THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
48
INPRACTICE
Whatisthem a rket?Itdependson
yourproductbut, generally, all
markets possesssimilar,basicchar-
acteristics.Themarketispeople,
eitherindivid ualsorgroups,busi-
nessesorins titutions.Themarketis
alsoa place,asinmarketplace,
wheretransactionstakeplace.
Finally,themarketisaneconomic
e ntity, influencedbyfinancialpres-
suresandgovernmentregulations.
Inordertosellaproduct, mar-
ketersmustknowtheirmarketand
know it well.Fourprimarymarkets
exist,buttheyarenotmutually
exclusive. Consumer, industrial,
institutional,andresellermarkets
allha vecharacterist icsspecificto
their consumers,buttheyalso over-
lapinmanyinstances.Asa resull,
mostsuccessfulcompaniessegment
theirmarkets.Bysegmentingmar-
kets, acompany canmatchthe
needsandwants of consumersto
its product.
Prin t magazines andtheir
onlinecounterpartsareexcellent
examplesofmarketsegmenting.
The Interactiv e Journaltargetsthe
businesscommunity,whileOutside
Magazine(www.outsidemag.com).
clearlytargetsoutdoorenthusiasts.
Youare abletocustomizethe
InteractiveJournaltoyourper-
sonalpreferences.OntheFront
Section,clickonPersonalJournal
onthemainmenu.Fromhereyou
willbedirectedtotheSetup
Center.H ere,youcancreatefold-
e rsinthreeseparateareas:
1.News
2.Favori tes
3.Portfolio
I n theNewssection , youcansearch
fornewsitemsintheInteractiveJournalusingkeywords, company
names,andindustrytype.Articles
meetingthe criteriayouspecifywill
belistedautomaticallyona daily
basis.SetupyourownNewsfolder
now.
I ntheFavoritessection,you
cantrackregularlyrunning
columns andfeaturesinthemajor
sectionssuchasMarketplaceand
TechCenter.Createyourown
Favoritesfoldernow.
I nthePortfoliosection,you
cantrackyourpurchase~andsales
ofspecificstocks.DELIVERABLE
Identi fythreetoLvecompanies
withsegmentedmarkets.Visittheir
websitesforspecificinformation
aboutthecompaniesandtheir
products.Alsosearchth e!nterac-
tiveJournal formorein'ormation
aboutthecompaniesyouhave
identified.Foreachcompany, iden-
tifythesegmentedmarketandlist
specificcharacteristicsaboutthat
market.DISCUSSIONQUESTIONS
1.Whataretheadvantagesof
identifyingandsellingtoseg-
mentedmarkets versus
broader,generalmarkets?
2.H owdocompaniesidentifythe
marketmostlikely tobuytheir
products?
3.Describewhymarketsegment-
inghelpsthecompaniesyOll
identifiedinyourDeliverable
selltheirproducts.
4.H owcanyouusetheTnterac-
tiveJO'lrnaltolearnmore
aboutmarkets?