Market Segmentation in European Markets

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,3, University of Applied Sciences Berlin, course: International Management, language: English, abstract: Marketing is onmipresent. The contemporary human being is permanently confronted with marketing in all its expressions. Today's consumers are persistently faced with a downright overflow of advertisement, sales promotion, commercials in all media channels, real and virtual, with conscious and unconscious stimuli. However, the ability of every targeted customer to perceive information is very limited. But even a smaller percentage of advertising messages can be recognized and considered as being relevant. Therefore consumers often feel harassed by the quantity and quality of advertising and react protective, especially when they don't belong to the target group of the advertised product or service. Budget waste and damage to the brand image can be a disastrous result. But what does really make a customer a buyer? What are the trigger factors that motivate the customer to shop and convince him to purchase a product again and again? This is a question every single company in every single industry on today's globalised market is confronted with. And the answer seems to be so simple: the right marketing strategy together with its proper implementation lead a business to success and market shares to growth. One of the most important tools of strategic marketing is market segmentation. In this Term Paper I would like to emphasize the significant relevance of market segmentation in the European and global markets. At the beginning the position of market segmentation within the strategic management is determined. As the environment in which marketing occurs is crucial it is amplified in the following chapter. Further on market segmentation is defined and set into the historical and modern frame of strategic management and marketing. Finally, functionality, the common failures and problems in the use of that strategic instrument are particularized and possible solutions are offered