groups being served by the current

manufacturers? Perner thinks that instead of approaching a group that the manufacturer is

meeting its needs, the company should approach a group that gets a poor service from the

manufacturer. By approaching a group that is well served, it will be harder to gain them as

customers. In the meantime, it will be easier to shift to customers the group that has its needs

that are not being met. Secondly, Perner also said that the company should consider how large

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the current market is and how large the segmented group is. If the market size is small, it will

be easier to target the customers because of the low supply. When the market becomes more

significant, more customers will be involved, and the level of competitors will rise, making it

more challenging to keep the segments as customers.

Positioning

Positioning is the last step that is taken by the company which uses the STP Process. The

company uses differentiation from other brands to create an image in the customer's mind that

will contrast the competitor's product or add a competitive advantage. This image in the

customer's head will make them think that the brand is the best in its market, making the

customers build loyalty towards that company, Armstrong (2019, p. 221).

Company's Positioning in the Simulation

To create a working strategy for a jeans company, we needed to learn as much as possible

about the market and the product sold. At the beginning of the simulation, the plan was to

make jeans at a high quality, medium price and eco-friendly, pair of jeans. During Q1 and Q2,

women were the targeted group because of their higher online sale history, and by owning an

online shop and a large online retailer, women were targeted the most. By the end of Q1 and

Q2, no operating profit was made. While in Q3 and Q4, Dese Jeans became a more luxurious

jeans company by making high quality and high price jeans with a small supply. The market

information shows that the majority of the population lives in an urban area. Having a large

shop and a small luxurious boutique in an urban area will get a higher demand.

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Competitiveness in Current UK Market

Competitiveness is how a company or brand performs in selling and supplying goods inside

the current market, going against the performance of another competitor in the same market.

It's possible to also see a company's competitiveness through its competitive advantage,

which is the "advantage over competitors gained by offering greater customer value"

(Armstrong, p. 650). Using the STP framework, my company Dese Jeans (which became a

luxury brand), would survive and have competitive advantages over other brands in the

current UK jeans market. Dese Jeans slowly over time it became an expensive and luxurious

brand. This would happen by raising the quality and price of the products, but still

maintaining a wide range of customers because it has a lower cost than other luxurious

companies, such as Prada, Gucci, Luis Vuitton, etc. Dese Jeans was able to find a nearly

untapped market segment (high price, high quality) and target clients that live in urban areas

by opening the shop and the boutique in that area. Dese Jeans will also be more affordable to

people from the urban areas because of their higher yearly income. Lastly, my company

would gain a competitive advantage over other brands because the product's prices are lower

than the competitor's product, but always maintaining the high quality of the product.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Every brand has some distinct strengths or weaknesses, and what these brands try to do is fix

those weaknesses or try to improve those strengths. One major strength that Dese Jeans has is

that it can adapt quickly to different market circumstances. As shown before, in Q1 and Q2,

the company was making an entirely different kind of jeans, while at the end of Q3 and Q4, it

became a high-quality luxury company. A weakness that Dese Jeans has is the threat from

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other competitors. The other brands usually have a more expensive advertisement and might

cause more competition in the same market area.

Conclusion

In the end, in my essay, I went into depth description of what the STP process is, explaining

what segmentation, targeting, and positioning is. Afterward, I analyzed my company’s

positioning inside the simulation, and we saw how competitive the company is in the current

UK jeans market. I was also able to identify some key strengths and weaknesses in my

company Dese Jeans. One way to make the company’s positioning more competitive in the

UK market would be to gain an advanced understanding of the environment the company is

part of. This would lower the possibility of approaching the wrong segmentation.

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Reference List

Hooley, G, Piercy, N, Nicoulaud, B & Rudd J (2017), Marketing strategy & competitive

positioning, 6th edn, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

Armstrong, G, (2021) Principles of Marketing, 18th edn Harlow: Pearson Education

Ltd.

Dibb, S, Simkin, L, Pride, W, (2019), Marketing Concepts & Strategies, 8th edn, Cengage

Learning EMEA.

Baines, P, Rosengren, S, Whitehouse, S, (2021) Fundamentals of Marketing, 2nd edn,

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brian, J (2015) ‘Segmentation marketing: A case study on Performance Solutions Group,

LLC’, Web.

Perner, L (2018) ‘Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning’ University of South

Carolina, https://www.consumerpsychologist.com/cb_Segmentation.html.