INTERNET EXERCISES

Chapter 3 – Market Segmentation: Finding a Base to Start

Exercise 1 – Segmentation Analysis is the Basis for Marketing Planning
Exercise 2 – Small Businesses also Segment Markets

Exercise 1 – Segmentation Analysis is the Basis for Marketing Planning

Vignette: Canada’s other newspaper war is between its three Chinese-language dailies, which battle for the attention of almost half a million readers each week.

Featured URL: www.singtao.ca

Segmenting Markets Opens Up Business Opportunities
Canada’s three Chinese-language dailies, Sing Tao, Ming Pao Daily, and World Journal, have a combined readership of almost half a million people per week. Like their English-language counterparts, the National Post, The Globe and Mail, and in Toronto, the Star and the Sun, they fight for attention on the obvious battlegrounds: editorial stance, circulation methods, and advertiser appeal. Unlike their English-language counterparts, they are not trying to appeal to a large number of Canadians, just to a sizable and important ethnic group that, although not totally homogeneous, has a need for news not being met by the English-language press.

Activity

1. Go to the featured Web site for Sing Tao. Note that it is entirely in Chinese and that its links are primarily to Chinese-language newspapers in China. What does this indicate to you about who their Canadian readers are? To which Chinese-Canadians is Sing Tao not trying to appeal?
   

2. Sing Tao and the other Chinese-language dailies have segmented the newspaper market in Canada based on ethnic group. Which broad type of segmentation have they employed: geographic, demographic, psychographic, benefit, or product usage rate?
   

3. The text states that a market consists of people with the willingness, purchasing power, and authority to buy. The group of people that Canada’s three Chinese-language dailies, Sing Tao, Ming Pao Daily, and World Journal, are targeting is one segment of the total newspaper market in Canada, i.e. all of the people in Canada who are willing to buy newspapers, have the purchasing power to buy them, and have the authority to buy them. Who would not be included in the total newspaper market?
   

4. Summarize your answers to the above questions in the following chart:

Resources

On Chinese-language media and the history of Chinese-Canadians in Canada:

Ming Pao Daily
This site is written in entirely in Chinese but has a link to the Toronto Star

Hua Lin's Chinese Language Links
Provides a listing of links in English to a variety of Chinese resources such as online magazines, newspaper, literature, games and learning tools

A.C. Nielsen
A news release on recent findings by A.C. Nielsen that Chinese-Canadians are increasingly turning to Chinese-language media

CCNC (Chinese Canadian National Council)
A summary written in English of the history of Chinese-Canadians in Canada

Major Canadian companies serving the Chinese-Canadian market:

Bank of Montreal
A news article about BMO’s Chinese online banking service

Bell ExpressVu
A news release about adding a Mandarin television channel

Signature Vacations
Explains the partnership between Signature Vacations and Tour East Holidays to provide package tours primarily for Chinese-Canadians

Exercise 2 – Small Businesses also Segment Markets

Veterinarians are trained to care for sick animals. However, when they go into practice, they usually focus on treating certain kinds of animals or medical situations. North Shore Veterinary Services in Espanola, Ontario (www.capdvm.com/clinic.htm) specializes in treating family pets and undoubtedly refers people with large animals, like cows and horses, to other veterinary practices. The Animal Critical Care Group of Vancouver (www.accg.com) doesn’t treat all family pets, just cats and dogs, and only those that are critically ill. Aquaculture Veterinary Services (www.aanb.ca/mm_aqvet.html) doesn’t treat animals or deal in the consumer market at all. It provides “fish health services” to the aquaculture industry in New Brunswick and Maine. Each of these businesses has realized that it can’t satisfy everyone in the animal care market and has focused on meeting the needs of a particular market segment.

1. The Animal Critical Care Group of Vancouver segmented the animal care market by type of animal, and then by type of medical problem to arrive at its target segment: cats and dogs that are critically ill. How have North Shore Veterinary Services and Aquaculture Veterinary Services segmented the animal care market to arrive at their target segments?
   

2. Which broad type of segmentation has each of these businesses employed: geographic, demographic, psychographic, benefit, or product usage rate?

Back to Internet Exercises