Market Segmentation - What Other Segmentations Are Going on in the Advertisements

Market Segmentation

What other segmentations are going on in the advertisements

The two magazines that I chose to compare and contrast for my market segmentation were Maxim and Cosmopolitan. There are three things that make up the market segmentation they are demographics, psychographics, and behavioral characteristics. The definition of demographics are statistics that measure observable aspects of a population, including size, age, gender, ethnic group, income, education, occupation, and family structure. The age range for Maxim would be the 16-30 year old range. I put it at that age range because this is when teenagers start getting jobs and therefore they can buy their own magazines. This is not a magazine that parents would typically buy for their children. I also put the cutoff at 30 because when men start getting married and engaged they are essential no longer allowed to buy magazines like this. By that I mean magazines that main focus is to show women in swimsuits. The gender for this magazine would be men. Maxim appeals to all ethnic groups because their main concept is women in swimsuits which would not exclude any ethnicities. The last demographic component I looked at for Maxim was the income level. The income level for a magazine like this would be middle class and above. One reason is because it is a want. It is a want because you don't need it to survive, and it's not too expensive to be a demand. Now I am going to look at the demographics for a women's magazine such as Cosmopolitan. The age range for Cosmopolitan is definitely much larger than the one for maxim. I put the age range for Cosmopolitan at 16-39. The 16 is the same number for Maxim but the 39 is much higher than the 30. The reason that women can keep getting their magazine is because the magazines main focus is on beauty products and ways to spruce up their sex life. Also because Cosmopolitan uses women models to try and sell their products which is generally the same sex that is already reading the magazine as opposed to Maxim who uses women to try and sell to men. Some women may not like their boyfriends or husbands looking at other women in magazines which again are why the age range is lower for men. The gender for this magazine would be women. Cosmopolitan also has the same income level such as middle class and above. Those are the demographics that make up one third of the market segmentation.

The psychographics segments consumers in terms of psychological and behavioral similarities such as shared activities, interests, and opinions. The interest of men that read Maxim is of men that like women. Maxim is made up of a lot of women in swimsuits with articles explaining what they like and don't like. Some of the activities that this article mentions are sports and video games. So guys that are into sports and video games are going to be more inclined to reading this month's edition of Maxim. However, Cosmopolitan there readers have different interest in reading their magazines. The interest of Cosmopolitan readers is getting style tips by women in clothes that make them look and feel sexy. This encourages the women reading the magazine to buy the clothes. Women that read this magazine are also hip. One reason is because they have more than likely heard of the celebrities or know who they are. This gives them the feeling that they are part of them. That was the psychographics that make up the second part of the market segmentation.

Finally the third part of segmenting is the behavioral segmentation. The behavioral segmentation slices consumer segments on the basis of how they act toward, feel about, or use a product. Men read this magazine to look at women in swimsuits and to read the articles that go along with them. Also the ads that go along with the magazine helps to sell the products. The use of the magazine is common in Cosmopolitan much the same way. One of the differences is that they use women in clothes that make them look and feel sexy to try and get the women to buy the clothes that the magazine is advertising.

Pick a product category to compare and contrast in the magazine

The product category that I chose to compare and contrast in the two magazines was body wash. In the Maxim magazine they use a black background and put the product Gillette in the middle top of the page. This helps accentuate the masculinity of the product and draw your attention to the product from the beginning. Also their main focus in the ad is eliminating body odor instead of just covering it up. Another thing they do in the ad is they advertise their deodorant. They tell you the added benefit of using the deodorant with the body wash such as ten times more odor protection coverage when used together. However, the Olay in Cosmopolitan takes a different approach to their body wash. They start of by using a lighter shade of blue for the background. Also their main selling point is trying to scare you away from buying other body washes because the customers could be getting 85% water in other body washes. Another difference is that they put their body wash on the bottom right corner of the page. They put it in the bottom because they want you to notice the 85% water first, to kind of anger the customer in to thinking that they have been getting ripped off on their body wash. Finally the biggest difference between the two is that the Olay is more about moisturizing which gears itself towards women. Women are more concerned with having soft, moisture skin instead of killing bad odors. Dove also advertises body wash in the Cosmopolitan magazine and their main focus is also on how there's moisturizes your entire body instead of just sitting on top of your skin.

Similarities and Differences between the two magazines

One of the similarities between Maxim and Cosmopolitan is the fact that they both use sex to sell their products. However, they do use the sex appeal in a slightly different way. Maxim uses the sex appeal to actually sell the magazines. Cosmopolitan on the other hand actually uses sex appeal to sell the products inside the magazine. An example of this is where they have pictures of models in the magazine and then they break down the price to each item that they are wearing. In the Maxim magazine they have clothes items but they are just laying there instead of someone wearing them. They do that because guys don't want to see other guys modeling the clothes, whereas