BUS 320 Module 3 Segmentation and Positioning Example

Choosing Whom to Serve: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning for Juniper Row

Student Name

Business Administration Program, Aspen University

BUS 320: Principles of Marketing

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Choosing Whom to Serve: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning for Juniper Row

Juniper Row Coffee Roasters has tried to be everything to everyone: a neighborhood café, a supplier to restaurants, a subscription for home drinkers and a gift brand. With 24 employees and a marketing budget of about $36,000 a year, the composite Albuquerque roaster cannot serve every group well. Its research found that different customers hire its coffee for different jobs. This paper segments Juniper Row's market, evaluates the segments, chooses targets and writes a positioning statement.

Why Segment?

Smith (1956) described market segmentation as an alternative to competing through product differentiation alone. Rather than trying to bend demand toward one product, a company recognizes that the market is made of smaller groups with different wants and adjusts its offering to fit one or more of them. Segmentation lets a small company concentrate resources where it can serve customers better than larger rivals, instead of spreading them thinly across the whole market.

Bases for Segmentation

Consumer markets can be divided by geography, demographics, psychographics such as lifestyle and values, and behavior such as usage rate, occasion and benefits sought. Business markets can be divided by industry, size, purchasing approach and situational factors such as order size and urgency. Segments can also be framed around the job customers hire a product to do in a given circumstance, which often predicts buying better than demographics (Christensen et al., 2016). For Juniper Row, benefits sought and usage occasion proved most useful, because the survey showed that people in the same age and income bracket bought coffee for very different reasons.

Five Segments

Combining survey data, sales records and interviews, the marketing manager identified five segments: home espresso enthusiasts, busy remote workers who want reliable morning coffee, gift buyers, independent restaurants and small offices. Each was evaluated on size, growth, fit with Juniper Row's strengths and intensity of competition.

Choosing Targets

Juniper Row will pursue a focused strategy aimed at two consumer segments: home espresso enthusiasts and remote workers who want reliable morning coffee. The first rewards its greatest strength, roasting skill, and faces few specialized local competitors. The second is large and already the core of its subscription, and research showed it will stay if service fits its routine. Restaurants will be maintained as a steady wholesale base but not expanded, and small offices will not be pursued because they buy mainly on price. Gift sales will continue during the holidays without year-round marketing.

Positioning

Positioning is the place a brand holds in customers' minds relative to competitors. Ries and Trout (1981) argued that in crowded markets a brand succeeds by owning a simple, distinct idea in the prospect's mind rather than by claiming to be better at everything. National subscriptions compete on scale and variety; grocery brands on price and availability; other local roasters on neighborhood identity. Juniper Row can own a different idea: fresh coffee roasted for how you brew at home, with the help to brew it well.

The Positioning Statement

For home coffee drinkers in the Southwest who want café-quality results in their own kitchens, Juniper Row is the local roaster that roasts for the way you brew and helps you get it right, because every bag is roasted to order for your brewing method and comes with guidance from our roasters. It is built from four parts: whom it serves, the category it belongs to, what makes it different and the evidence that backs the claim.

Mapping the Competition

A simple perceptual map with two dimensions, help with brewing from low to high and freshness from low to high, places grocery brands low on both, national subscriptions high on freshness but low on help, and other local roasters moderate on both. The upper-right corner, high freshness and high help, is open. Juniper Row's positioning aims there.

Delivering the Position

Customers believe a position only when they experience it. Every bag will list the roast date and a brewing method, subscribers will choose their method when they sign up, and short brewing videos will be linked by a code on each bag. Café staff will be trained to ask customers how they brew at home. If these promises are not kept, the position will not hold.

Testing the Position

Before committing fully, Juniper Row will test the positioning with 200 subscribers and 200 prospective customers by showing them the statement and two alternatives and asking which is most appealing and believable. It will also track whether new subscribers choose a brewing method at sign-up and whether churn falls among those who use the brewing guides.

Wholesale as a Business Market

Restaurants and offices are business buyers, and they buy differently from households. Restaurants care about consistency across hundreds of cups, reliable delivery and staff training, and they often buy through relationships built over years. Offices tend to buy through a purchasing manager focused on price and convenience. Segmenting wholesale buyers by purchasing approach explains why restaurants fit Juniper Row and offices do not: its strengths in quality, training and personal service matter to restaurant owners but carry little weight in a price-driven office contract. Keeping the restaurant base steady also smooths roasting volume across the week, which helps the consumer business. Wholesale customers also introduce new drinkers to the brand, some of whom later buy bags or subscribe.

Conclusion

Segmenting Juniper Row's market by benefits sought and usage occasion revealed five groups with different needs. Evaluating them on size, growth, fit and competition pointed to home espresso enthusiasts and remote workers as targets. A position built on roasting for how customers brew, backed by guidance, gives the company a distinct place its larger rivals are not occupying.

References

Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Know your customers' "jobs to be done." Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 54-62.

Ries, A., & Trout, J. (1981). Positioning: The battle for your mind. McGraw-Hill.

Smith, W. R. (1956). Product differentiation and market segmentation as alternative marketing strategies. Journal of Marketing, 21(1), 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224295602100102