Introduction
One of the reasons why Groupon remains on top of the e-commerce marketing industry is precisely done market segmentation. To target its audience, the company chose several areas of focus, segmenting the consumer groups according to geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral factors (Armstrong and Kotler, p. 171). In terms of demographics, the most popular consumer groups may be young adults who are employed, well-educated, and have a middle income. While Groupon might target European countries, its primary audience resides in North America. The business may also consider rich and poor neighborhoods, as well as different population densities in the city, suburbs, and rural areas when segmenting for geographic factors. Since the most targeted consumer group in demographics is young adults, in the psychographic segmentation, Groupon may be interested in promoting their services to current university students and graduates with outgoing personalities who like going out, exercising, and traveling. For the behavioral variables, the business might focus on potential and regular users of the product with a medium to the heavy usage rate.
Main body
Based on the brief market segmentation provided above, one market that Groupon may expand to is full-time university students with young children. Thousands of mothers, currently enrolled in their studies, have to choose between spending a significant amount of money for babysitting or skipping classes to take care of their children. To step into the market, Groupon may introduce discounts for daycare services on the territory of the university, if available, or negotiate the discount under cooperation with local daycare systems.
This consumer group has the potential to bring revenues to the company, fulfilling the requirements of M.A.S.D.A. First, according to “Single Mothers in College,” there are around 2 million single parents in undergraduate school (1), which provides a measurable segment to target. Second, with Groupon already targeting college students and mothers separately, the company has access to sell services to single-parent university students. Third, the business would make a substantial profit, generating income from their investment, since single parents have to spend money on childcare services regularly. Additionally, this consumer group constitutes a differentiable segment. Though it might overlap with single-parent mothers, who do not currently study in universities, when promoting discounts in local daycare services, childcare on the college territory is available to enrolled students only. Finally, this segment is actionable, since Groupon has sufficient knowledge and resources to negotiate on the daycare discounts for single parent undergraduate students.
Works Cited
- Armstrong, Gary, and Philip Kotler. Customer Value-Driven Marketing Strategy. Marketing: An Introduction. 13th ed., Prentice Hall, 2017.
- “Single Mothers in College: Growing Enrollment, Financial Challenges, and the Benefits of Attainment.” Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2017.