Household Life Cycle Stages That Disney May Want to Consider
Nowadays, Disney is one of the leaders in providing entertainment for different consumer groups such as families, youngsters, children, and young adults. Nonetheless, the concepts of the household life cycle tend to modify due to the changes in consumer preferences (Du & Kamakura, 2006). Consequently, the primary goal of the paper is to describe three stages that Disney should consider in the future.
The first option that Disney should continue focusing on is a large family with children under 15 years old, as these families have enough savings, targeted audience (children), and the need for entertainment (Du & Kamakura, 2006). Disney is one of the most popular locations for this audience, so focusing on it will boost the company’s revenues. Another cycle that has to be considered is a small family with children over 15 years old. The primary reason for that is the fact that many attractions in theme parks are targeted at the older audience.
The representatives of this family life cycle have enough savings and time for recreational activities, and a combination of these factors make them a favorable target market in the future (Du & Kamakura, 2006). In this case, targeting this consumer group will help generate additional revenues and positive emotions simultaneously. Lastly, apart from having no children and savings, single or married individuals at the age of 22-30 could also be considered, as a future target audience. The study indicates that this group spends money on traveling, and they are flexible with their vacation times (Du & Kamakura, 2006). Consequently, Disney has to consider them as potential customers who can also have a pleasant experience and bring their children to Disney parks in the future.
Target Corporation’s Customer Information
External sources from Target to augment its customer information and enhance analytical capability
In the modern world, companies like Target should continue gathering information about their customers from external sources for successful augmentation of the market (Oberhofer, Hechler, Milman, Schumacher, & Wolfson, 2014). In this case, the enterprises can collect information about the clients with the help of the statistical reports (demographics) and annual reports of the competitors to gain more insights. Alternatively, Target can learn more about the preferences and needs of the customers with the help of social media (Oberhofer et al., 2014). Using social media marketing and brand community groups online can help monitor the ways that the customers use to interact with the company (consumer behavior). Additionally, Target can collect various qualitative (needs, preferences, and behavior) and quantitative information (age, gender, and visits) with the help of surveys and questionnaires.
Issues for companies implementing market research
One of the major issues is the fact that information provided online may not represent the real behavioral patterns of an individual. Alternatively, data can be misinterpreted, as personal bias may take place. A combination of these factors will lead to designing the marketing campaigns that may not be effective. Apart from these disadvantages, companies should consider the benefits of social media. In this case, the information in the social networks can provide additional details about the target audience with the help of likes and comments, and these findings can be used to develop social media marketing campaigns, engage customers in the decision-making process, and design products that comply with their needs and preferences.
“Dark sides” of big data and business analytics
It seems that collecting information from internal and external sources is easy to accomplish. Nonetheless, the company has to pay vehement attention to the fact that its actions do not violate the freedoms and privacy of the clients (Oberhofer et al., 2014). In this case, Target has to ensure that its actions comply with the current legislation. Being insensitive to the complaints of the offended customers will hurt the brand image of the company and may lead to lawsuits. Overall, these violations will harm the company’s brand image and financial stability.
References
Du, R., & Kamakura, W. (2006). Household lifecycles and lifestyle in the United States. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(1), 121-132.
Oberhofer, M., Hechler, E., Milman, I., Schumacher, S., & Wolfson, D. (2014). Beyond big data: Using social MDM to drive deep customer insight. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.