Unit of competency details

Unit descriptor 

This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to profile a target market or market segments in accordance with a marketing plan and to develop market positioning strategies.

No licensing, legislative, regulatory or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of endorsement.

Application of the unit 

This unit applies to individuals working in a marketing team who are responsible for segmenting a target market to review alignment with organisational marketing objectives. This involves identifying viable market segments and profiling target consumers, and then defining the target market in more detail and developing strategies to position products and services.

This unit is relevant to individuals working in a variety of marketing communications occupational roles, including advertising, direct marketing, promotional marketing, personal selling and public relations.

Prerequisite units 

Employability skills 

This unit contains employability skills.

Elements describe the essential outcomes of a unit of competency.

Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element. Where bold italicised text is used, further information is detailed in the required skills and knowledge section and the range statement. Assessment of performance is to be consistent with the evidence guide.

ELEMENT 

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA 

1. Segment the market

1.1. Identify criteria  for use in segmenting the market in accordance with the marketing plan

1.2. Identify and access sources of information for segmenting and profiling markets  in accordance with the marketing plan

1.3. Segment the market in accordance with identified criteria

1.4. Review market segments for their usefulness in terms of factors such as their size , potential , distinctive needs , easy identification of members  or distinctive media use patterns 

1.5. Select market segments  to meet marketing objectives, and choose and apply new segmentation criteria if required

2. Identify the target market

2.1. Evaluate approaches  to determining and describing the total market for a product or service

2.2. Define the target market in terms of the consumers to be included as prospective users  of a product or service, and the selected market segments

2.3. Use segment descriptors  to describe the target market

2.4. Identify available strategic marketing options  and select targeting strategies  that best meet the requirements of the marketing plan

3. Profile the target audience

3.1. Describe the total market and selected market segments in the form of a consumer profile

3.2. Identify consumer characteristics in standard statistical terms  and/or the descriptive terms used in media selection in the consumer profile

3.3. Use demographic  and/or psychographic descriptions  in the consumer profile in accordance with the requirements of the marketing plan

3.4. Describe consumer attitudes to products or services being offered

3.5. Ensure profile meets organisational requirements in terms of language, format, content and level of detail

4. Develop a positioning strategy

4.1. Identify available positioning strategies  and choose a strategy to meet marketing requirements  and consumer profile

4.2. Write a positioning implementation plan containing several options, in accordance with organisational requirements

4.3. Submit plan to supervisor within specified time lines and make appropriate adjustments based on feedback

REQUIRED SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE 

This section describes the skills and knowledge required for this unit.

Required skills 

• creativity and innovation skills to select targeting and positioning strategies that meet organisation's requirements
• culturally appropriate communication skills to relate to people from diverse backgrounds and people with diverse abilities
• key provisions of relevant legislation from all forms of government, codes of practice and national standards that may affect aspects of business operations such as:

• Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) Direct Marketing Code of Practice
• Free TV Australia Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice
• privacy laws
• sweepstakes regulations
• Trade Practices Act

• literacy skills to prepare reports and to interpret internal and external marketing information
• research skills to identify and analyse market segments and target markets.

Required knowledge 

• Australian Marketing Institute Code of Professional Conduct
• data collection and analysis techniques
• industry knowledge including:

• components of the marketing mix
• elements of marketing planning

• marketing communications concepts and processes
• organisational structures, roles, responsibilities, business and marketing plans
• product and service standards and best practice models
• relevant legislation from all forms of government that may affect aspects of business operation in addition to those listed above, especially in relation to occupational health and safety, environmental issues, equal opportunity, industrial relations and anti-discrimination
• statistical terms used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

EVIDENCE GUIDE 

The Evidence Guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the performance criteria, required skills and knowledge, range statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package.

Overview of assessment 

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit 

Evidence of the following is essential:

• developing a market positioning strategy that documents market segmentation, consumer profiling, targeting and strategies relevant to a product or service being offered to the marketplace.

Context of and specific resources for assessment 

Assessment must ensure:

• access to appropriate documentation and resources normally used in the workplace
• access to information on past profiling, segmentation and targeting performed for a product or service.

Method of assessment 

A range of assessment methods should be used to assess practical skills and knowledge. The following assessment methods are appropriate for this unit:

• assessment of positioning implementation plan
• direct questioning combined with review of portfolios of evidence and third party workplace reports of on-the-job performance by the candidate
• observation of the application of criteria to segment markets, selection of targeting strategies
• oral or written questioning to assess knowledge and understanding
• presentation of marketing profiling activities
• review of authenticated documents from the workplace or training environment
• review of testimony from team members, colleagues, supervisors or managers.

Guidance information for assessment 

Holistic assessment with other units relevant to the industry sector, workplace and job role is recommended, for example:

• BSBMKG402B Analyse consumer behaviour for specific markets
• BSBMKG507AInterpret market trends and developments.

RANGE STATEMENT 

The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included.

Criteria  may include:

• attitude
• average order value in units and dollars
• desired benefits
• business characteristics
• consumer needs
• demographics
• geography
• lifestyle
• lifetime value in units, dollars and number of transactions
• product or service usage
• psychographics
• recency and frequency of response to direct marketing activities
• social and cultural factors

Sources of information for segmenting and profiling markets  may include:

• advertising sales representatives
• existing research data
• industry sources
• media representatives
• original a priori research (where the market segments are assumed at the beginning and research is used to confirm them)
• original response based research
• owners or brokers of mail, email and phone lists
• sales representatives
• website operators

Usefulness in terms of size  may include:

• segments which are large enough to justify the expense of creating distinctive offers and creative executions
• small segments which are viable if telephone and email are used as communication media rather than other types of media

Potential  may include:

• high response of market segment members to test campaigns
• high response to previous campaigns by members of market segments

Distinctive needs  may include:

• specific price points
• specific products or services
• specific response vehicles such as:

• store visiting only
• website only response

• specific timing of communications such as:

• day of week
• seasonality
• time of day

Easy identification of members  may include:

• flags such as:

• postcode
• date of last purchase

• geographical location of segment members, such as:

• city
• metropolitan region
• regional centre
• rural region
• state or territory

• spending habits such as:

• one-off purchasers
• subscribers

Distinctive media use patterns  may include:

• age
• email use
• ethnic language television, newspapers and radio
• gender
• internet use
• mobile phone use
• special interests

Selection of market segments  may be contingent upon:

• expected frequency of purchase
• expected lifetime as customers
• expected volume of purchase
• how efficiently segment members can be reached with targeted communications
• one or more segments

Approaches  may include:

• describing total market in dollar or unit terms as gross sales of all other products or services similar to those offered by the organisation
• describing total market in prospect terms as those most similar to current customers
• identifying consumers with relevant needs
• identifying current users of a product or service
• identifying people with related characteristics

Prospective users  may include:

• market segment users most similar to current customers

Segment descriptors  may include:

• demographic descriptions
• geographic descriptions
• historic descriptions such as:

• volume of purchase
• frequency of purchase

• psychographic descriptions

Strategic marketing options  may include:

• advertising strategies such as:

• most cost effective creative executions
• most cost effective media or media vehicle for each segment
• most cost-effective media or media vehicle

• distribution strategies such as:

• one-step
• multi-step

• innovative strategies

Targeting strategies  may include:

• anniversary of first purchase
• concentrated, differentiated and mass strategies
• de-duping prospect lists against customer lists
• differentiation and segmentation
• ease of entry
• frequency of purchase
• gender
• geography of home or workplace
• growth considerations
• innovation
• market share
• media usage
• niche markets
• price sensitivity
• purchasing power
• recency of purchase
• sales volume

Standard statistical terms  may include:

• categories used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in collecting and reporting census data
• media selection terms such as:

• behaviouristics
• demographics
• geo-demographic analysis of census data available from proprietary research suppliers
• geographic selections and segmentations

Demographic descriptions  may include:

• age
• date and place of birth
• disability
• education
• first language
• gender
• household income
• indigenous Australian
• languages spoken at home
• marital status
• nationality
• number and age of children
• occupation

Psychographic descriptions  may include:

• activities
• affiliations
• attitudes
• interests
• lifestyle
• opinions
• political views
• values

Positioning strategies  may include:

• competitive positioning
• conspicuous positioning
• convenience of use
• convenience to buy
• image perceptions
• market follower positions
• market leader positions
• Me-Too positioning
• prestige and exclusive positioning
• pricing
• quality
• repositioning
• service positioning
• uniqueness
• value positioning

Marketing requirements  may include:

• business-to-business marketing
• direct marketing
• ideas marketing
• marketing of goods
• public sector marketing
• services marketing
• telemarketing

Unit sector 

Competency field 

Business Development - Marketing

Co-requisite units