II.

Communicating with Different Market Segments

In order to gain customer trust, companies must select the best suited media channel to
establish an effective web presence.

A. Trust and Media Choice:

The level of trust achieved by three different media models: Mass
media, the Web, and Personal Contact. Using the Web results in cost savings of mass
media while allowing the advantages of personal contact selling.

Fig. 4-2 Trust levels in three dissemination models

Mass media is still widely used because it is a relatively cheap method to reach many
potential customers. Since the audience is passive, they may not actively evaluate the
message and succumb to the advertisement. One disadvantage of this method is the "overuse
of superlatives" which has lead to distrust. In addition, not all viewers are interested in the
message conveyed and will elect to skip the message entirely. This method of communication
is not very successful on the Web because the audience is actively engaged and more likely to
evaluate the message. For this reason, the personal contact selling model is preferred because
it is based on trust.

B. Market Segmentation:
To bypass the disadvantages of mass media, companies began to
practice market segmentation. This involves the demographic segmentation of the
market based on age, gender, marital status, income level, and geographic location.

Micromarketing refers to further segmentation of the market into smaller groups. This
technique increases advertising costs per person and also suffers from the same weaknesses
seen in the mass media model.

Markets can be divided based on three categories:

1. Geographic segmentation: potential customers are divided into groups based on

nation, state, city, or even neighborhood. Another alternative is by urban, suburban, or
rural consumers.
 2. Demographic segmentation: some web sites are devoted to women's issues,
teenagers, etc.
3. Psychographic segmentation: groups are segmented based on social class,
personality, or life style. This technique has grown significantly in the past years.

Companies match their advertising message to each segment targeted. They also build a sales
environment for their product or service to correspond to a particular segment. Fig. 4-3 shows
the relationship between television programs and the corresponding advertising methods:

Types of Television
Type of Advertising
Advertising
Children's cartoons Children's toys and Games
Daytime Dramas Household goods, pet foods
Late-night talk shows Snack foods, nonprescription drugs
Golf equipment, investment services,
Golf tournaments
insurance
Baseball and football
Snack foods, beer, autos
games
Documentary films Books CDs, educational videos

Fig. 4-3 Television advertising messages tailored to audiences

C. Market Segmentation on the Web: In Web design, companies use various techniques to
suit the demographics of their clients. For example, when targeting young, fashion-conscious
buyers, designers use a variety of typefaces, bold graphics, and brightly colored photos. As in
retail stores, Web retailers can "provide separate visual spaces for different market
segments".

D. Offering Customers a Choice on the Web: Dell's web site is an example where clients are
given a number of different ways to conduct business. The Home page has categories for
different groups and each customer is offered its own Web site with negotiated prices for
products they use. Even employees within a company can create their own page within the
company's Premier pages. This techniques is known as one-to-one marketing.