sonal selling is required in the product's promotional mix, in order to effec tively deliver the product message of protection.
Target marketing is a part of marketing process analy sis. Marketing process analysis is concerned with the steps required to permit a marketing organization to effectively interact with the marketplace.
Market segmentation is the first step in the target mar keting process. Market segmentation is the "management stra tegy in which one or more groups of potential customers having similar within group characteristics is selected and separate marketing mixes are developed for each."3 The process of 3market segmentation is the subdividing of a market into dis tinct customer sub sets, where any sub set may conceivably be selected as a target market to be reached with a distinct marketing mix. Marketing segmentation may be accomplished on the bases of demographic characteristics or geographic disper sion, each of which is widely employed, or market segmentation may be based on one of the following differentiation criteria: (1) preference segments (homogeneous, diffused, or clustered); (2) psychographic characteristics; or (3) behavioristic charac teristics (buyer purchase occasions, benefits sought by buyers through purchase, the user status of buyers, product usage rate for different user groups, loyalty status of buyers of a spe cific product or brand, stages of readiness of buyers to pur chase a specific product, and marketing factors, such as price and pricedeals, product quality, and service.
Behavioristic and psychographic segmentation were employed in defining the target market for term life insurance. The relevant aspect of behavioristic segmentation were (1) the benefits sought group, which classifies buyers by their pur chasing motives, (2) the stages of readiness group, which recognizes that, at any given point in time, consumers are dis tributed into different stages of readiness to pu...