The Advantages of Market Segmentation and Its Wide Application from Business to Economics

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Market segmentation is a process of breaking down the market to find the place where it is best to focus a businesses efforts to create the highest ROI on marketing dollars. Whether one is engaged in promoting their business, tourism to a specific area, working on a political campaign, or trying to share an idea there will be some that will be more receptive to new ideas and some that won't. Finding out which segment of the market is most likely to respond to a particular marketing piece is going to return the most value for the effort.  

Dr. Mark Camilleri in his work entitled, 'Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. In Travel Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product' provides some insight into different market segmentation strategies that include demographic segmentation, geographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, behavioral segmentation and product related segmentation. The piece provides a solid overview within a short paper on the different ways of promoting reaching intended markets. 

As an example, I have been exploring ways to develop the small town of Escanaba Michigan into an innovative cluster by hedging start-ups, outdoor tourism, existing small batch manufacturing, shipping, government spending, a growing digital nomad trend to bolster the local economy and make it more resilient to environmental changes (No idea if that will actually happen but its fun to sort of think about. It takes a lot of hands to make transformational change. Advice on Change)

One of things I could do is go through each of the different segmentation strategies listed above and further define the economic cluster elements (cluster means certain businesses and activities that enhance each other to create greater value than the individual parts) to determine who would be most likely to invest and/or relocate to fill that need. Once that has happens one could find the similarities among them to create a brand and marketing mix (products, prices, channels, and promotional tactics) that can be used to strengthen the cluster/economy.

What we should learn is that marketing principles aren't just for businesses alone but can also be used in politics, economic development, and general awareness. It is a process of researching and understanding different aspects of the market to ensure that the message reaches the intended audience that is most likely to respond. It provides insight into the specific channels the target market uses and the manner in which they want to understand it. Using further psychological principles of cognitive engagement we are able cater the messages to grab the attention of and encourage an active response.

Camilleri, M. A. (2018). Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. In Travel Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product (Chapter 4, pp. 69-83). Springer, Cham, Switzerland.

(PDF) Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319085560_Market_Segmentation_Targeting_and_Positioning [accessed Mar 01 2022].

Mentoring: Is there Value to Developing Promising Talent in Society?

Mentoring is an important part of grooming and developing people within the workplace. As we continue to develop our human talent to create innovation that encourages our nation to adapt we might also consider some of the benefits of workplace mentoring. Mentoring provides opportunities for executives to take promising candidates and develop them to higher states of performance. Mentoring moves beyond "feel good" practices and helps connect a new generation of leaders to the values and wisdom of senior scholars, civil leaders, military masters, and business gurus.

The Value of Mentoring:

I came across this really great article that has an overview of some mentoring statistics by Nicola Cronin entitled, 'The Importance of Mentoring in the Workplace'. It discusses how mentoring is an important part of many Fortune 500 companies and leads to increased retention, more opportunities, and value to organizations (55% feel that mentoring is profitable. Its not a big number but there are lots of other positive stats that aren't likely easy to measure that would likely put if into a solid 60%+ benefit. Thus, overall its beneficial for organizations.).  

The Skills Needed Mentoring:

Dr. Linda Phillips-Jones discusses the skills needed in mentoring relationships of which listening, building trust, and encouraging are of the top three. You can read more about that in, "Skills of Successful Mentoring: Competencies of Outstanding Mentors and Mentees' Mentoring is a relationship building exercise where promising recruits have someone to connect with and encourage them to think through all of the options before making decisions. Giving advice and developing relationships truly connects people to their organizations and their missions. 

Good or Bad for Your Organization?

It depends on how you use it. If we think in terms of retention, connecting generations, transferring knowledge, innovation, diversity and developing human talent we can see that benefits might move beyond current statistics and into a broader based impact. Considering we need new leaders that come from many different backgrounds I would say mentoring, especially mentoring people different than yourself, leads to new ideas reaching the right people and practical knowledge that rounds out youthful enthusiasm for organizational improvement. A strong program is worth its weight in gold while a poor program will not experience full benefits for the organization or the people involved. The numbers appear to be justifiable but the long term benefits might not be easy to calculate.

Cronin, N. (2022)The Importance of Mentoring in the Workplace. GGuider. Retrieved 02-28-2022 from https://www.guider-ai.com/blog/why-everyone-needs-mentoring-in-the-workplace...

 Phillips-Jones, L. (2003) Skills of Successful Mentoring: Competencies of Outstanding Mentors and Mentees CCC/The Mentoring Group. Retrieved 02-28-22 chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html...

IPCC Sixth Assessment Report & Wisconsin's Changing Climate: Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Climate change is becoming an important consideration for governments, businesses and people. The Digital Era/Information Age will see less pollution but that will require additional investments in green technology and science. As people move online to work and companies reduce their carbon foot prints by shortening supply chains and improving on communications they will begin to find solutions. Its not a hopeless situation as we will likely also find ways to reduce global warming with new ideas and greener ideas. That requires a new way of thinking. 

IPCC Sixth Assessment Report which is an intergovernmental panel to research climate change released a 2022 report entitled IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability that outlines some serious environmental changes. The report indicates we are going to experience some increasingly serious climate problems. The United States is poised to be hit with some of those changes as well. There will be impacts on climate,  ecosystems  and  biodiversity. Our ecosystem is fragile so increasing heat will also mean heat related deaths and starvation. 

The Upper Peninsula is connected to Wisconsin. We are integrally part of their economy. Thus, what happens in Wisconsin in terms of climate change will likely impact Escanaba. This is also one reason why I support Delta County as an outdoor recreation, innovative start up, and digital nomads land to better capitalize on economic and environmental changes (See ROI Pure MI.). 2021 Assessment Report: Wisconsin’s Changing Climate

-More snow

-More rain

-More heat

-More erosion. 

-Protect lands

(Side note: I'm a Republican, at least "Old Guard" Republican, and one of my beliefs is to be good stewards of our lands and environment. Whether or not people believe in climate change or not there are things we should be doing to protect our environment. To me, when we make small changes they add up to really big outcomes. While I'm often wrong about many things I'm also right about many things. I think and vote my conscious and don't let others tell me what to believe no matter the political pressure.....but I'm always open to understanding and that leads to critical thinking; not that I'm the best at it! Be humble enough to know you don't know much and be willing to listen more than talk. Sharing ideas is part of critical thinking as long as those ideas are well thought out and based in evidence and solid logic. Could I be wrong...yep....but chances are good stewardship is good for everyone.)

IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. In Press.

2021 Assessment Report: Wisconsin’s Changing Climate. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved 02-28-22. https://wicci.wisc.edu/2021-assessment-report/

EU Comes Out to Support Ukraine: Weapons, SWFT and Sanctions

Western nations and others across the globe are coming out to support Ukraine. Its an interesting situation as Ukraine is seen as a buffer to Europe. A defeat for Russia here would be devastating to any other plans they may have. Likely why some troops are put under nuclear emergency (Let us hope they don't use such a system. It would forever change a sense of safety and security of nations for generations.). Such a situation would also likely impact world perception and completely change developmental trajectories of nations in terms of technology and treaties. 

A couple of things from the speech.......

-EU for the first time ever will finance purchase and deliver weapons to Ukraine. 

-More sanctions: No Russian plans in EU, ban Kremlin media, target Lukashenko Regime, Russian banks removed from SWFT system, sanctioning large Russian banks.

(Side Note: A misinformation campaign is something we experienced prior to the last presidential elections in the U.S. and is partly responsible for encouraging hyper politics. In response, a number of high technology companies have started to target and remove such false information from US social media sites. Cyber attacks, physically overwhelming forces, and misinformation seem to be part of a coordinated strategy against Ukraine but also look like tools used in other places. Perhaps if we can figure out where the "energy strikes" are coming from we might be able to put together a basic sketch of a current running model.. I don't think anyone knows yet....but time of reveals things in its due course. Its also possible someone might discover such discrepancies in hindsight review/research. It would make sense from a strategic sense why they would use these softening approaches.) 

Good Morning America from the Upper Peninsula

 Good morning. Make the best of it!

Trenary MI. Outhouse Races 2022

Some people watch races for sports cars, others sail boats, and yet still others thoroughbred horses. Those are all conventional snoozers when compared to the outhouse races in Trenary, MI (See Map). Streaking toilet paper down the track these elite Yooper athletes are some of the best outhouse racers in the world! Bound to be a future Olympic sport! (I'm not sure it will really catch on.) Its fun for locals and there are a few people who have traveled to see it....and it seems to grow from year to year.

 

Germany Decides to Send Weapons to Ukraine in Paramount Foreign Policy Shift

After years of post WWII policies to keep Germany out of conflict it has now shifted that policy to send weapons to Ukraine. German 1,000 anti-tank weapons, 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles and 10K ton fuel come on top of the $350 million U.S. aid package. The situation is such that Western countries have to consider their own long-term security and thus have decided to act with support. Russia was also repelled from Kyiv temporarily but we will need see what happens over the next few days. It looks as though Russia can't afford to get bogged down for financial and public image reasons. Slowing Russia down quickly and repelling their advances in the early stages of the conflict will likely raise the cost of the conflict politically and financially. (I suspect they wanted to complete the mission within a week and are now worried about a longer draw out situation that would reflect increasingly negative in the world's view. )