L4: Target Marketing Process

--- [0:00] Recap & Learning Outcomes --- Morning, everyone. Last class we built out the situation analysis — the analytical foundation of IMC strategy. We applied STP thinking to Goa monsoon tourism packages. Today we take STP much more deeply and systematically. The Target Marketing Process — how do you segment a market, how do you choose which segment to target, and how do you develop a complete marketing program for that target? And today's anchor case: a Goan feni brand. Now, feni is one of my favourite Goan examples in this course because it's a genuinely complex brand challenge. It's a traditional spirit, rooted in Goan culture, with strong local identity — but it's been largely unknown outside Goa for decades. The targeting and positioning decisions for feni are rich and interesting. Today's anchor idea: you cannot communicate effectively to everyone simultaneously. Targeting is the strategic choice to speak powerfully to the right few rather than weakly to everyone. --- [5:00] Core Concepts: Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning --- Let's build this systematically. The target marketing process has three steps: Segment, Target, Position. Segmentation is the process of dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who have different needs, characteristics, or behaviours and who might require separate products or marketing programs. The bases for segmentation include: Geographic: country, region, urban/rural, climate. A feni brand might segment geographically — Goan consumers, rest-of-India consumers, international consumers — each requiring different strategies. Demographic: age, gender, income, occupation, education. A feni brand targeting young urban professionals aged 28-40 with disposable income looks very different from one targeting traditional Goan households. Psychographic: lifestyle, values, personality. The craft spirits enthusiast who values authenticity and heritage is a psychographically distinct segment from the casual alcohol consumer. Behavioural: purchase occasion, usage rate, loyalty status, benefit sought. Consumers who drink feni at Goan cultural events versus those who drink it as a daily cultural practice versus those who discover it as tourists — all behave differently and require different communication. Good segmentation produces segments that are: Measurable, Accessible (you can reach them), Substantial (large enough to be worth targeting), Differentiable (they respond differently to different offers), and Actionable (you can design effective programs for them). Targeting is the process of evaluating each market segment's attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter. The key criteria: segment size and growth, structural attractiveness (competition, substitutes), and alignment with the company's objectives and resources. A small Goan feni producer with limited resources cannot afford to target the entire Indian spirits market. They must choose a segment where they have a realistic ability to compete and win. Positioning is designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market. The famous phrase: "Positioning is not what you do to a product. It is what you do to the mind of the prospect." Philip Kotler. --- [20:00] Deep Dive: Marketing Program for a Goan Feni Brand --- Let me build this out fully. Imagine a brand called Cazulo Feni — actually, Cazulo is a real craft feni producer in Cansaulim, South Goa, and they're a great example to work with. Cazulo produces single-estate cashew feni — made from cashew apples from their own estate, using traditional copper pot distillation. It's a craft product of genuine quality and heritage. Situation analysis for Cazulo: Strength — authentic, single-estate product with verifiable provenance. Beautiful estate setting for tourism and tasting experiences. Strong heritage story. Weakness — very low brand awareness outside Goa. Perceived as "rough local drink" rather than premium craft spirit by non-Goan consumers. Opportunity — global craft spirits boom. Premium Indian spirits gaining international attention (Old Monk, Royal Stag as predecessors; Paul John Whisky from Goa as an excellent comparable). GI tag for Goa feni creating legal protection and prestige. Threat — competition from imported spirits at similar price points. Changing tastes in younger demographics toward beer and wine. Segmentation: Cazulo could segment into four groups. One: Traditional Goan consumers — cultural users. Two: Domestic tourists visiting Goa — discovery consumers. Three: Urban Indian craft spirits enthusiasts — connoisseurs. Four: International craft spirits market — export consumers. Targeting: Given resources, Cazulo's most realistic and highest-value near-term segments are domestic tourists in Goa (large, accessible, willing to pay premium for authentic Goan experience) and urban Indian craft spirits enthusiasts (growing, influential, premium-paying, interested in authenticity and provenance stories). Positioning: "Cazulo Feni — Goa's original estate spirit. Made from our cashews, by our hands, for four generations." The positioning emphasises provenance, craft, heritage, and authenticity. It positions feni not as a local moonshine but as a Goan equivalent of a single-estate Scotch whisky. Marketing Program: Product: Beautiful premium packaging — dark glass, elegant label design reflecting Goan art heritage. Tasting notes and food pairing suggestions. Estate visit and tasting experience. Price: Premium pricing consistent with craft spirits positioning. A bottle of Cazulo at Rs 1500-2000 is not a bargain bottle — it's a premium craft product. Place: Estate direct sales and estate tourism. Premium bottle shops and bars in Goa. Selected premium liquor retailers in Mumbai and Bangalore. Online with delivery to states where permissible. Communication: Estate tours and tasting experiences — immersive, word-of-mouth generating. Instagram — stunning estate photography, harvest visuals, distillation process. PR through food and travel media — stories about the GI tag, the craft production, the heritage. Collaboration with top Goan and Mumbai bartenders to create feni cocktail menus. This is how STP generates a complete marketing program. And the communication that emerges from this program is highly specific — it's not a mass advertising blast. It's precision communication to precisely identified audiences. So let me ask you all: where have you encountered feni — or any local craft food or beverage — in your own locality? And how could the brand principles we've discussed be applied to other traditional Goan food products — like bebinca, or kokum, or Goan sausages? --- [35:00] Case / Field Connection --- The feni case connects to a broader trend that is very important in Indian marketing: the premiumisation of traditional and local products. What Cazulo is attempting with feni is exactly what several other Indian products have successfully done. Khadi, under the KVIC and with involvement of major fashion brands, has been successfully repositioned from a political symbol of self-reliance to a premium sustainable fashion material. Paul John Indian Single Malt Whisky — distilled in Goa — has won international awards and is sold in premium whisky markets globally. Darjeeling tea has used its GI tag to command global premium pricing. The common thread in all of these successful repositionings is the same thing we discussed for Cazulo: a clear target segment that values authenticity and provenance, a positioning built around genuine and verifiable craft heritage, and communication that tells the provenance story with pride rather than apologising for being local. This is not abstract — you see it in villages, markets, and businesses all across India. The local craftsperson who packages their product beautifully and tells their story compellingly does not have to compete on price with mass-produced alternatives. They create a different value proposition for a different, more valuable target segment. --- [45:00] Class Activity --- Activity. Choose any traditional Goan product — bebinca, Goan pickle, kokum, cashew sweets, handloom textiles, or any other. Work in groups of three. Apply the target marketing process. Define your segmentation approach, choose one primary target segment, develop a positioning statement, and sketch a high-level communication approach. Ten minutes. Then we'll hear pitches. Good work. The bebinca group — interesting segmentation. You've identified the gifting market as a key segment — premium packaging of traditional sweets as corporate gifting and festival gifting. The positioning: "Bebinca — Goa's most indulgent tradition, gifted with love." Smart. And the distribution — premium gift shops in airports, high-end supermarkets, online — creates natural premium positioning. The cashew group — you've targeted the health-conscious snack market with a Goan provenance story. The insight that Goan cashews have a distinct flavour profile and a verifiable origin story is a good segmentation differentiator from generic cashew brands. --- [55:00] MCQ Recap & Assignment Brief --- Today's anchor: targeting is the choice to speak powerfully to the right few. The Goan feni brand case showed how STP generates a complete marketing program — from positioning to product to price to communication. Assignment: select any local or regional Indian brand and apply the target marketing process in full — segmentation approach, chosen target segment with justification, and positioning statement. One to two pages. Due next class. Next lecture: Developing the Marketing Program — we move from strategic decisions to execution planning. How do you build a marketing program that delivers on the positioning promise? See you then.