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Unread 11-12-2001, 01:20
Jessica Boucher Jessica Boucher is offline
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Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: May 2001
Rookie Year: 1999
Location: Jamaica Plain, MA
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Woah, people.....

How many times have we had this discussion? I think it may be time to look at the marketing of FIRST more generally. There really needs to be a better marketing mix: the right promotion that conveys the right product at the right price to the people who are right to buy it.

Another way to look at it is a strategy called STP marketing. That is: Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning.

Segmentation means looking at the market as a whole (as in, the entire USA, Canada, and other random countries) and breaking the market down into segments with similar attributes (wants, needs, buying power, buying attitudes and habits....you'll hear the term the "18-24 set", which is talking about the segment of ages from 18-24, who have similar buying habits, wants, etc.).

Next is Targeting. This is basically choosing a segment as your target market. The one rule of thumb here is to not choose two and then decide to squat between them. There's always time to go after another segment once the first segment is locked in to your liking. Thus, it would probably be best for team growth to go after educators, but if FIRST wanted to go in the way of growing knowledge of the competition (and thus get coverage), it may be better to target the teenage set, the students involved in the competion themselves.

Finally is Positioning. This is where you take the product (in this case, FIRST), and you design the offering and image so that they occupy a meaningful and distinct position in the target customer's minds. This is where you position to serve your market best. Who, really, is FIRST's target market and how can we, as an organization, position ourselves to become distinct in the market's minds, so confusion doesn't occur with other competitions?

I hope this helped, and I swear to you this isn't just me showing off what I learn at my silly business school (nor is it purely to help me study for my final on wednesday)....and Im guessing there are many more people who have taken numerous marketing courses....but I felt it was mostly a perspective that hadn't been mentioned - looking at the marketing of FIRST more generally and then moving to the specifics, instead of the other way 'round.

-Jessica B
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