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Unit IV Essay

Brennan Trahan

Columbia Southern University

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Introduction

Amazon is a prime example of an organization whom represents a form of target

marketing in the business to consumer aspect of operations. Amazon sells items directly to

consumers whom then consume or use those items. The organization was founded in 1994 out

of Washington, led by Jeff Bezos whom has led the company on a steady uphill climb

(Hartmans, 2017). Basically, Amazon list items from hundreds of manufactures and sells them

through their own online platform. This eliminates the marketing needed from the original

manufactures and allows Amazon to market the items as they see fit. The organization is able

to maintain customer satisfaction through multiple routes including the use of direct

communications between the consumers and the business. Anyone who has ever shopped

through the business knows the opportunity to contact the organization with any type of

concern is at the click of a button. Amazon also offers various types of shipping methods

including new opportunities through Prime services, in which users pay a fee monthly and have

access to free 2-day shipping on most items. The option for review of not only individual

products but also the organizational performance is available as well, showing the organization

cares to hear what the consumer has to say and those thoughts are relayed to all consumers

not just the members of the organization. Advertisement for Amazon is done through multiple

outlets with a large focus on social media aspects such as television, websites, emails, or

Facebook (Rizer, 2017). Through these outlets, Amazon is able to show customers changing

products, changing prices, or promotions taking place. This aids in the maintaining of current

consumer base while aiming to gain new customers from the same advertising used as part of

their target marketing technique.

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Customer Segmentation

There are 4 types of segmentation for the consumer markets, these 4 include

demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentations. Each of these carry

their own weight in the correct type of marketing taking place for a given organization targeting

a certain group.

Demographic segmentation is the type of segmentation that will divide a given market

based on things such as income, age, jobs held, levels of education, religion, and gender. When

selling items and aiming to target the audience whom is most likely to buy these items it is

important for an organization to have a firm understanding of these aspects. Two of the most

important forms of segmentation from this specific section would be age and gender. Those

items which are sold to 12-year-old girls will not be sold to 30-year-old men, and the same vice

versa. An additional important point would be the income of the consumer, it should be rather

apparent that the consumer whom earns 7 figures a year will not have the same taste in items

as the one whom doesn’t even pull in 6 figures. When it comes to demographic segmentation,

an organization must know exactly whom they are trying to sell to and how to get their

message to those that are targeted.

Geographic segmentation is simply the type of segmentation which divides the

population by living condition and or location. When assessing the market for the targets it

must be taken into consideration that the market for consumers whom live in the rural or

country areas most likely won’t be the same for those living in the city or suburb areas. People

whom live in apartment complexes most likely won’t be purchasing items which pertain to the
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improvement of the home owner’s lawn improvement. All in all, when targeting a market the

organization must take into consideration where the target lives and how to reach those

consumers to sell the products.

Psychographic segmentation is the pure segmentation of the lifestyle of the different

types of consumers. For instance, a consumer whom is a business man that wears a suit

everyday will surely not be targeted the same as construction worker whom wears boots and

jeans every day. Psychographic segmentation must be taken into consideration when marketing

items to the consumer based on their personalities and the types of things the consumers are

into during everyday lifestyle.

Finally, Behavioral segmentation is the type of segmentation which divides the

consumers on their overall use of the products being sold. A consumer whom purchases

software for a computer can be either a professional who will use the software over and over

again to repair their customer’s computers or they could be a consumer whom will utilize the

software once on their personal machine and never utilize the product again. When targeting a

market the behavioral segmentation should be taken into consideration so that the products

sold can be done so at a fair price across the board and the correct market for that specific

product can be reached and brought in for the purchase.

Amazon Segmentation

Amazon, honestly utilizes all of the above types of segmentation in their marketing

plans. More so than the others geographical segmentation is utilized by Amazon, With a

consumer base spread across such a broad area it is important that Amazon acknowledges the

location of its consumers and how they are going to reach the targeted consumer, drawing
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them into purchasing their items. The importance of this segmentation is the need for different

types of advertising requirements such as newspaper ads and flyers for those consumers with

no internet access. Shipping cost to some of these geographical areas will differ as well creating

more reasons this segmentation must be paid closer attention to than the others. Creating

different marketing approaches for the different regions in which Amazon serves is of utmost

importance to the organizations success, this has been proven through the track record of

Amazon being able to reach those consumers in both rural and suburb areas throughout the

entire nation.

Conclusion

Amazon is a company which has truly grown bigger than ever expected, with the ease of

process between consumer and business and the sheer number of products offered the

marketing aspect pretty much handles itself. The use of segmentation in marketing for Amazon

has proved to be important especially when assessing the geographical segmentation of its

consumers. The other 3 segmentations all carry their own weight in the marketing of Amazon’s

products but not quite what the geographical aspect holds. Each organization depending on the

targeted market will have their own type of segmentation to follow based on many different

aspects.
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References

Rizer, K. (2017). How to Successfully Market Products on Amazon & Think like a Buyer.
Retrieved from https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/amazon-marketing-strategy/

Hartmans, A. (2017). 15 fascinating facts you probably didn't know about Amazon. Retrieved
from http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-amazon-history-facts-2017-4/#amazon-
wasnt-the-companys-original-name-1