Certain groups of people can create big market

Certain groups of people can create big market

Dwi Bagus Handoko
Contributor
Jakarta

In today's Internet world a certain type of community can
easily and magically transform a small company into a giant world
corporation and turn it into a blue chip entity on the
international stock exchange, like the Nasdaq.

This phenomenon becomes quite interesting because the above
corporation's activities are created due to a customer evolution
process that is entirely different from the existing marketing
theories or strategies.

What in fact happens is probably just another age-old
marketing pattern, which is commonly known as the average market:
a market where anything can be offered due to the market's highly
heterogeneous character. The difference, however, is that in a
community-based market such an impact can be much greater within
a relatively short time. This factor probably causes it to be
renamed as a new type of market.

There are currently two types of community-based markets. The
first type is a noncommercial-driven market, such as the
expatriate and alumni associations or political/mass
organizations. This category can also be called "noncommercial-
created communities". The second type, which is created through
the derivatives of commercial activities, such as cell phone and
supermarket memberships, real estate residents' groups, etc., is
referred to as "commercial-created communities".

The entry point of each group or category is its character and
by completely understanding the characters the possibility of
making it a potential market is enhanced. There are, of course,
some other important approaches to exploit this target market as
follows:

Identify the common factor. Every group usually has several
similarities or common factors, such as nationality, previous
college, ideology, etc. This is to be used by a marketer to make
a successful entry.

Identifying common factors that are commercially related is
also very vital. This also helps in estimating the group's
potential. For example, in the case of the residents of Bintaro
Jaya estate, most are young families who own, on average, Rp 300
million houses and make monthly installments on their mortgages
of between Rp 2.5 million and Rp 5 million. Their monthly income
averages between Rp 7 million and Rp 15 million, and they have
children below the age of five.

The next step is to split up the groups to find out each
fraction's specific needs and thereby pinpoint a suitable
marketing positioning for each. This community's strength is
recognized as to be able to further drive product development or
even new product launches through its cognitive responses.

Kotler -- a marketing guru -- once said that to make
segmentation effective the following five factors are vital:
measurability, relevance, accessibility, distinguishability and
feasibility. And to get the best results, "keep it within a
certain community and clearly identify the members' activities".
That's why specific steps are continuously required to optimize
end results and to make the group a real market community.

Providing ID cards or creating a membership group are some of
the ways to form community-based markets. Matahari department
store, for instance, provides its customers with membership
cards. The members are indirectly encouraged to "provide a
report", since they are rewarded with points or gifts for each
purchase. This way the store can easily know the kind of products
they often purchase and indirectly find out the customers'
reactions to any interior changes or renovations at any counter
by checking the number of sales at that related counter.

Publishing a weekly or monthly bulletin is another important
strategy in binding them together and keeping them within a
certain community group. The giant telecommunications
corporation, Telkomsel, does it with its Halo bulletin, while
Bintaro real estate publishes Kicau for its residents. Without
these marketing tools the communities could dwindle away and turn
into ordinary market segments while their true potential would be
unexploited.