- Estimated duration: 2 hours
Modules
Module 4
Identifying and Reaching Customers
In this Module, you will delve deeper into customer segmentation. You will learn how to identify your target market, reach customers, and establish customer channels. While completing this module think about the following questions:
- What is a target market?
- How can I segment customers to reach customers more effectively?
- What channels are available to reach customers?
- What strategies can I use to get to know my customers and market better?
Section 1: Readings
Section 2: Videos
Section 3: Workshop
Supplementary Materials (Optional)
Section 1: Readings
Read the following materials to learn more about identifying and reaching customers. You will learn about target markets, customer segmentation, marketing channels, and more.
Article: ‘What Is a Target Market? And How to Define Yours’ By Coursera
This article will introduce you to the concept of a target market and why it is important to identify. You will learn about different types of segmentation that can be used to better define your target market.
https://www.coursera.org/articles/target-market
Article: ‘What is customer segmentation, and how can it help?’ By Qualtrics
This article will introduce the business tool, customer segmentation. You will learn strategies on how to segment and target customers effectively. You will also learn what information to look for and where to find it to build your customer segmentation analysis.
https://www.qualtrics.com/uk/experience-management/brand/customer-segmentation/?rid=ip&prevsite=en&newsite=uk&geo=FI&geomatch=uk
Blog Post: ‘The Top Marketing Channels, And How They’ll Change in 2023 [+Data]’ By HubSpot
You will learn the top Business to Customer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B) marketing channels used by businesses today based on the data collected from over 1,000 global marketing professionals.
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-channels
Blog Post: ‘The 9 Customer Channels – Strengths and Weaknesses’ By Leah
Customer channels are methods and platforms used to communicate with customers. This blog post will introduce you to various different channels you can use to reach your customers. Different channels work for different customer segments and products. You will learn about some of the most important customer channels, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each of them.
https://www.userlike.com/en/blog/customer-channels
Article: ‘Customer Discovery Basics’ By Julia Austin of HBS Rock
This article briefly introduces the customer discovery process to help you get to know your target customers better. This article discusses the five key takeaways and provides advice to help you through the process.
https://entrepreneurship.hbs.edu/Documents/Session%20Summary/HBSRock-Customer-Discovery-Final.pdf
Section 2: Videos
Watch the following videos to learn more about identifying and reaching your target customers.
‘Marketing Strategy- Audience Targeting’
This video gives a brief overview of marketing strategy through customer segmenting, targeting, and positioning.
‘4 Main Types of Market Segmentation & Their Benefits’
This video discusses 4 of the most common way to segment a market and the benefits of using each.
‘How to Identify Target Market’
This video will go through the process and different frameworks of identifying a target market.
‘The Customer Isn’t Always Right, but Some Customers are Better than Others’ -Peter Fader TEDx
This video talks about customer centricity in a new way. He talks about strategizing around different customers of different value.
Section 3: Workshop
Think about a specific product or service. This can your business idea or something that already exists. Examples include a Gucci purse, pencil case, specific sports car, or a Marimekko coffee mug.
Once you have chosen a product use the skills you learned in this module to build a customer profile for a person in that product/service’s target market. Think about the different types of segmentation when building this profile. What is the customer’s demographic (age, gender, income level)? What are the customer’s psychographic traits (attitudes, values, lifestyles, etc. )? You may consider other types of segmentation as well to build a more specific profile. Identify your chosen product/service [and] write a description of the target customer.
Once you have chosen a product use the skills you learned in this module to build a customer profile for a person in that product/service’s target market. Think about the different types of segmentation when building this profile. What is the customer’s demographic (age, gender, income level)? What are the customer’s psychographic traits (attitudes, values, lifestyles, etc. )? You may consider other types of segmentation as well to build a more specific profile. Identify your chosen product/service [and] write a description of the target customer.
Supplementary Materials (Optional)
These materials are not compulsory for the course. This is a library of additional resources for those who want to go beyond the course and learn more about topics related to this module.
Readings
‘What is a Marketing Channel?’
https://directiveconsulting.com/resources/glossary/marketing-channel/
Marketing Channels
Customer Segmentation
https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-segmentation
Videos