MKTG 2003 - Marketing for Financial Services - Blog Post 4

                                           Market Segmentation and Targetting

I found the following advertisment about the Commonwealth Bank of Australia to be interesting and relevant to the concepts of market segmentation and targetting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fZjGOQDbsE&feature=related

The advertisment shows a pregnant women on a public transportation bus trying to find a seat. She is waiting for a man who is seated to give up his place as common courtsey but since he does not she beats him with a rubber toy to force him to give up his seat. The question is then asked "Where are all the people who used to give up their seat?" basically referring to the kind and courteous people. The answer to the question is that they all work at the Commonwealth Bank. Firstly everyone uses bank services, the rich and the middle class and thus the market for people who use financial services is enormous. Since banks cannot focus on the entire market at once they break the market into distinct segments and select one or more segments to target with a distinct marketing mix. This process is called Segmentation. In this advertisment the Commonwealth Bank is clearly targeting the average income earners as the ad takes place on a public transport bus which is typically used by average income earners rather than the high income ones. Thus average income earners especially, pregnant women, the elderly and other types of people who expect common courtsey from others can relate to the advertisment. This will cause them to believe that Commonwealth understands their needs of patience and courtsey and will expect the staff to behave like how they are depicted in the advertisment. Appealing to the need of this distinct segment of the market is called targetting. Hence in this way through the use of segmenting and targeting the Commwealth Bank is focused on what customers they want and who the ad will most appeal to.