Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

This sounds like a homework assignment. If so, please share your thoughts for discussion. We don't do others' homework.

Since you've responded and the moderator hasn't taken a swipe at you yet*, I'll have a go and see if I can help.

So segmentation in my book is where you divide up your market - my example is taken from experience with emails, so you'll have to get a little imaginative, ok? The point is to separate people by what they're interested in. If say, they like the idea of a fully serviced first class suite, meals at the captain's table and all the rest - you'd pop them in your top category, those who just want to sail the sea and sleep in a two-up two-down inside cabin would be at the bottom. In between are everyone else.

That's segmentation as I understand it.

So you'd have different pricings for your top tier market and those down below - and remember those in the first class suites aren't going to take that much more by way of looking after. You've paid for the ship, you've paid for the furniture and the rest - and the extra electricity and so-on cost you maybe 50% more than the guys in a small cabin. And that's being liberal -remember you have to sail the ship, pay for the fuel, the crew, port charges and allsorts. However my point is that in costing you 50% more, you charge $10,000 for a suite on your week's cruise around the Caribbean. Compare that to $1200 for the person in a small inside cabin - you can see that if the first costs you $1000 to run, and the inside cabin costs you $650 to run, the math isn't too hard to work out. You make an awful lot more from the guys on the top deck!

Remember this is the pricing model of most airlines - they cover costs on people like me who travel steerage, their profits come from the first class passengers.

Can you see the direction I'm taking.

So how would you start advertising to these first class passengers, given that you need 250 of them - and you need 3500 others.

Bear in mind all these figures are entirely imaginary. You need to do some footwork on this - but the general idea is there.

Does this help you any? It's dinner time on this side of the Atlantic, if you'd like to comment, you can expect an answer in an hour or two.
(*I'm on her hitlist too)

Was I on the right lines? Do you have any thoughts on this, ideas or questions? After all, that's the point of having a student question section. It's as much to get you thinking as to actually help.

So you've got some other perspective you can add to your input - and in my opinion, marketing's no use unless it's specific. All those broad, unfocused questions that leave you more puzzled than inspired. I don't know what your tutor wants, how specific or whatever. I'll warn you that I'm a direct marketer and proud of it - and marketers who'll even admit in public to being marketers are pretty rare. You'll have to gauge your approach to their needs, and not necessarily any reality.

I agree with you about airlines, for me it's either KLM or Cathay - I haven't been back to Africa in 30 yrs. so I don't really need to test any others. For hotels, I prefer local ones, especially in Asia - I don't regard it as sensible to travel all the way there and then eat European food and stay in European hotels. I might as well stay at home ;-)

As to Marriott's frequent user points - my guess is that they've not considered their customers in their reckoning. It's a common problem with branding, which is the corporate's favorite subject because they own it !! (sorry about the rant! branding annoys me. If they thought about the needs of their customers more they'd make 2x the profits, easily!).