Digital Marketing and Target

Mobile Manufacturing, Inc. "This new product has to be right. If we can't gain back a significant share of the mobile phone market with this product, MM is not going to be here next year." With Mobile Manufacturing's back to the wall, so to speak, the company needs a bold marketing plan that will capture every bit of value that is possible in the market. This includes not only the traditional value, but also the perceived consumer value that is associated with their new product.

However, to launch a marketing plan for the target market, the realization needs to be made that there are several different market segments that could potentially be targets for the company. Therefore, to really get the most impact out of the product launch, each different segment will need to be considered independently and a comprehensive plan must be designed to hit each individual target that is identified.

The first segment has already been identified as the early adopters, or those who "were happy to try out the latest and greatest products" as the case describes them, and they will be the most eager to purchase any new technology product that has some cutting-edge features.

Some models have broken down the technology market into five different segments of adoption that include innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and then the laggards; the innovators are defined as (On Digital Marketing, N.d.): "Innovators are the first individuals to adopt an innovation. Innovators are willing to take risks, youngest in age, have the highest social class, have great financial lucidity, very social and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators. Risk tolerance has them adopting technologies which may ultimately fail.

Financial resources help absorb these failures. (Rogers 1962 5th ed, p. 282)" The first two, or possibly three, categories of technology adopters will be MM's targets given their market stance and the strategy of using innovation to capture market share. However, these three segments can be marketed to separately and at different price points.

For example, a limited round of phones can be released at the highest market price possible to the innovators, then a discounted "market rate" can be utilized for the early adopters, and finally and even more substantial reduction in price can be offered to the early majority. To properly segment these targets the distribution channels are also entirely relevant. In some cases, the distribution strategy will be even more important than the pricing strategies.

One of the biggest trends that has revolutionized the market in terms of distribution is the role that ecommerce has had in the last five years and in 2013 failing to build this infrastructure among both small and large distributors was predicted to be the biggest risk to all distributors in 2013 (Konzak, 2012). By 2016, statistics have reported that most shoppers, about 71%, shop online because they want to get a better deal, and nearly 80% of the entire U.S. population has made an online purchase; 50% of them have made more than one (Lazar, 2016).

Within such a sample it is reasonable to suspect that the innovators market segment would be totally comfortable with making online purchases and would most likely favor this platform. The distribution channel could also be used in conjunction to the pricing strategy. For example, the first round of phone sales could target the innovators, which represent slightly over two percent of the target market, through ecommerce direct sales. The promotional activities could utilize tools such as social.