Plastic Whale Target Market And Recommendations Report

Executive Summary

Humans produce 260 million tons of plastic per year with 10% being deposited into the ocean (Guern 2019). This plastic over time decomposes its chemicals/debris into a harmful toxic plastic soup contaminating waterways, oceans, and harming wildlife (see Appendix A).

Sydney Harbour is struggling with waterway/harbour pollution (Montoya 2015, p.1). Introducing the professional plastics fishing company, Plastic Whale from Amsterdam, would help the environmental landscape of Sydney (see Appendix A: Figure 1). Plastic Whale organises daily boat tours to collect garbage, whilst offering consumers who join sightseeing, exploration and information about the city. Plastic Whale then repurposes some types of plastic found for [image: ]fishing vessels used.

Introduction

Plastic Whale is a professional plastics fishing company from Amsterdam, who uses recycled boats to tour the waterways to clean them up. They want to expand their enterprise to Sydney Harbour. To expand into the market, the market needs to be segmented into bases, analyse the variables of each individual base, and to then make decisions on the most suitable consumers to target this service too. The final process is to position Plastic Whale to differentiate in serving this best suited targeted market.

Segmentation Bases

Plastic Whale can expand into Sydney through segmentation of the market. This accounts for the characteristics/needs of consumers which are similar to the companies. In this approach, the total market is viewed as being made up of several smaller individual segments (Kitunen 2019). Through analysing the table, you can identify the preferable segments the company can profitably target their products/marketing efforts to (Kitunen 2019). The four bases of the segments include demographic, involving income and age variables. Psychographic containing lifestyle and personality characteristics. Geographic segment having density, along with behavioural containing benefit sought and usage rate (Lin 2002, p. 249).

The Demographic segment separates the market by the statistical differences of an individual’s characteristics, such as age and income (Kitunen 2019). These variables best determine whether Plastic Whale’s services are being aimed at the organisation’s most valuable consumers (Kitunen 2019). These apply as income focuses on consumers who can financially afford the service due to a fee. With details expanded within Appendix B about how age assists with acknowledging which generations have more desire to participate (Lin 2002, p. 249).

Psychographics base is built on interests, attitudes and lifestyles of potential consumers (Kitunen 2019). As Plastic Whale is a new service, they need to identify consumer groups that have lifestyles and personalities of being proactively ecological (Kitunen 2019). By segmenting consumers that do not have traits of being environmental, they can focus on the consumers who do.

The Geographic segmentation separates the market based on where individuals live (Kitunen 2019). This expands into scales of local, national and international, with climates of urban, suburban or rural (Lin 2002, p. 249). This is applicable for Plastic Whale, as the company needs to obtain a consumer base in urban Sydney.

Lastly, the Behavioural segmentation comprises the division of consumers by attitudes/benefits offered by a certain product, conditions procurement and brand (Dordevic 2015, p. 243). This segment contains the variables of benefit sought and usage rate. If a customer’s values are analysed in what they expect and prefer from Plastic Whale it becomes easier to distinguish the highest using, most profitable consumer group (Dordevic 2015, p. 243).

Market Targeting/Consumer Profile

Consumer target market

From analysing table 5.2, Plastic Whale should target local school students. As Plastic Whale is a unique service involving picking up rubbish, this proves difficult to meet exact requirements of each person (Navaneetha 2020).

School Students are social, easily entertained, and financially stable individuals. They can afford the service as they belong to middle-higher class families, whilst being easy to cater through personality/interests. Plastic Whale would have a regular customer base as students classes maintain numbers of 25 people daily.

Consumer profile

Local School Students are aged 6-18 years whilst being enrolled to schools in urban/suburban areas. Their caregivers have incomes exceeding 100K yearly, meaning they can afford proper education/activities.

Students are academic/proactive within their personalities/social settings making them more likely to tour in social/class groups. Students are academic making usage rate for Plastic Whale more frequent compared to tourists (see Appendix C), which can be impacted by the economy (Ritchie 2009, p. 5). It is also apart of curriculum (see Appendix C) to learn about the environment (Butler 2009), making Plastic Whale a productive service in educating people to dispose rubbish correctly. Demonstrating impacts to the environment if they do not.

Differentiation/Positioning

Positioning statement

With the identified target market being local school students, Plastic Whale should invest time to differentiate themselves from other competition. Competition includes other activities, events and tours. When differentiating Plastic Whale should situate a clear/suitable positioning in the minds of the targeted individuals. The differentiation and positioning process has three main steps.

Step one identifies the brand’s competitive advantages to create a position (Claessens 2015). Meaning considering the base product, image, service, people and channel off differentiation (Wang 2015, p. 1460). A differentiation strategy using these core bases in relation to a product, makes use of the intrinsic attributes of the item (see appendix D) such as functional characteristics, performance, style, consistency, durability, or reliability, and innovation (Wang 2015, p. 1460).

The second step is choosing the appropriate competitive advantages. Plastic Whale’s competitive advantages are the prime location, with environmental/educational/recreational benefits. Although for Plastic Whale to produce a predominant customer base and continue high-quality value, the company should focus on two important advantages; the unique, ecological and beneficial nature the image Plastic Whale portrays, with the hands on activity that demonstrates/educates the impacts of littering.

Positioning map

I have positioned Plastic Whale in the highest right corner, positioning it the most environmentally friendly/educational. Highest competition is Taronga Zoo, as this is also ecological/educational. Its lower competitors are Bridge Climb, Luna Park and Jet Boat, as these are not very resourceful nor are they very environmental. These competitors provide recreational services.

Positioning map: Y axis = environmentally friendly, X axis recreational/education

Competitors = Taronga Zoo, Bridge Climb, Luna Park, Jet Boat

Conclusion

For Plastic Whale to expand into Sydney, steps off target segmentation/positioning recommendations are required. Local students are the preferable target market for Plastic Whale. Overall their needs, values and characteristics are the easiest to cater for. They are positioned favourably compared to their competitors, with advantages being the most educational, recreational and ecological service provider.

Reference List

1. Butler, K 2009, Sustainability Curriculum Framework, A guide for curriculum developers and policy makers, NSW, viewed 5 April 2020, .
2. Claessens, M 2015, Differentiation and positioning, viewed 24 March 2020, .
3. Dordevic, B 2015, ‘Strategic market segmentation’, Marketing, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 243-251.
4. Guern, C 2019, When the mermaids cry: the great plastic tide, Santa Aguila Foundation, [s.l.], viewed 25 March 2020, .
5. Kitunen, A 2019, Learning what our target audiences think and do: extending segmentation to all four bases, viewed 5th April 2020,
6. Lin, CF 2002, ‘Segmenting customers brand preference: demographic or psychographic’, Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 249-268.
7. Montoya, D 2015, ‘Pollution in Sydney Harbour: sewage, toxic chemicals and micro plastics’, NSW Parliamentary Research Service briefing paper, vol. 3, no.1, pp. 1, viewed 22 March 2020, .
8. Navaneetha, 2020, What is a consumer profile?, viewed 21 March 2020, .
9. Ritchie, JR 2009, ‘Impacts of the world recession and economic crisis on tourism: North America’, Journal of travel research, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 5-14.
10. Wang, H 2015, ‘A brand-based perspective on differentiation of green brand positioning’, Psychology & Marketing, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 1460-1474.