McCarthy, a famous marketing scholar, suggested that consumers should be regarded as a specific group, called the target market. Through market segmentation, it is helpful to define the target market, and through the application of marketing strategy, it is helpful to meet the needs of the target market. That is to say, the target market is one or several sub-markets that enterprises are prepared to meet their needs with corresponding products and services after market segmentation.

The strategy of choosing the target market

Choosing the target market and making clear what kind of users the enterprise should serve and meet their needs are important strategies for enterprises in marketing activities.

Why choose the target market? Because not all market segments are attractive to this enterprise, no enterprise has enough human resources and funds to meet the whole market or pursue excessive goals. Only by fostering strengths and avoiding weaknesses and finding a target market that is conducive to giving full play to its existing advantages in manpower, financial resources and material resources will it not stumble in the huge market. For example, Taiyuan Rubber Factory is a medium-sized enterprise with more than 0/.800 employees, mainly producing automobile and tractor tires. A few years ago, we were in trouble because the products were difficult to sell. Later, after market segmentation, according to the advantages of enterprises, the top ten transportation companies in the province were selected as the target market to produce large-tonnage truck tires suitable for Shanxi coal transportation, which opened up the market. With the strengthening of enterprise strength, they chose the agricultural tractor factory as the target market. 1992 established "Shuangxi Tire Co., Ltd." with Hong Kong Zhongce Investment Co., Ltd.. 1993, the company knocked on the door of faw to provide it with high-tonnage tires under the condition that the tires were generally unsalable throughout the country. Choosing the right target market is one of the effective strategies for Taiyuan Rubber Factory to enter the top 500 enterprises in China. The following three strategies are generally used to select the target market.

Indifferent market strategy Indifferent market strategy means that enterprises regard the whole market as their target market, only consider the * * * of market demand, regardless of its differences, and attract as many consumers as possible with one product, one price and one promotion method. Since the establishment of 1886, the Coca-Cola Company of the United States has been adopting an undifferentiated market strategy, producing products with one flavor, one formula and one package, which meet the needs of 156 countries and regions around the world, and is called "world-wide cool beverage" with assets of 7.4 billion US dollars. Due to the competition between Pepsi and other beverages, Coca-Cola Company announced its decision to change the formula in April, 1985. Unexpectedly, the American market was in an uproar, and many phone calls were made to the company, expressing dissatisfaction and opposition to the company's change of the formula of Coca-Cola, and it had to continue mass production of Coca-Cola with the traditional formula. It can be seen that under the undifferentiated market strategy, products must have a unique style in internal quality and external form in order to be recognized by most consumers and thus maintain relative stability.

The advantages of this strategy are single product, easy quality assurance, mass production and low production and sales costs. However, if similar enterprises adopt this strategy, it will inevitably form fierce competition. The world-famous KFC fried chicken has more than 800 branches all over the world, all of which have the same cooking methods, the same production procedures, the same quality indicators, the same service level, and the indiscriminate strategy is adopted, and the production is very prosperous. 1992, shortly after the opening of Shanghai KFC, Shanghai Ronghua Chicken Fast Food Restaurant opened and opened a branch opposite KFC, forming a "cockfighting" scene. Because Ronghua Chicken has replaced the bread used by foreigners with fried rice with eggs, and the western-style potatoes have been replaced with hot and sour vegetables and zucchini strips, which are more popular among China consumers. Therefore, in the face of strong competitors, indifference strategy also has its limitations.

Differentiated market strategy Differentiated market strategy is to divide the whole market into several sub-markets, design different products for different sub-markets and formulate different marketing strategies to meet different consumer needs. For example, some clothing enterprises in the United States divide women into three types according to their lifestyles: fashion type, masculine type and simple type. Fashion women like to dress up luxuriously and attract attention; Masculine women like to dress up and stand out from the crowd; Simple women pay attention to economic benefits and moderate prices when buying clothes. According to the different preferences of different types of women, the company designed different styles of clothing to make the products more attractive to all kinds of consumers. Another example is a bicycle enterprise, which is subdivided into several sub-markets according to geographical location, age and gender: rural market, which requires durability and heavy load; Urban young men demand speed and good style; Young urban women demand lightness, beauty and elegance. According to the characteristics of each sub-market, make different marketing mix strategies. The advantage of this strategy is that it can meet the different requirements of different consumers, which is conducive to expanding sales, occupying the market and improving the reputation of enterprises. Its disadvantage is that due to the differentiation of products and promotion methods, it increases the difficulty of management and the cost of production and sales. At present, only powerful big companies adopt this strategy. For example, Qingdao Double Star Group Co., Ltd. produces many kinds, styles and models of shoes to meet the various needs of domestic and foreign markets.

Centralized market strategy Centralized market strategy is to select two or several market segments as target markets and implement specialized production and sales. Give play to the advantages of a few markets and increase market share. Enterprises that adopt this strategy have a deep understanding of the target market, which is the strategy that most small and medium-sized enterprises should adopt. At first, Nisic was a small factory that produced many kinds of rubber products, such as raincoats, diapers, swimming caps and sanitary belts. It faces bankruptcy due to insufficient orders. By chance, Tomokawa, the general manager, found from a census table that about 2.5 million babies are born in Japan every year. If each baby uses two diapers, it needs 5 million diapers a year. Therefore, they decided to give up products other than diapers and implement specialized production of diapers. It became an instant hit and constantly developed new materials and varieties, which not only monopolized the Japanese diaper market, but also exported to more than 70 countries and regions around the world, becoming a world-renowned "diaper king".

Adopting centralized market strategy can concentrate superior strength, help products to be marketable, reduce costs and improve the visibility of enterprises and products. However, due to its small target market and single variety, it has great business risks. If the needs and hobbies of consumers in the target market change, enterprises may get into trouble because they can't respond in time. At the same time, when powerful competitors enter the target market, enterprises will be seriously affected. Therefore, in order to spread risks, many small and medium-sized enterprises should choose a certain number of market segments as their target markets.

The three target market strategies have their own advantages and disadvantages. When choosing the target market, we must consider various factors and conditions faced by enterprises, such as enterprise scale and raw material supply, product similarity, market similarity, product life cycle, competitive target market and so on.

It is a complicated and changeable job to choose the target market strategy suitable for this enterprise. The internal conditions and external environment of enterprises are constantly developing and changing. Operators should constantly grasp and analyze the changing trend of the market and competitors' situation through market investigation and forecast, develop their strengths and avoid weaknesses, give full play to their advantages, seize opportunities, and adopt flexible strategies to adapt to the market situation in order to strive for greater benefits.