Product Target Market - Assignment Example

Four Seasons Travel is a tour company that offers tour packages to its Situated in a sub-urban area very near schools for primary, secondary, and university level students, Four Seasons chose to target teachers and students as its primary market. Four Seasons offers tour packages ranging from day tours, overnights, to multiple-days educational trips from three days to as long as seven days. Range of service included in any tour package would include preparing itinerary and destinations, booking appointments with places to be visited, ensuring logistics such as land/air/sea transportation, making reservations for accommodation and meals, and accomplishing paper works for the required travel documents.

Cost of tour package per student is largely determined by the number of days, meals/hotel services, specified destinations and activities to be accomplished, and degree of difficulty of coordination services necessary to execute the tour. As mentioned above, the primary target of Four Seasons is the student population within its geographic area. Since the student population is still a broad target market area, the company has further segmented the market based on grade/ year levels, i.e. primary grade, secondary grade, and university students.

The segmentation is based on the different and varying needs of each market segment. It has determined the segmentation using demographic influences (age, education), lifestyle influences (activities, interests), and usage behaviors (time of use, social). The tour packages are being positioned as affordable, no-frills, educational tours. They are marketed as value-for-money tour packages with activities necessary to supplement classroom learning and life experience. Students will always want to maximize the value of their money spent on extra-curricular activities organized by their schools, such as field trips, summer camps, cultural exploration, etc.

They always specify tours with no unnecessary expenses such as fancy meals, t-shirt souvenirs, or unwanted visits to certain destinations. Hence, tour packages being offered are tailored to their needs, which are quite different to the needs of other market segments, such as retirees or leisure groups seeking fancy experience. Students are price-sensitive, and they want tours that are “affordable” at the same time high-quality educational experience. Four Seasons tour packages are developed and offered to its clients on a comparatively lower price compared to that of its competitors.

However, price is not the only determinant of service differentiation. Maintaining and projecting high-value tours that offer unique features are among the differentiation strategies being employed by the company. References The Market Segmentation Company. 2012. Market Segmentation. [Online] Available at: http://www.marketsegmentation.co.uk/segmentation_tmsc.htm [Accessed on 08 April 2012] Walsh, M. 2011. The Three Elements of Product Differentiation. [Online] Available at: http://business-growth.

com/2008/07/25/the-three-elements-of-product-differentiation/ [Accessed on 08 April 2012]