Assignment 1: Segmentation and targeting for the DSO
Description/Focus: Research report profiling market / client characteristics for an organisation, involving segmentation & targeting from a buyer behaviour perspective.
Value: 40% of unit total
Due date: Sunday, Week 6
Length: 2500 Words
classical music consumer segmentation study
General focus
The assignments for MKT502 Clients & Markets involve a real life case study, which will enable you to apply your newly acquired understanding of marketing and customer behaviour to the development of appropriate marketing strategies and marketing initiatives, in both business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) contexts.
The Darwin Symphony Orchestra
The Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO) has significant B2C and B2B marketing components, which makes it a particularly relevant and interesting case study for this unit.
Over the coming weeks the unit teaching team will provide you with further insights into the DSO’s marketing situation and the challenges that it faces. For initial insights to the organization please visit the DSO website http://dso.org.au/ - please do not contact the DSO directly.
The DSO’s annual income exceeds $1 million. While the DSO receives substantial funding from both state and federal government, almost half its revenue comes from concert proceedings, donations and corporate sponsorship. In addition, substantial ‘in-kind’ contributions from sponsors support the organization in relation to logistics, offices and overheads, venue hire, flights and travel, hotel accommodation, as well as media and advertising.
The DSO marketing team therefore plays a critical role in revenue generation and is responsible for promoting events and ticket sales, as well as fund raising and generating sponsorship. (Details of both these aspects can be found on the DSO website and further insights will be provided as the unit progresses).
Assignment description
Assignment 1 requires you to initially evaluate the potential B2C and B2B customer segments that make up the DSO’s market. You then select a specific B2C, as well as a specific B2B segment, for targeting and provide rationale for your selections, as well as insights into the buyer behavior dimensions that should be considered in subsequent marketing mix planning stages.
Please note that assignment 1 involves marketing segmentation and targeting stages only. Positioning forms the focus of assignment 2, in which you provide in depth analysis of the behaviour of the chosen target market segments and appropriate marketing mix recommendations.
Specific assignment tasks
In the early weeks of this unit you will be introduced to the market segmentation, targeting and positioning process, as well as models of buyer behaviour and related concepts.
This assignment requires you to complete several tasks:
Segmentation & targeting (approx. 350 words)
• Briefly describe the segmentation and targeting process, acknowledging its relevance to B2C and B2B marketing.

Segment evaluation (approx. 1000 words – 500 words on B2C & 500 words on B2B)
• Identify and describe DSO’s market, acknowledging the various existing and potential B2C and B2B customer segments in terms of ‘typical’ market segmentation dimensions (e.g., behavioural, psychographic and profile data for consumer markets, and in terms of micro and macro segments for organisations).
B2C target (approx. 500 words)
• Identify and evaluate a specific B2C niche customer segment for the DSO marketing team to focus on.
• Explain the rationale for its selections in terms of distinctiveness / size / accessibility / stability / match with the company strategic orientation.
• Outline the buyer behaviour concepts and theories* relevant for further investigation (in assignment 2) to ensure an effective buyer behaviour focused marketing mix can be developed.
B2B target (approx. 500 words)
• Identify and describe a specific B2B niche segment for the DSO marketing team to focus on.
• Explain the rationale for its selections in terms of distinctiveness / size / accessibility / stability / match with the company strategic orientation.
• Outline the buyer behaviour concepts and theories* relevant for further investigation (in assignment 2) to ensure an effective buyer behaviour focused marketing mix can be developed.
*Relevant concepts and theories might include:
• Stages in decision making process
• Level of involvement
• Decision making unit
• Aspects of psychology theory (Perception, Learning and memory, Personality and self-concept, Motivation & needs, Attitudes, Group and peer influences)
Positioning & customer behaviour (approx. 150 words)
• Acknowledge the importance of understanding customer behaviour to the positioning stage of the STP process.
Assessment format
To successfully complete this assignment, you should prepare a report that:
• Is a Microsoft Word document and not a pdf.
• Includes:
o Title: “as per the assignment heading on page 1”
o Student name(s) and ID number(s)
o Unit title and code
o Tutor name
o Date
• Is well written and properly spell-checked and proof read.
• Follows the assignment instructions closely and uses the same headings. (If it does not specifically ask for an Executive Summary don’t include one).
• Indicates the number of words written in each section, as well as the total word count.
• Uses a recognized business journal style of referencing format such as Harvard or APA.
• Is 2500 words long (excluding figures, appendices, bibliography - please note that appendices do not contribute to the marks). There is a considerable amount to cover, so it will be important that you write clearly and concisely.
Submission & mark allocation
The assignment must be submitted on time via Learnline.
% allocation of marks for this assignment is as follows:
Segmentation & targeting 10
Segment evaluation 35
B2C target 15
B2B target 15
Positioning & customer behaviour 5
Effective referencing and citation, and evidence of adequate literature search 10
Report structure / presentation 10
Total 100
(See Learnline for further details of assessment submission and marking procedures / policy).
Kotler (1999) defines
market segmentation as the subdividing of a market into distinct subsets of customers,
where any subset may conceivably be selected as a target market to be reached with a distinct
marketing mix.
Segmentation – “the subdividing of a market into distinct subsets of customers, where
any subset may conceivably be selected as a target market to be reached with a distinct
marketing mix” (Kotler, 1980; Kotler, et al., 1999, p. 379)
Kotler, P., 1980. Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control. New York:
Prentice-Hall.
http://docplayer.net/9159746-Classical-music-consumer-segmentation-study.html#show_full_text
http://www.academia.edu/1967071/Orchestra_Audience_Development_and_the_Aesthetics_of_Customer_Comfort_
https://blablawriting.com/market-segmentation-2-essay
• please stick with the fairly simple process outlined in the second lesson. The purposed of assignment 1 is to initially get you thinking about the segment evaluation stage and to consider the potential customer segments for the organisation outlined in the assignment instructions.
For this purpose I've selected the DSO for this assignment as it lends itself well to considering both B2B and B2B customer segments. In the week 2 lecture I outline the more common dimensions by which B2B and B2C markets are segmented. The class ought to be able to find some relevant literature that should support your consideration of segment evaluation for the DSO - I'd be very happy for the class to use the assignment 1 discussion threads to share these.
Once several possible targets / segments have been identified, one B2B and one B2C segment should be evaluated in greater detail with rationale for their selection provided.
Since a key objective of this unit is to develop your understanding of customer behaviour, in assignment 2 you will focus on your chosen segments and describe their associated buyer behaviour in detail, using the theories and concepts that we cover in later lessons of the unit. You will then make some recommendations for DSO marketing initiatives that clearly build upon your discussion of the targeted segments' buyer behaviour.
I'm up to the Segment evaluation stage and have enough theory on the B2B (Macro and Micro) and B2C (Profile, Behavioural and Psychographic) segments. There is a lot of criteria for each segment so slide 17 of week 3 is helpful in that I don't have to explain each criteria in detail and try to link it to DSO, and can identify 3 or 4 for B2B and B2C that will have the most affect on DSO. When I get to the Targeting question I can then choose one for B2B and one from B2C and break that criteria down.
I'm glad to hear that things are falling into place. You are right that the figures showing the potential segmentation variables can help think about segments for the DSO. For example, we can see from the DSO promotional document 'Individual and Partnering Opportunities' in the assignment 1 folder that sponsorship represents an important B2B customer group. (Companies sponsor the DSO in the form of hard cash, as well as in kind contributions). How might the DSO segment companies and organisations that provide sponsorship? Could be on the basis of location - NT based, Australia based, or international. As illustration, why would an NT organisation like CDU sponsor the DSO vs. why would an organisation like Emirates sponsor the DSO. Similarly, if we were to segment by industry sector why might a tourism organisation sponsor the DSO compared to say a bank? By focusing on particular niche segments you should be able to identify opportunities therein - you then really investigate what drives that particular buyer behaviour and that way the company (DSO) can develop a marketing mix that is likely to satisfy the needs of the targeted group.
In assignment 1, by getting you to select one B2C and one B2B segment, you will develop some appreciation of the differences in B2B and B2C marketing as well as the application of an array of appropriate psychology theories to understanding customer behaviour.
Hope that helps and please do keep the questions coming, as I'm sure they are helping the rest of the class.
One more question :), Is there a preference in the level of detail required for segmentation evaluation. I'm caught between summarising each segment (i.e. Profile, Behavioural and Psychograhpic using DSO examples) or should I really breaking them down into specific categories?
With categories I would break Profile into Geographic, Demographic and Socio-economic and then give a definition and DSO example for each.
Behavioural Segmentation can be broken into purchase occasion, benefits sought, purchase behaviour, loyalty, usage and perceptions/beliefs.
Just trying to understand what level of detail are you seeking... as I can give examples of how each of these categories apply to DSO...
• You are on the right lines, I gues you now just need to relate the potential segments to the DSO context... To do this it may help you to reflect on the purpose of this assignment... It is your opportunity to show that you understand the importance of market segmentation and that you understanding the segmentation process in a particular B2B and B2C context.
For example, an obvious way of looking at the B2B customer base is to consider the corporate sponsors in terms of size of contribution. The DSO classify these from major to minor partners. So if we were to consider the more significant partners - How might we segment these?
We might consider a minimum company revenue as a characteristic. We could do also do this geographically on the basis of sphere of influence / operations. For example NT based companies vs. Australia vs Asia Pacific vs. Global
How might these be further segmented? We could also look at specific industry sectors.
Through this process you might arrive at a potential niche segment as larger Australian corporates whose brand values might match those of the DSO.
A narrower niche segment within this could be financial services.
Once you consider different potential profiles you should be able to identify a viable segment you wish to target. (You could also consider segment profiles for smaller companies, or indeed consider entirely different segmentation dimensions)
You then provide greater rationale for this selection.
In assignment 2 you will use the areas of psychology theory covered in weeks 4 to 9 to describe what drives the behaviour (in this case sponsorship) and on the basis of this understanding make recommendations for the marketing mix.
• Thought I should share this... my assignment is finally falling into place now. Where I was getting stuck was because I was getting hung up on the theory (B2C - Profile, Behavioural etc) and was trying to place DSO market groups into each. What has helped me, and hopefully helps you, is to forget about the theory (initially) and focus firstly on the DSO documents, write down all of the potential segments/markets and then using those you will easily be able to define where they fit into the segmentation theory.
Hope this helps you as this approach has finally allowed me to progress again and identify the niche markets for targeting.