Vitamins Segmentation free essay sample

Market segmentation is an integral part of a company’s marketing strategy. It is the process of breaking down a larger market into smaller and more homogeneous groups of customers to define their needs and wants more precisely. Characteristics of individuals, groups, or organizations are the variables used to divide total market into segments. Consumer markets can be segmented based on the following customer characteristics: geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. Vitamins, like other complex consumer products with expansive varieties, need to be segmented using multiple variables. There are many different consumers in this market buying vitamins to fill many various needs. Since consumers often possess largely diverse demographic and psychographic profiles, no single product can effectively target and serve the entire vitamin market. Using demographic segmentation, mostly age, gender, and family life cycle, enables marketers to identify groups of customer with similar needs. Vitamin manufacturers offer their products to different age groups from infants to seniors. We will write a custom essay sample on Vitamins Segmentation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Multivitamins for children are packaged in colorful plastic bottles and feature famous characters, such as the Flintstones from Bayer or NatureSmart’s Disney Cars for boys and Princess for girls. Store brands like Walgreens’ own Children’s Multivitamin follows this trend but is priced more affordably. As we grow our vitamin intake alters. Individuals in their twenties need different vitamins than they do after turning fifty. Manufacturers target those age groups with various combinations of vitamins. They also segment them by gender offering different vitamins for males and females. Centrum’s Under 50 and Silver Men’s and Women’s are good examples of using multisegment targeting strategy. One-a-Day Women’s Petite (Bayer) is unique among competitors in which the manufacturer reduced the size of the pills to make it easier to swallow. Family life cycle is another demographic base manufacturers use to further segment their target market. Centrum’s Parental and NatureMades’s Multi Parental vitamins targets pregnant women, while Postnatal vitamin is made to take during nursing. Psychographic and benefit segmentation helps to analyze the characteristics and buying behavior of the group. Health conscious individuals presumably living a healthy lifestyle and motivated to invest in their health. Bone and joint, heart, brain, eye, and digestive system health supporter vitamins are some of the many categories consumers with health concerns can choose from. They seek benefits the product can provide for them. The many different types of vitamins with various combinations of ingredients are aimed at consumers looking for different benefits. For instance, some want beautiful hair, skin and nail while other want to strengthen their immune systems. The vitamin market is enormous and complex. Different manufacturers seem to use somewhat similar segmentations which makes extremely difficult to get through of the labyrinth of the vitamins. Mainstream names are using more sophisticated packaging to aim at consumers and entice them to buy their product. Store brands are less showy and may have a smaller variety, however, overall their products are less expensive and just as good as the competitors’.