Subcultural Segmentation of Food Products in U.S
Subcultural segmentation of food products is a significant element for the marketers. This segmentation helps the marketers to design foods that go along with the necessities, and expectations of the consumers (Lantos, 2015). Financial fitness, religious views, race, cultural views and consumption outlines are some of the components that should be deliberated by food product marketers. Subcultural segmentation helps food products to be deliberated keeping the interests of the potential purchasers in mind (Lantos, 2015).
One food product that needs to be rationalized is Starbucks’ coffee. The primary target for Starbucks is both men and women who are between the ages of 25-40, this means that people below and above that age gap are neglected (Starbucks Corporation SWOT Analysis, 2019). This age bracket includes parents who may want to order something for their children as they order for their coffee. Starbucks has very few choices for kids and it has often been criticised for having too much calories and caffeine in some of its beverages (Starbucks Corporation SWOT Analysis, 2019). Affluence is a target element for Starbucks and hence the needs of middle class and people from low social status are not really considered. Starbucks needs to understand that U.S is a diverse society and the largest portion of the society is made up of people in middle class social status. People in this category are very conscious about their spending and also their health, therefore the current Starbucks products are not an appropriate choice for them.
U.S has become a diverse society, subcultures that are based on religion, race, sex, age and geographical regions are providing markets with exciting opportunities to negotiate in their promotional strategies (De Mooij & Beniflah, 2017). In twenty years to come, the Americans that identify themselves as Hispanics, black, American Indians and Hawaiian Islanders among other will outnumber the non-Hispanic whites and companies will increasingly target their advertising at these groups (De Mooij & Beniflah, 2017). Starbucks should consider setting up their stores in every region within the U.S considering that there are people in all social levels who would love to consume Starbucks products. Starbucks should try and offer products that are friendly in terms of pricing and health benefits for people of all ages and social levels, which will help increase their consumer range and also their revenues.
References
De Mooij, M., & Beniflah, J. (2017). Measuring Cross-Cultural Differences of Ethnic Groups
within Nations: Convergence or Divergence of Cultural Values? The Case of the United States. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 29(1), 2–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/08961530.2016.1227758
Lantos, G. P. (2015). Consumer Behavior in Action: Real-life Applications for Marketing
Managers. Florence: Taylor and Francis. doi: https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=NnNsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA198&dq=subcultural market segmentation in food products&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqoJWH3P_kAhWsz4UKHb8UASkQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=subcultural market segmentation in food products&f=false
Starbucks Corporation SWOT Analysis. (2019). Starbucks Corporation SWOT Analysis, 1–9.
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