Based on the three customer personas, which customer segment should Ontela target?
The company should concentrate its energy on the promotion of application to persona 1 (Sarah, the Parent). First of all, the segment of parents after 40 years is quite wide. Also, due to constant workload with home staff, this category of customers doesn’t have time for understanding every know-how. However, parents always want to see children’s development, and memories are very important for them. Unfortunately, there is no never-ending memory on devices, so to store photos, which size is quite volume, makes it problematic to take new ones before transfer them to bigger space. The category of customers as Sarah (the sex in this case doesn’t matter) are aimed at benefits from products/services (quality, service, economy), intensity of consumption (active user) and easing the life by applying minimum efforts.
Create a positioning statement for your chosen target persona and identify the key themes that should be emphasized in the messaging for the PicDeck service to this segment.
First step of your child, first picture, first school, first car, first boyfriend (girlfriend), first trip, first diploma, first work – it’s the creation of little history, which every parent tries to safe in memory and show achievements to others. Sometimes your camera needs more memory to comprise all desirable photos, but who says it is impossible? PicDeck is the new opportunity to increase the store memory on the camera without heavy efforts. Photos from camera can “just appear” on the PC, when you need it. Spend only one minute to install it! There is no need to learn or remember, just take photos and pic sender delivers them automatically!
The key themes emphasized in the message include family values, technological opportunities of devices and the way to ease the life.
What are the risks to use quantitative personas to select target customer segments?
The age is not stamp. Quite often old people can much easily use devices than young generation, because they need devices at work, but not only to spend time in social networks. Quantitative segmentation focuses mostly on stereotypes. For example, the representatives of young group (15-24) haven’t enough level of wealth belonging to a certain social class. However, there are lots of young billionaires (let’s remember Mark Zuckerberg, who in his 26 became billionaire!), while age group of 45-64 is considered to have fully formed social and income levels (taking into account the fact that such people cannot sometimes even buy some necessary products).
Marketers must pay attention to the following shortcomings encountered in quantitative market segmentation:
The process of segmentation is costly. Before deciding on segmentation of the market, it is necessary to check whether costs associated with the conduct of market research and segmentation are justified or not justified.
Marketers perform segmentation poorly. Sometimes companies divide market into small inefficient by cost segments.
Consumer market is weakly studied during quantitative segmentation. In some cases, the advantages and disadvantages of consumers are improperly evaluated.
Companies while choosing the segment on the basis of segmentation misjudge demand and use competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes companies try to compete in many segments with significant differences or close a shrinking market.
Ontela PicDeck (B): Customer Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Based only on the cluster analysis data, which preference-related variables are most useful for segmentation identification and evaluation? Which variables are least useful?
The most useful preference-related variables for segmentation identification and evaluation include the best price of new tech, monthly fee of its use, quality of digital camera photos over phone photos, safety of photos, sending photos by e-mail and having photos on desktop. The least useful preference-related variables for segmentation identification and evaluation include replacement of digital camera if phone transfer was easier, the speed of adoption of new technologies and ease of upload of phone photos.
Keeping in mind what you know about each cluster before you look at Exhibit 3 and Exhibit 4, create descriptive profiles for the customer segment represented by each cluster. Label each segment with the title that best describes that cluster. To what extent does this new information reinforce or challenge your previous assumptions about the segments in this market?
C1: Users of digital cameras. This segment of customers pays big attention to the quality of photos. This means they can use digital cameras for work mostly, but also their hobbies can bring them some revenues. Customers’ segmentation can be made based on their lifestyle, occupation, intensity of consumption and personality type.
C2: Keepers of photos on desktop. This segment of customers doesn’t like to spend much time on new tech developments and considers the PC as the main storage of photos. They prefer the easiest way to get to necessary stuff.
C3: Searchers of the best price for new tech. This segment of customers has specified income level, occupation, values, reasons for the purchase and defined benefits while choosing the product or service.
C4: Uploaders of phone photos. This segment of customers is pragmatic and prefers to live actively. They don’t have time to overthink several times and spend time on unnecessary activities like transferring new photos from phone to PC manually. Such customers value their time and time of their friends, relatives, business partners, etc. They are quite young and energetic.
C5: “Lazybones”. This segment of customers prefers taking digital camera’s photos because transfer from phone to PC seems difficult for them. Customers are not active users of technologies. This mostly can be applied to Baby Boomers, who were born within 1946-1964, and Generation X (1965-1982). They are at an age, when it is difficult to find new jobs, because all need young, active and ambitious. They usually have built up a very decent experience and can only dream about their business as burdened with children, family or former family.
C6: Easy setuppers. This segment of customers is highly concentrated on the simple process of installation of new application or device. They are similar to uploaders of phone photos, who try to save personal and people’s time.
Concerning discovered new information, it is obvious that quantitative data cannot restrict the classification. Not only age, but also lifestyle, occupation, personality type, income level, habits, etc. play major role in the segmentation process.
Now, use the profiling information in Exhibit 4 to create a revised profile for each cluster. Is that profile different from what you “guessed” based only on the preference data?
According to Exhibit 4, the segmentation was made based on demographic criteria (age, sex, marital status) and psychographic criteria (tech, celebrity, fashion, homemaking and sports mags and/or Websites, as well Internet users and people, who pay their bills by their own). It is much precise compared to the results of previous question. The life style of the consumer is his way of life and use of resources – time, money and information. Segments formed in psychographic segmentation are very difficult to digitize, to measure and to quantify, so this kind of description of the market is often grouped with the socio-demographic segmentation.
Thus, C1: middle-aged customers with approximately equal part of males and females married or single, which third part has children. They are active Internet users and readers of tech mags or websites. So, they value the quality of photos as it can be associated with their work or hobbies.
C2: also middle-aged customers with approximately equal part of males and females, mostly married, and half of them has children. They aren’t very active Internet users and prefer to read about social life. This segment of customers really doesn’t like to spend much time on new tech developments and considers the PC as the main storage of photos. They prefer the easiest way to get to necessary stuff.
C3: mostly teenagers, who are family-oriented in the future, with approximately equal part of males and females, who concentrate attention on celebrity’s and fashion’s mags and websites. The classification is absolutely opposed to the defined previously.
C4: middle-aged customers, but Generation Y representatives. The main feature of the generation is the involvement in digital technology, philosophical paradigm of the new millennium and a new round of division into liberal and conservative views. But most importantly, they have the desire to delay the transition to adulthood, but in reality – it is the concept of eternal youth. They are active Internet users and interested in sports and tech items. Definitely these customers don’t have time to overthink several times and spend time on unnecessary activities like transferring new photos from phone to PC manually. Such customers value their time and time of their friends, relatives, business partners, etc. They are quite young and energetic.
C5: middle-aged customers with family experience (mostly married and with children) and are interested in tech, celebrity, women’s and sports almost equally. Customers are not active users of technologies. This mostly can be applied to Baby Boomers, who were born within 1946-1964, and Generation X (1965-1982).
C6: the oldest customers’ group among other clusters’ representatives (median age of 55), mostly married with children. They are low-level users of internet technologies with interests in celebrity, tech, women’s and homemaking areas. This segment of customers is highly concentrated on the simple process of installation of new application or device.
Which segment(s) would you recommend as the target for PicDeck? Explain the logic behind your choice.
PicDeck is recommended for C2, C4 and C5. As the program is aimed at easiest way to help customers to transfer their photos from phones to PC’s, emails and other necessary accounts, middle-aged people will accept these benefits. It will be good for them to make pics of their dearest people and don’t spend time on understanding installation process. Such customers cannot use the Internet every second, but taking one nice photo and looking on it sometime after on PC with bigger display, will bring much joy. Such customers are tired of constant rush and need just space for good memories. The program works automatically after sign up and turns each delivery location on or off from PC or the phone.
Develop a positioning statement(s) for your selected target customers that defines the key benefits of the PicDeck service and how the service is differentiated from alternatives that customers might consider.
C2: Thanks to photos we can capture signed and happy moments of our life. After a time, we can go back in time, viewing the photo, how our children grow up as interesting and fun, how we were on vacation.
Not always we are able to visit our relatives from the nearby city or country. As not always we can re-visit favorite resort or city. That is why we are trying to take a picture of all that we hold dear. So these people and places will always remain with us.
Many of us take pictures of a favorite chair or a bicycle, which we went as a child, and all because of the fact that in this way we can keep things dear to us at any time and take them with us.
But you never know, when your phone memory says you “bye-bye”. PicDeck is the new opportunity to increase the store memory on the camera without heavy efforts. It is convenient way to store, available because the phone is always at hand and immediate upload. Photos from camera can “just appear” on the PC, when you need it. Spend only one minute to install it! There is no need to learn or remember, just take photos and pic sender delivers them automatically!
C4: Don’t you afraid that once your phone can be stolen or lost or broken? All memories can be damaged, but if you try PicDeck you won’t regret! Every taken photo by phone camera will be emailed automatically. Ease set up, delivery to different devices and accounts and no need to spend time on learning, just install and use!
C5: First step of your child, first picture, first school, first car, first boyfriend (girlfriend), first trip, first diploma, first work – it’s the creation of little history, which every parent tries to safe in memory and show achievements to others. Sometimes your camera needs more memory to comprise all desirable photos, but who says it is impossible? PicDeck is the new opportunity to increase the store memory on the camera without heavy efforts. Photos from camera can “just appear” on the PC, when you need it. Spend only one minute to install it! There is no need to learn or remember, just take photos and pic sender delivers them automatically!
Develop a positioning statement for wireless carriers that Ontela can use to communicate the value of the PicDeck service for wireless carriers.
If the wireless network is used to combine LAN segments, remote to long distances, antennas are usually placed outside the room, and at high altitude.
Another advantage of the wireless network is due to the fact that the physical characteristics of the network make it localized. As a result, the range of the network is limited to a certain coverage area.
PicDeck allows transferring pictures of any designated destination without the need to press any extra buttons. Being present at some performance or taking photos from unforgettable concert or game, they can be immediately stored on the PC.
Wireless service is of high speed.
The low cost of installation and ownership: All you need is an access point, which may be one or several tens depending on the software used.
High mobility.
Reconfiguration and scalability. Expanding a wireless is not an easy task: the user devices can be easily integrated into the network by installing the wireless network adapters, today a large number of devices are equipped with wireless network adapters on the stage of its production. Wireless carriers provide the ability to quickly add, move, and change rights of users, new directions, channels of communication and jobs.
