Executive Summary

This report is a marketing plan for a new toaster created by Future Appliances, the CustomToast.  The report starts off by analysing various approaches to segmenting the market. Such variables as geographic, demographic, behavioural and psychographic customer characteristics are used to size up the target market.  Psychographic, being the variable of choice is thoroughly investigated and assessed to gain a better understanding of the potential customers.  Next the report moves onto competitors. It outlines who are the main ones and what they offer.  Further on careful positioning tactics are discussed and how they will aid to give the CustomToast a competitive advantage. This section explains how the CustomToast will be portrayed to the public and how this will be achieved.  The last section of the report contains information on pricing. It explains how with pricing, different sections of the market will be targeted.  

Introduction

Future Appliances is proud to announce a new innovative toaster to hit the market, the CustomToast.  If there is ever an easier or more practical way to do something, people will do it.  The CustomToast takes toasting bread to the next level by introducing a programmable toaster.  The toaster will be able to store up to 10 different toast settings, including toast time and heat strength.  The reason behind this idea came up by observing that different types of bread (crumpets, muffins, white, wholemeal, rye, soy and linseed, sour dough, multi grain etc) and different thickness (sandwich and toast) take a different amount of time to achieve a perfect toast.  The need for this is especially seen in families.  Each individual person likes their toast done differently.  By being able to save up to 10 toast settings, perfect toasting every time is achieved, eliminating that horrible charcoal coated toast which results from the slightest bit too much heat.  The CustomToast features a LED screen to keep costs relatively low. The LED screen displays all the information needed such as total toast time, time left, setting number and heat strength. Alongside the screen are a few buttons to easily navigate through the settings and edit them.  The CustomToast is a simple, attractive, practical and easy way to toast bread.

Market Segmentation for Toasters

One of the first steps in marketing a new product is segmenting the market.  This is because ‘it is necessary to balance diverse customer needs with the capabilities and resources of competing organizations in the marketplace’ (Simkin & Dibb 1997, p. 52).  A thorough understanding of diverse customer needs enables the product to be better targeted at potential customers. Market segmentation ‘is the process of dividing a market into two or more parts, each having unique needs, and then developing products and related marketing programs to meet the needs of one of more of these segments’ (Allvine 1987, p. 153).  The first step is to identify bases for segmentation which can be categorized as four customer characteristics:

  • Geographic
  • Demographic
  • Behavioralistic
  • Psychographic

Geographic Analysis 

The toaster is a fairly common small household appliance which can be found in almost every Australian home. It can be used in almost any part of the world providing there is a power outlet. There are some people that do not reside in the vicinity of electricity but the amount of people who fall into this category is so minute that it does not need to be considered into segmentation.  The decision to purchase a toaster is not affected by where a person lives so geographic segmentation will be of no benefit.

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Demographic Analysis

Demographic variables such as age, gender, income, occupation and religion do not play much of a role in the purchase of toasters because it is a fairly general product and is only used for one purpose, usually to toast bread for breakfast.  Toast is enjoyed by any age group, any gender and all religions. There are no religions or groups which forbid the toasting of bread and it does not offend any certain nationality to toast bread that I am aware of.  Family size may help in determining who would be most likely to purchase a better, ...

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