Practise market segmentation, target markets, positioning and position maps for IB Business Management HL marketing decisions.
Les Amis PLC (LA)
Les Amis PLC ( LA ) is a public limited company that sells casual clothes for men. Its target market is high-income professionals who value a personalized sales service. LA has developed brand awareness and operates 42 shops around the country. It owns 10 of these shops and leases the remaining 32 . LA employs 950 people, who receive a higher wage than the industry average. LA also pays commission to sales staff working in the shops. LA's organizational culture values the wellbeing and needs of its employees. Labour turnover is very low.
Recently, LA launched an online shop. Since then, online sales have increased considerably, while sales in LA's physical shops have fallen. Shareholders want LA to close all its physical shops and sell online only. However, many of the employees will be made redundant if the physical shops are closed.
LA's current chief executive officer (CEO), Marie Brossard, has a democratic leadership style, and she regularly meets with employees and encourages feedback. LA's managers and employee representatives have never had a conflict. Marie plans to discuss the shareholders' desire to close LA's physical shops with all the shop managers.
Customer returns of clothing orders at LA have increased substantially. Most returns are from online customers unfamiliar with LA's clothing sizes. Marie has consulted the e-commerce department on how to reduce the increasing cost of returns, and they have suggested investing in expensive software that will enable online customers to find their correct clothing size.
Define the term target market.
Target market refers to the group of potential customers with common needs or wants to whom a company wants to sell its products and services. The target market helps to define a company's marketing strategy, particularly promotion, to this target group
N.B. no application required. Do not credit examples.
Candidates are not expected to word their definition exactly as above.
Award [1] for a basic definition that conveys partial knowledge and understanding.
Award [2] for a full definition that conveys knowledge and understanding similar to the answer above. I.e. the group of customers that a company wants to sell to. The second mark could come from the specification that customers have common needs and wants or that it helps to define the business' marketing strategy such as promotion.