Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

5. Demographic
   Dimensions of Global
   Consumer Markets

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

126 Chapter 5

Target marketers believe that the customershould be the focus of all business and

marketing activity. These marketers hope to develop unique marketing strategies by

finding unsatisfied customers and offering them superior value with more attractive

marketing mixes. They want to work in less-competitive markets with more inelastic

demand curves. Finding these attractive opportunities takes real knowledge of potential

customers and what they want. This means finding those market dimensions that make

a difference—in terms of population, income, needs, attitudes, and buying behavior.

Marketers need to answer three important questions about any potential market:

1. What are its relevant segmenting dimensions?


2. How big is it?


3. Where is it?
   The first question is basic. Management judgment—perhaps aided by analysis of
   existing data and new findings from marketing research—is needed to pick the right
   dimensions.
   To help build your judgment regarding buying behavior, this chapter and the next
   two will discuss what we know about various kinds of customers and their buying
   behavior. Keep in mind that we aren’t trying to make generalizations about average
   customers or how the mass market behaves—but rather how somepeople in some
   markets behave. You should expect to find differences.
   In this chapter we focus on demographic dimensions. Demographic dimensions
   provide marketing managers with critical information about the size, location, and
   characteristics of target markets. Marketing managers must also be alert to

has been significant growth in

the number of women who

manage their own invest-

ments. There are now more

than 220,000 women who

head households with incomes

of more than $100,000—and

by 2010 that group will double

and will control more than a

trillion dollars in investments.

Importantly, their needs and

interests are sometimes differ-

ent. To better reach this group,

Schwab is designing invest-

ment seminars specifically for,

and taught by, women

(www.schwab.com/women).

These seminars avoid jargon

and include topics on special

concerns faced by women,

such as how to handle

finances after a divorce.

Schwab also developed new

promotion targeted at women.

For example, one clever TV

commercial featured Sarah

Ferguson, the Duchess of York

and a divorced mom, telling a

little girl a bedtime tale about a

young woman who is whisked

away by a knight to a castle,

married, and given her every

wish “forever and ever.” But

the ad ends with a shot of

Ms. Ferguson saying, “Of

course, if it doesn’t work out

you’ll need to understand the

difference between a P/E ratio

and a dividend yield.”

Schwab’s strategies and

success have not gone unno-

ticed by competitors. For

example, E*Trade, which

started on the Web, is opening

branches in Super Target

stores. And firms like Fidelity

Investments are putting multi-

lingual brokers in many offices.

So, Schwab will need to con-

tinue seeking markets with

new growth opportunities.^1

Target Marketers Focus on the Customer