Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

This section consists of three cases on segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) highlighting both conventional marketing and data-driven marketing practices undertaken by companies operating in Bangladesh. The first case is on the Mobile Financial Services (MFS) industry. This case focuses on how the industry creates a strategic fit between meeting the diverse customized needs of customers responsively and adapting to the segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies. It also highlights how customers’ regular needs (e.g., needs originating at changes in financial systems, regulations, technology, and economy) and emergency needs (e.g., needs that emerged from disruption like the COVID-19 pandemic) are catered by the adapted STP strategies of the MFS industry. The second case is on a bookstore and publishing house Baatighar that breaks the traditional way of selling and publishing books. In Bangladesh, purchasing books, other than from book fairs, unfortunately, was not a considerably different experience than purchasing groceries. Against such a background, Baatighar is the first bookstore in the country that offers book enthusiasts an opportunity to sit and read books inside the store. It positioned itself in the target market not only as a bookstore but also as a hub of Bengali art and culture for the connoisseurs by arranging different types of cultural events. The case highlights the success achieved by Baatighar and sheds light on the urgency of revising market segmentation, targeting, and positioning approaches of other bookstores so that the entire industry can offer a memorable book purchasing experience. The third case focuses on the STP strategies of Poter Bibi, a niche boutique-based clothing marketer. This case highlights how a niche marketer utilizes social media to (a) get relatively easy access in the competitive market, and (b) employ a data-driven personalized segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategy. This case also illustrates how Poter Bibi consistently broadened the scope of its target markets and successfully positioned itself in the new segments without sacrificing the core brand essence. A range of strategies that support Poter Bibi’s successful targeting and positioning are also highlighted in this case, such as, how the brand increases its user engagement, gains a better understanding of the customers through continuous real-time communication and feedback, reaches new customers through the networks of existing customers or word-of-web (WOW), and establishes its points of differences in the highly saturated market.