Chapter 6. Segmenting and Targeting Markets

Vignette: Market segmentation regarding the clothing industry is reflected in the discussion of ModRobes found in Chapter Six.

Featured URL: http://www.modrobes.com

All About Eve

Much of the fashion industry targets the women's market. Women are studied relentlessly since they came of age as wage earners and keepers of the purse strings. Females wants, needs, money-making ability and willingness to buy have been a magnet for marketers. It has become evident that there is money to be made from tailoring the marketing mix to the female audience. Studying the different women's groups with their different product needs and preferences is necessary in order to clearly define marketing objectives for products and services geared to this market segment. The women's segment is substantial, identifiable, measurable, accessible and responsive to varying degrees depending on the variables.

Activity

Deconstructing a "Women's" Site

Choose one of the women-oriented websites given in the Resource section and answer the following:

• How many different variables can you find represented in the material in this site?
• What are the personality traits and motives represented?
• What lifestyle is reflected in the copy and images throughout the site?
• What information on the site is specific to a geographic region?
• Who is represented by a particular demographic or psychodemographic?
• What ethnic backgrounds can be identified?
• What age groups are targeted?
• What information takes into consideration the family life cycle?

What occupations and income brackets and what marital status would the majority of subscribers to this site be most likely to belong to?

Women CEO's
 

Joy Covey Chief Financial Officer at Amazon.com	Judy Estron - senior VP at Cisco Systems
Hewlitt Packard's Chief Executive - Carly Fiorino	Meg Whitman - CEO of eBay
Candice Carpenter - founder of iVillage.com	Mary Meeker Managing director, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

Women's Television

WTN - Women's Television Network, licensed to broadcast since 1994 - http://www.wtn.ca/

To the Contrary -Women's Issues and Opinions on PBS - http://www.pbs.org/ttc/

Women's Television Viewing Preferences - Research New Zealand - http://webnz.com/snzonair/pubs/litwobehaviour.htm

Women's Web Sites

Phenomenal Women - comprehensive site for women
http://www.phenomenalwomen.com/network/health/index.html

Resource for women in business
https://digital.com/blog/women-owned-business/

Bizewoman.com - an information place for busy women
http://www.bizewoman.com/

oprah.com - live your best life
http://www.oprah.com/

Women.com - an entertainment focused  women's site

Article

Women's Leisure and the Internet by Joel Tone -
http://jjtone.com/joel/women_internet.html

Instructors: Optional Activities

As with all of the Web exercises, the exercise for Chapter Six can be used as suggested or certain parts can be adapted to better suit your student population. You will want to estimate how much time is required to complete any part or all of the parts.  It will be helpful to give students a suggested time frame for completing their assignments. It will also help to determine how much credit might be given for the assignment.

1. Role Model

Choose one of the women CEO's profiled in the Resource section.  Invent 10 questions you would ask her in an interview for a business and marketing magazine. Create this interview so that it would have appeal with both a male and female readership.

2. The Women's Channel

Women's television network WTN claims that their programming reflects contemporary female values and the varied issues that are important to Canadian women. Create a survey to be taken by female college students.  In your survey, ask questions regarding the current topics being featured in the WTN e-zine. Find out on a scale from 1-10, how they rate the site's numerous features. Find out what programs are viewed on WTN -TV with what regularity and how these students rank them.

3. Following the Leader

In this web exercise, you are going to be looking at female CEO's. Think about their influence on the women's market.  What are some of the advantages for a company in having a woman in a leadership role? Do you think these women leaders are developing more powerful marketing strategies for the female market than men? What special strategies do you think these women developed in order to get where they are now?  How did they avoid the "glass ceiling", that is, constraints because of their gender that could have prevented them from taking on so much responsibility and power? Come up with a list of pros and cons - female VS male for CEO.

Create a profile of an outstanding woman leader for today's digitally oriented society. Look for ideas in the profiling articles linked to Women CEOs in the Resource section. Use images as well as words to describe the ideal female business woman in a leadership role.

4. One Man's Opinion

In Resources, you will find an article, "Women's Leisure and the Internet" by Joel Tone.  Read the article and write a review of that article. Do you agree or disagree with this point of view?

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