Source: http://blog.muxlim.com/?p=372
By Guest Blogger Rafi-uddin Shikoh from Dinar Standard
Posted October 6th, 2009
A while ago, as I was going through my subscribed Time magazine, I was reminded of marketing sophistication in action. I noticed that the Ford Taurus advertisement on the back of my copy was different from another copy of Time magazine (same Edition) that was subscribed by a female colleague. Hers had a female in the ad (mine had no person) and the car was of a different color. Ford obviously was trying to appeal to us differently. Ford does more than customize its marketing communications as it also develops its products for various segments (rugged trucks, Mustang sports car, family mini-vans etc.)
America has indeed been the world’s most sophisticated consumer market and so no wonder its marketers are the most innovative. From major brands such as Ford, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Disney, Apple, Citibank to smaller emerging brands, the level of market segmentation and target marketing in this vast/ diverse market is incredible. Customers are communicated and products customized based on needs that are categorized by demographic (gender, age, income, education, life-stage, ethnicity), psychographic (values, personality, lifestyles, hobbies), and behavioral (readiness, attitude, usage patterns, etc.) segmentations.