QUESTION A
As shown in the American Fact Finder, segmentation is much depicted among groups existing in market. The segmentation varies between groups but remains the same among the groups. Four primary bases can be used for segmentation within the consumer market:
Geographic: This is based on regional variables that affect characteristics of individuals. These include climate, population density, population growth rate and region (McDonald & Dunbar, 2013).
Psychographic: This is based on value, lifestyles and attitudes
Behavioral: This include usage rate and patterns, benefits sought and brand loyalty (Burkard, 2013).
In a scenario where I am the marketing manager, the two dominant segments I would use are demographic and geographic. Demographic research is important since this presents the basis for the marketing managers to know the personalities they will market to (Pride et al, 2010). The gender and age is important to determine those groups that would be much profitable for marketing to. The other segmentation criteria are based on Geographic .The population growth rate and density determines the proportion of individuals available as potential consumers.
Social classes within a community are defined as groups consisting homogenous traits that can be ranked against one another; thereby forming hierarchy (Turner, 2003). The most prolific factor that leads to formation of social hierarchy is income. Income leads to the division of a large group into lower, middle and upper class. The upper classes are regarded to have high income levels while the lower have low levels of income.
Ways in which social class affects consumer behavior:
Consumption pattern: a consumer in the upper class is likely to consume food products that are healthy and consider diet. This is indifferent to lower class who might not consider this.
Consumer buying behavior: The upper class consumer will be more focused on quality, innovation and features while those from lower class will concentrate on price (Pride et al, 2010)..
QUESTION B)
1.
Flow of information is of significant impact given that there is always need for coordination. In AMNetwork Company, higher levels of coordination ensure that the managers have involved all the stakeholders in the achievement of the organization’s aim (Doom, 2009). In which case, this makes the stakeholders part of the business process since they have been made aware. Despite this, a culture of distrust culminating between the technology expertise and the other departments can result to failure of communication (Taylor & Farrell, 2005). Further, the IT organizational leader faces obstruction in terms of the available resources. The organization may not have adequate resource to facilitate the communication infrastructure. For instance, the company lacks software that can coordinate data, scheduling and communication (Tan, 2002).
In the process of its working, IT architecture continues to evolves to meet a target or expected architecture. In which case, the target architecture is regarded as a future vision that its evolution is in advance of the time that it will be achieved. Consequently, this confirms the quote that “at no time will specific target architecture ever be achieved” (Adelsberger et al, 2005).
References
McDonald, M., & Dunbar, I. (2013). Market segmentation: How to do it, how to profit from it. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Burkard, N. (2013). Market segmentation and branding in the hotel industry with special. S.l.: Grin Verlag.
Pride, W. M., Hughes, R. J., & Kapoor, J. R. (2010). Business. Australia: South- Western/Cengage Learning.
Turner, P., & Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2003). Organisational communication: The role of the HR professional. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Doom, C. (2009). An introduction to business information management. Brussels: ASP.
Taylor, A., & Farrell, S. (2005). Information management for business. Metuchen, N.J: Scarecrow Press.
Adelsberger, H. H., Lažanský, J., & Mařík, V. (2005). Information management in computer integrated manufacturing: A comprehensive guide to state-of-the-art CIM solutions. Berlin [etc.: Springer.
Tan, F. B. (2002). Advanced topics in global information management: Volume 1. Hershey, Pa: Idea Group Pub.
