Socioeconomic Status

Face it…everyone wants to be beautiful. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, man or woman, or where you come from. Everyone wants to look their best. Billions of dollars are spent annually on the pursuit of looking your best. Therefore, this is a great market to tap. There are plenty of opportunities to grow and make money in the beauty salon products market. Hair care is one segment of the vast beauty salon products market. Taking care of your hair can be an onerous task, and people all over the world are looking for ways to make hair care easier. This is why we have selected the hair dryer with a detangling feature and spa hair treatment function. This product will help people all over the world keep their hair shiny and clean.

When trying to market this product, one of our main considerations will be the market segmentation that we will try to reach. Because most everyone has hair, we will have to focus on different segments of the market…who will benefit most from this product? In this, we must study to determine exactly how the market is segmented. Let’s take a look at seven different ways the market can be segmented.

AGE

Age is a common market segment. People both young and old have hair and want it to look their best. However, elderly women tend to prefer traditional hair dryers that you sit underneath at their local salon. They may not have the ability to maneuver a blow dryer in the way it needs to be maneuvered in order to work properly. Extremely young people would also not have the ability to use the product as it is intended, although their parents could use them while fixing their hair. Our target age market will be those between 16 and 55.

GENDER

Gender is another common market segment to think about. Both men and women want to ensure that their hair looks the best possible, but one particular gender seems to need this type of hair care product more than the other. Women. Women typically have long hair, although there are exceptions – there are women with short hair and men with long hair, but for the most part women have long hair that they need to take care of. Our product would help with just that. For this reason, our target gender is women. We have now identified that our market is women between the ages of 16 and 55.

SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS

Socioeconomic status also is another way that the market can be segmented. The extremely wealthy employ professionals to take care of their hair, and thus have little use for one of our products. Quite frankly, they can afford the actual spa treatment so there’s no purpose in having a blow dryer with a spa treatment feature. Those in the middle class, who cannot afford to go to the salon except for once or twice per year, are within the focus of our targeted market segment.

ETHNICITY

Another common way that the market is segmented is through ethnicity. Face it – certain ethnicities can use products such as blow dryers whereas other ethnicities can not. Whether or not it is possible to use the blow dryer with the consistency of your hair, depends largely on your ethnicity. African American women do not typically use products such as blow dryers on their hair, as such products can be damaging to their delicate locks. Caucasian, Asian, and Latina women all have hair that could use the blow dryer we have proposed. For this purpose, we are targeting these women.

PROFESSION

What a woman does for a living could impact whether or not she’s in a market segment that we would target for this deluxe blow dryer. Women who are in positions where they are visible, whether that’s a professional role, an entertainment role, or a role as politician or journalist must have perfect or near perfect hair. These women would utilize a product such as ours in order to ensure that they look their best. The product is also easy to carry and can easily be thrown in a suitcase so that it can be used on the run. Women who are not in visible positions may not have as big a need for this product, although some blue collar women will still desire this product for use on their recreational time.

EDUCATION

Education is another market segment that would be explored. With a product like this, education is not of the foremost importance. Women of all walks of education – from the high school student all the way up to the post-doctorate college professor – need products such as this for their hair. We want to ensure that all levels of education feel comfortable with our product.

There are six different ways that the market can be segmented. You can look at age. More mature women aren’t as likely to use this product. You can look at gender…women are more likely to use a blow dryer with a spa feature and detangler more so than a man. The socioeconomic status of the individual will also play in to their decision to buy or not buy this type of product. The ultra rich will have little need for this product, whereas the middle class would be the main group of people that use the product. Ethnicity also comes in to play. While blow dryer’s don’t discriminate, certain ethnicities have hair that cannot be used with a blow dryer. A woman’s profession could also impact the market segment she falls in. Those who are visible may desire more products to keep their hair in the best possible condition. Education is a potential market segment, but we do not forsee education as a true segment for our product.

We have looked at six different marketing segments, and have determined which individuals from those segments that we are going to target. Now, we can plan accordingly and market our products to interested individuals.