As highlighted by Faraone et al. (2012) segmentation refers to the effective division of the entire market into different parts that are accessible, definable, profitable and actionable. Majority of the time, organizations find extremely difficult to target all segment of the market. For that reason, appropriate use of segmentation technique allows organizations to fulfil all the business objectives. As a non-profit organization, The Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO) has able to expand itself in the Australian market effectively. In fact, the annual revenue of the organization was estimated above $1 million mark in 2016 (dso.org.au 2017). Out of entire revenue, major section has come from the donations, corporate sponsorships and concert proceeding. It highlights the fact that DSO have tried to use both B2B and B2C segmentation strategies for fulfilling all the business objectives. For that reason, DSO has focused on conducting concerts in the most remote places so that it can able to attract people beyond diversified cultural boundaries. It has influenced marketing team of DSO to focus on targeting both businesses and people for creating desired impact on the market.
In 2013, DSO have undertook a boldest project to travel around the most remote and iconic areas of Australia. It has grabbed the attention of BBC Music Magazine and many music lovers from all across the globe. As a result, it has allowed DSO the opportunity to target the global market in an effective manner (Albert and Rajagopal 2013). In 2015, DSO became the first invited guest to perform at the culturally significant Grama festival. For that reason, it has allowed DSO to target people from outside the Australia as well. On the other hand, DSO will also have targeted different corporate organizations in order to collect sponsorship amount for different concerts. It has been assessed that targeting businesses has helped DSO in venue hiring, accommodating hotels and flights. Therefore, it has also majorly contributed to the overall business of the organization. For that reason, DSO have look identify those businesses that are looking to invest in the sponsorship programs. It has also focused on targeting businesses that are utilizing aggressive marketing strategy.
As mentioned by Hamka (2012) effective segment evaluation is necessary for fulfilling all the business aims and objectives in an appropriate manner. Effective segmentation allows organizations to specify the direction of the marketing activities that eventually creates positive impact on the revenue level. DSO has also focused on utilizing segmentation technique for enhancing the popularity in the market. DSO has focused on utilizing both B2B and B2C segmentation technique for fulfilling all the business objectives in a comprehensive manner.
As mentioned by McDonald (2012) firmographics segmentation is similar to the demographic segmentation in B2C market. In this segmentation, organizations look segment customers on the basis of shared qualities of a specific segment. In this segmentation, organization focuses on size of the businesses of the expected customers in terms of annual revenue or number of employees. Now, DSO has primarily segmented the corporate business market for collecting desired amount of sponsorships and other support. For that reason, DSO has focused on segmenting the businesses in terms of high, medium and low sponsorship capabilities. It has also focused on identifying the areas where businesses are located in order to identify the market reach in different areas. DSO has also focused on firmographics segmentation technique, as it requires relatively cheaper cost. DSO’s firmographics segmentation technique has helped to identify different businesses that are interested in investing at different types of musical concerts.
Tiering segmentation focuses on evaluating how much a customer matches the objective of the business (Boone and Kurtz 2013). It also helps to understand the kind of businesses opportunity it is likely to provide to the organization. Tiering segmentation has helped DSO to rank the probable sponsors in a descending order. DSO also has focused on assessing the extent to which initiated sales and marketing strategies matches with the business objectives of the customers. It has been assessed that businesses look to use sponsorship program to create popularity in the market. Therefore, DSO also focuses on evaluating how much value the concert can provide to the businesses. Thus, DSO has primarily focused on developing long-term relationship with other corporate entities in order to conduct different types of musical concert in different parts of Australia. However, many studies have mentioned that it is extremely difficult to assess the exact amount of impact music concert can have on the business level of corporate associates (Persaud and Azhar 2012). Therefore, it can actually create difficulties for DSO to identify best partners for performing musical concerts in an appropriate manner.
In this segmentation process, customers look to focus on selecting corporate entities based on their own needs and wants. This type of segmentation is most preferred by the marketers, as it helps to utilize all the promotional activities in a most accurate way. Now, DSO looks to segment the businesses for collecting financial support and sponsorship backups (Mata and Quesada 2014). Therefore, it always target those businesses that are capable of providing huge amount of financial support to all the musical concerts. For that reason, DSO looks to focus on those organizations that are already well established in the Australian market. DSO has also try segment foreign businesses that are looking to establish itself in the Australian market.
B2C segmentation can be divided into four prime ways, which will enhance the effectiveness of the segmentation technique. DSO’s B2C segmentation techniques are described as follows:
Geographical segmentation focuses on identifying a particular area of the market for maximizing the revenue level. Now, DSO geographical segmentation technique has primarily focused on capturing major share of the Australian market. For that reason, DSO has focused developing entire concert calendar for a year so that Australian people can have idea of purchasing master tickets (Liu et al. 2015). DSO has focused on all the major cities including Melbourne, Sydney and Perth for maximizing the revenue level. On the other hand, DSO geographical segmentation technique has also started to segment the rural and remote areas of Australia for achieving continues growth in the market.
Demographic segmentation focuses on segmenting the entire market based on the characteristics of the audience. The demographic segmentation include factors like age, race, gender, religion, occupation, family structure and caste, as it can also have major impact on the preference pattern of the customers. DSO has focused segmenting the market based on their age and income level. It has been assessed that music concerts are typically more popular among the young generation. Therefore, DSO’s segmentation technique would also have to focus on people aged between 18 to 35 years for creating desired impact on the market (Turban et al. 2015). From the beginning, DSO has made a conscious effort in attracting people from different religion and caste so that it can reach to the maximum number of audience. However, DSO segmentation has made a conscious effort in identifying the income level of the people living in the Australian economy, as it will help to set affordable prices for the concerts.
As per the article by Kwek, Tan and Lau (2015) psychographic segmentation focuses on assessing different intangible factors like values, social class, lifestyle and personality. All these mentioned attributes can have major impact on the business level of organization. Therefore, DSO will have to focus on identifying the area or group of people who are favourable to the music concerts initiated by the organization. For that reason, DSO looks to describe all the details about any concerts clearly, so that people do not face any challenges in assessing what to expect from the concert. Historically, Australian people maintain high standards of living, which will allow to expense more on the luxury activities like music concerts. It has also helped DSO to maintain relative high price for the concerts so that it can have maximum impact on the overall business level.
Behavioural segmentation focuses on developing segments based on various attributes including awareness, loyalties, purchase patterns, loyalties and knowledge. For that reason, DSO has focused on maintain data about all its customers in order to identify the groups that are loyal to all the musical concerts. It is also expected that identification of loyal group will help DSO to identify the best possible way to create loyalty in Australian market. In addition, DSO have also focused on collecting feedback from all the audience regarding the positive and negative elements of the concerts so that it can able to make some adjustments to the initiated marketing campaigns for maximizing the impact on the revenue level (Traver and Laudon 2012). DSO has also focused on identifying the types of musical concerts that are widely acceptable in the Australian market, which will also help to initiate plans for fulfilling all the business objectives in an effective manner.
As emphasized by Banerjee and Dholakia (2013) identification of appropriate target market is essential for achieving desired objectives. It allows organizations to utilize specific marketing strategies, which is likely to create massive impact on the revenue level. Now, DSO is present all across the Australia, which can be extremely difficult to target simultaneously. For that reason, DSO needs to focus on identifying the niche market for maximizing the impact on sales volume. As musical concert coordinator, DSO will have to focus on identifying music lovers in Australian market. DSO conducts different types of musical events including fund raising gala, opera gala and Kids classics from maximizing the impact on the Australian market. Now, Chen and Wang (2013) have mentioned the fact that younger generation or music lovers is expected to investment maximum amount in this type of luxurious activities. For that reason, macro level target of DSO will be the people age between 18 to 35 years. However, DSO would also target people above the income range of $50,000 per year, as it can restrict people on spending on luxurious activities (Turban, Strauss and Lai 2015).
DSO has selected this young group of people as niche market, as it represents a relatively large group. Recent population survey in Australia has highlighted the fact that around 43% of the Australian people aged between 18-40 years. Therefore, selection of young group as niche market will allow the organization to utilize different innovative marketing strategies for fulfilling all the business objectives. It has been assessed that people aged between 18 to 35 years are easy to influence though the marketing techniques, compared to any people above the age group of 40 years (Hjort et al. 2013). Therefore, it reflects greater accessibility in the market that can also have major positive impact on the overall revenue level. Moreover, it has been assessed that the selected niche market possesses greater involvement towards each musical concerts. It would also allow DSO to utilize steps of decision-making process to understand the behavioural pattern of the targeted customers. It will help DSO utilize all seven steps including identification of decision, capturing information, evaluation of alternatives, weight the evidence, select among alternatives, take actions and review. Therefore, it would eventually help DSO in developing effective marketing mix strategy for maximizing the impact on revenue level. DSO will also have to focus on assessing the impact of peer group influence, motivation level and personality of the customers in order to assess all the expected challenges in an appropriate manner.
On the other hand, proper identification of businesses for the sponsorship and other financial support activities is also important for achieving continues growth in the market. It has been assessed that prime share of the total revenue of DSO comes from the sponsorship and other facilities. Therefore, it is crucial for DSO to select correct businesses for performing all the business activities in an effective manner. For that reason, DSO focuses on targeting those business entities that are likely to collide with the business aims and objectives. Thus, DSO will have to focus on identifying the objective of potential business entities for accepting the sponsorship opportunities (Hjort et al. 2014). In this case, DSO’s niche market will be all the musical instrument-manufacturing organizations, as it will help the organizations to share information about their diversified product range comprehensively. Moreover, sponsorship would also allow the organizations to share their pricing strategies and the kind of value added services they will receive at the time of purchasing any products. In addition, DSO also has to select music studios and kids gamming accessories, as DSO has focused on developing concerts for kids also (Almeida, Santos and Monteiro 2014). As DSO has already created massive impact on the Australian market, it can easily influence other organizations to invest in all the musical concerts for ensuring continues growth in the market.
Therefore, the selected niche market for B2B operation reflects massive size that can have major impact on the overall revenue level of the organization. As DSO has support of Australian government, it is easier for the organization to access all the selected business entities for investing necessary amount for conducting music concerts in different parts of Australia. It can be assessed that DSO can focus on distinctive sectors to fulfil all the financial needs in an effective manner. On the other hand, it is necessary for DSO to understand buyer behaviour concepts for fulfilling all the requirements in an effective manner (Turban, Strauss and Lai 2015). Therefore, it would help DSO to create maximum impact on the buyers for investing required amount for the concerts. For that reason, DSO needs to focus on all aspect of the psychological theory including perception, needs and motivation, as it can have massive impact on the effectiveness of the marketing strategy. It would help DSO in developing effective marketing mix strategy for enhancing the present revenue level in an effective way.
As described by Awais and Samin (2012) proper understanding of the customer behaviour is essential for utilizing positioning strategy in an effective way. It has been assessed that proper understanding of customer behaviour would allow organization to initiate different marketing strategies, which are likely to create maximum impact on the business level. For instance, if DSO can able to understand the kind of musical concert major portion of the Australian people are preferring, it will focus on conducting those type of concerts on regular basis. On the other hand, understanding of objectives of the buyers would also help DSO to position itself distinctively from all competitors. It has been assessed that proper understanding of customer behaviour allows organization to segregate the entire market into different segments. For that reason, it also helps organizations to target the desired section of the market, which will help to enhance the effectiveness of the initiated marketing strategies (Awais and Samin 2012). Now, effective understanding of target market will automatically help organization to position itself distinctively in the market. It will eventually help to increase the revenue level in a major way.
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