Positive Advertising Experience in a Targeted Market Segment: Similar to my Lady GaGa “Something about my cool Pittsburgh guy….” example, describe a time when an advertising campaign did a compelling job appealing to you as a member of a targeted market segment.
Fabletics is an athletic wear company that is very well known for its leggings. I own about five pairs of these leggings mostly due to their advertisements. Almost daily I see Fabletics advertisements on Pinterest. They focus on their comfortable waistband and quality materials in these ads. Their targeted market segment is teenage girls and women in their 20’s because those are the people that generally wear authentic wear. Their bright colored clothes and advertisements have definitely been the reason I have purchased so many pairs from them.
Negative Advertising Experience in a Targeted Market Segment: Similar to the creeped-out reaction I am having to the LenCrafters’ office sending me a fake optometry appointment notice for August 6, 2019 (which is actually an attempt to target me as a returning customer segment of the LensCrafters in Ross Park Mall), describe a time when an advertising campaign really missed the mark while trying to appeal to you as a member of a targeted market segment.
I remember a few years back Gold’s Gym released an ad that had a picture of a pear and said “This is no shape for a girl”. While this was targeted towards women in an effort to get them to sign up for the gym, the majority of people found this extremely rude and incorrect to say. Being a woman, I agree that this advertisement was a horrible idea and that the marketing team severely missed the mark.
Other Examples Like This?: Based on our review of market segmentation and your examples of positive and negative experiences in target market campaigns, how will you approach market segmentation in your future professional roles?
Based on today’s class and my previous two examples, I think I would lean more towards using the general market approach. This applies to a wide range of social identities and doesn’t single one identity out. However, depending on the specific case of what I was trying to achieve, targeted marketing could be an ideal solution. If the product I am trying to sell will most likely only be bought by a specific identity, then I would focus on marketing towards that group.