Marketing strategy for water conservation in Australia. The dynamic age structure of the Australian population strongly affects the marketers strategies regarding that people in different age groups vary in daily water usage.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

In the contemporary Australia, shortage of water has confronted not only the local governments, but also people from different groups and associations. Australia is the world’s driest continent with high evaporation rate. If no effective and sustainable actions are taken, Australian residents may not have sufficient water for their daily usage in 20 years (Melbourne Water 2007). From the marketing point of view, segmentation is a tool which allows marketers to design and apply different marketing mixes in order to achieve the most desirable outcomes with limited resources. In this project, four segments arise including people aged 45-64, international students and immigrants, high-income earners and children. And various marketing strategies are developed for two of those segments.

Age group from 45-64

The dynamic age structure of the Australian population strongly affects the marketers’ strategies regarding that people in different age groups vary in daily water usage. And, it appears to be worthwhile to pay attention to how people in different age groups influence their family members’ perception of water conservation.

Australia experienced a dramatic increase in birth rate after the World War II (Baby boom) between 1946 and 1964. This “bulge” in the age distribution constitutes the early to late middle age in Australian population and people in that age group account for 39.3% of the entire population (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006). In their families, they are typical bread-winners who make purchasing decisions about purchasing services and products such as water saving devices and water bills. Besides, Women who are not employed are full-time housewives doing housework including irrigating plants and washing clothes. What’s more, they exert significant influence on the beliefs of their family members. As baby boomers have walked into the child-bearing age, their behaviours and beliefs do, in a certain degree, shape the attitudes of their children towards this issue. Therefore, targeting these people who dominate the Australian population and act as initiators, influencers, deciders as well as buyers in the buying process gives great value to strategies regarding water conservation.

International students and New immigrants

According to AEI Market Indicator Data, in August 2006, there were 344,815 international student enrolments onshore in Australia whereas 134,759 are in New South Wales (IDP Education Pty Ltd 2006). The majority of these students choose to rent houses, apartments and stay in home stay families. In the Sydney rental market, a large number of contracts only require tenants to pay the rent. In many cases, some utility bills including water usage are excluded, namely, it is the landlords’ responsibility to pay those bills. Therefore, international students who rent houses would not have considered much about daily water consumption. Thus, the motivation of saving water may not exist in their minds. Apart from that, International students and immigrants that come from many different countries grow up in social and cultural backgrounds which may be completely different from Australian. As a result, some of these overseas comers probably do not realise the importance of saving water and how scarce water resource is in Australia. According to a census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of immigrants and international students are increasing dramatically (Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, 2007). In the light of this foreseeable trend, this group of people will become an influential group among the residents in Australia in the future and their ways of living and attitudes towards the issue will directly impact on the fate of water resource in this country.

High income earners

In Australia, the income distribution is relatively skewed and around 33%-38% of population falls into the definition being high income earners (above the seventh deciles of $68040 per annum per household) (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006).

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High income earners

The average annual consumption for a single dwelling in Woollahra of 409,000 liters puts it at the top of the list of water users for the third year in a row (Sydney Water 2006). Yet the high-income group consume much higher than that. The largest portion of this consumption is for outdoors uses where over 25 per cent is used for gardening, operating swimming pools and washing cars (Sydney Water 2006). As they are financially capable, their spending patterns are less affected by factors such as expensive utility bills and they can afford living in a luxury lifestyle, which probably consists of some water consuming activities such as irrigating a big garden. Therefore, those factors might state the reason why the high-income group pays more in water usage. In a nutshell, most of the high-income groups have less motivation to save water, due to their high income and greater buying power.

The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumer buying power and spending patterns. The Australian economy, in particular, has grown strongly in the past twenty years, resulting in more Australians having experienced increased living standards, and this is reflected in their lifestyles (Kotler ,et al,2006). Despite the fluctuations in economic conditions during this period, incomes have risen in many important segments. The baby-boom generation is moving into its prime wage-earning years, the number of small families headed by dual-career couple is increasing and more people are reluctant to get married at an early age. These factors create more people in upper socioeconomic class. Marketers must pay attention to those upper socioeconomic class consumers, whose spending patterns are less affected by current economic events. High-income earners are becoming more numerous, while at the other end of spectrum lower-income-earning households are becoming less numerous (households with incomes below the third deciles of $29968 per annum). Therefore, the high-income group really should be considered in terms of water usage (Kotler ,et al,2006).

Children

Children aged below 14 are another segment to focus on. A statistic conducted in 2004 reveals that there are approximately 1,323,995 residents in this age group and is account for 19.7 per cent of the Australian population (total of 6,720,791) (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006).

Due to innocent nature, children are quick learners. They can easily influenced by the living environment (John et al, 2001 p133). Most of the time, children consume more water rather than they indeed need, such as playing with water. The amount of water they consume may not be major concern yet, however it will probably be a reversed situation when they become adults if their beliefs do not change. This large group plays a very important role in total consumption of household water in the current and the future society. Research have stay out that, Children learn behaviours and values from their environment, mainly from their parents. Moreover, changing a children’s attitude and beliefs can be accomplished by spending a serious time and energy (Family Education Network 2007). Therefore, through a series of early education, for example, giving the positive perception of saving water could help reduce total water usage, and more importantly, build a strong value of wise water consumption in their future.

Marketing mix

In order to let sellers understand buyers clearly, various marketing strategies are used toward different segments. In this assignment, International students and immigrants, and children are two groups which are targeted and will be provided suitable marketing actions for them. A country’s airport is the first image for an international student and immigrant when he or she first arrives in Australia and, every one of them should have arrived in the airport before entering Australia. Therefore, advertisements about water conservation could give the message of water shortage to all comers. In an educational perspective, some special electives subjects such as Australia studies that are tailored for people who do not deeply understand about Australia could be offered for overseas students while water shortage could be one chapter in those subjects. What’s more, certain water conservation events could be organized in the places where international students and immigrants visit a lot, for instance, foreign social communities or china town. In those places mentioned above, leaflets or posters could be introduced in different languages to assist immigrants and foreign students to understand better. On the other hand, children, as one of the most important group of people, play a significant role in future society. Today’s attitude and belief would decide their actions tomorrow about this issue. Early education about water conservation is important regardless inside or outside home. Kindergartens and primary schools are also believed to be valuable channels to deliver such a message thereby encouraging those educational institutions to hold more events about water conservation or include it in the curriculum must also work. Furthermore, concepts of saving water could be expressed in more interesting activities which children do almost everyday, so the message of water shortage should be included in TV programs especially those ones for kids and cartoons. Moreover, physical action is one of the main keys for children. It is far more efficient to let them experience themselves rather than listening. Summer school or Camp will be a good program for them not just to learn, but also act.

All in all, marketers use segmentation as a tool to understand more about their existing and potential customers as well as develop more effective marketing strategies for different segments. In this project, people aged 45 to 64, international students and immigrants, high income earners and children are segments developed which are the focus with regard to this issue of water conservation. As focusing on international students, immigrants and children give most value in marketing sense. Various marketing mix are designed for these groups of people in Australia.

Reference Lists

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Kotler, P., Adams, S., Brown, L. & Armstrong, G. (2006) Principle of Marketing, 3rd ed., Market behaviour and strategies, Pearson Education, Sydney pp.91-93.

John D., Bransford L., Brown & Rodney R. 2001, How children learn, How people learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School, National Academy of Science, pp133

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