Chapter 8: Segmenting and Targeting Markets

When running such a huge operation such as TAG Heuer, one of the most crucial aspects is knowing who to target. Who is most likely to purchase your product? Who is most likely to purchase a TAG Heuer Grand Carrera, or a Aquaracer, or a Link? Each line is made for a specific target market. The target markets are segmented into smaller subgroups in achieving the goal of marketing a certain product to a certain group, whether based on age, ethnicity, or sex.

MKTG5 states "Market Segmentation plays a key role in the marketing strategy of almost all successful organizations and is a powerful tool for several reasons. Most important, nearly all markets include groups of people or organizations with different product needs and preferences". Although TAG Heuer's production of their Golf watch seems to be coming to an end, that particular watch was targeted specifically to golf players and enthusiasts. In making the watch light using a titanium case, they felt that particular segment would buy the watch, suiting the specific need of playing golf with a light durable watch, one that would not affect their play on the links. That didn't work so well for them, but TAG Heuer has been very successful with other product items such as their Link and Grand Carrera.

Since TAG Heuer is a company that sells over 1,000,000 units a year, they practice the act of Demographic Segmentation. They make product appealing to a specific market, such as their Grand Carrera(which would be considered income segmentation), which is targeted for the sports enthusiast looking to spend 5-10k on a timepiece or the Formula 1, made to appeal for the young(age segmentation) as well as the person looking to buy an introductory luxury product.

TAG Heuer also sells women products, a market that I've seen pick up over the last couple of years. While TAG Heuer doesn't focus of Ethic segmentation much, they are going to release a series of limited edition Carrera watches in Japan, called the TAG Heuer Carrera Ring Masters, with different color inner bezels, attempting to target the Japanese specifically.

TAG Heuer has always been successful in this practice and over the last couple of years, they have been developing new products to market to those willing to spend $80,000 on a TAG Heuer innovative product(TAG Heuer Monaco V4) as well as product with extremely precise "to the micro-second function", such as their new Mikrotimer.