Analysis of STP and Brand Management in the Car Industry

This essay delves into the application of the STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) approach and brand management within the digital marketing landscape, particularly focusing on the car selling industry. It explains how STP strategies, involving market segmentation based on demographics, psychographics, and behavior, enables businesses to identify and target specific customer segments. The essay then examines brand management, highlighting successful strategies exemplified by Apple Inc., which focuses on customer emotions and lifestyle, and contrasting it with the brand management failures of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7. It analyzes the impact of both internal and external factors on brand success and failure, providing insights into effective marketing strategies. The essay uses examples to illustrate how proper segmentation, targeting, and positioning, along with effective branding, can significantly influence a company's market performance and customer loyalty.

STP and Brand Management 1
STP AND BRAND MANAGEMENT IN MARKETING
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STP and Brand Management 2
STP in Marketing
Digital marketing is one of the most applicable trends in many industries. For example,
the car selling industry has flourished worldwide by making use of this trend. Segmentation,
Targeting, and Positioning (STP) approach has grown to be a common method of conducting
digital marketing. The STP approach in marketing focusses on the audience instead of the
product. This essay attempts to explain how STP approach could be used to improve digital
marketing in the car selling industry.
The STP strategy is effective in identifying market niches by targeting specific customers
with specific needs and wants. This is achieved by segmentation. Segmentation refers to the
aspect of dividing the existing market into segments based on specific criteria like demographics,
psychographics, lifestyles, beliefs, and values, geography, behavior, and benefit (Hanlon, 2017).
For example, age group preference, gender preference, brand loyalty or the affordability of the
car. Such information is gathered through surveys, interviews and customer data.
The targeting function encompasses identification of the best segment that guarantees
best customers and focusing on the section (Mindtools.com, 2017). This decision is made by
considering the profitability of every segment. The preferred section should be the one that
would generate the highest revenue. The target segment should also be large enough and have
potential for steady growth. Lastly, the company should be able to service the market. For
example, consider the potential legal, social and technological barriers.
The last function is appropriate product positioning to target valuable customers. The
focus should be on why the customers should prefer your products to that of the competitor.
Positioning is done by identifying rare selling proposition, drawing a positioning map and

STP and Brand Management 3
creating the desired value proposition (Mindtools.com, 2017). For example, after segmenting the
car models into market, sporty, family and economy models, one can identify the gap in the
market based on the research of the market. In economy based markets, people would prefer
buying Toyotas.
Brand Management
Brand management encompasses defining the brand and sustaining it to maintain
customer commitment. A strong brand is preferred to that of competitors; it also gives the
business a good image. Proper management keeps the following issues to account; appropriate
market niche to target, proper differentiation from competitors and effective positioning. Success
or failure of brand management relies on both the internal and external factors of the business.
This part of the essay attempts to analyze two examples, one for successful management and the
other for failed management of a brand. It also entails the impact of internal and external factors
on the success or failure.
An example of successful brand management shows itself in the Apple Inc. The company
produces electronics like computers (MacBook), iPhones, iPods, and iPads. It uses the Apple
brand to differentiate its products in the market. The reason behind the success of the brand lies
on the effective branding strategies of the company. The apple brand focusses on the emotions of
the customer (the company personality). The brand personality is interested in lifestyle,
imagination, dreams, hopes, aspirations, etc. The removal of complexity in the brand has been
helpful to both people and businesses. Additional advantages like Siri and iCloud guarantee
success. However, the price of the products makes the brand to be less popular, especially with
the existence of cheaper options in the market.

STP and Brand Management 4
The famous Samsung devices crisis in 2016 is a good example of failed brand
management. There were many reports that Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 had overheating problems
(Dua, 2016). According to Tanya Dua, Samsung became a famous brand in 2016 for the wrong
reasons. The rejection of this brand by the public was also influenced by security checks on
airlines, where passengers were told to switch off the devices because they were a security threat.

STP and Brand Management 5
References
Dua, T. (2016). The biggest brand fails of 2016. [Blog] DIGIDAY. Available at:
https://digiday.com/marketing/biggest-brand-fails-2016/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017].
Hanlon, A. (2017). The Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning model. [Blog] Smart Insights.
Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/customer-segmentation-
targeting/segmentation-targeting-and-positioning/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017].
Mindtools.com. (2017). Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning Model: What Is the STP
Process in Marketing?. [online] Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/stp-
model.htm [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017].