Targeting strategies: having segmented the market, the firm now has to choose its marketing strategies. There are three strategies to choose from:
1. Standardization: in this strategy, the firm offers the same product to the different market segments. It uses the same communication pricing and distribution strategies. The classical example is of soft drink firms like coke and Pepsi, who retain the same flavour, advertising, packaging etc. across segments in the different geographical areas. The obvious advantage is the economics of scale which a firm gets in mass production and the marketing. Differentiation: this is just the opposite of the above mentioned strategy. Here the firm differentiates its products to suit the different segments needs and expansions. Typically, one has the example of an airline that differentiates its products in the three classes - the first class, business class and economy class. Each of these classes is targeted at a specific segment whose needs are different from the other.
2. Focus: this is a combination of standardization and the differentiation. Here the core strategy remains the same but differentiation is made to take into the account specific customer group requirements. For the example, the Maruti 800 to 1000 has some basis features and offers specific benefits to its buyers. However, a buyer who is looking for more features like safety belts, air conditioning, power steering and music systems can get the same at an additional price. In this way Maruti is able to focus its entire strategy on both economy and premium segments. This strategy helps the firm enjoy the economics of sales as well as higher market penetration, and consequently a higher market share. Therefore, the marketer has to choose the appropriate strategy in order to achieve higher market penetration in each of his market segments.