Introduction
A hotshot trucking company operates in the logistics industry and requires a deep analysis and understanding of the target market in order to perform successfully in the market. The target market of a trucking company might be quite broad; however, the demographic composition could be segmented into different categories. According to the peculiarities and needs of each target market group, the future targeting strategy would be composed.
Main body
The target market of the trucking company is divided into organizations and individual customers. Generally speaking, the target audience and the potential customers are people and organizations who need to transport goods from one place to another place. They could be divided into several groups: merchants, farmers, manufacturers, construction companies, corporate organizations, the oil and gas sector, the timber industry, small business owners, and households. My company will cover long and short distances, which allows for transporting goods on interstates and intrastates. Thus, the target market covers customers from all over the United States.
As was primarily mentioned, the target market could be divided into individual buyers and organizational buyers. Each category has different requirements and needs, and it is essential to assess each of them. Because of their liability exposure and limited access to capital, common carriers may be more concerned with after-sale service packages and driver training, whereas owner-operators may be more concerned with truck quality, durability, and resale value (Zhang et al., 2019). By considering the fact that the target market segmentation includes various groups, each target group should be analyzed according to its characteristics. For example, farmers will be interested in safety during transportation if they want to transfer animals from one location to another. Thus, when working with this target group, the company is required to highlight the reliability and safety of the trucking service. Next, the gas and oil sector would be interested in the safety measures that a company could provide in terms of working with specific explosive products. Thus, the company should be qualified enough to make the transportation of such types of goods possible and correspond to the safety regulations.
Purchasing behavior is a complicated and dynamic issue that is influenced by a variety of environmental issues, including long-term economic growth goals, the availability of low-carbon and environmentally friendly raw materials, competitiveness, and technology advancements in sustainability (Coric et al., 2017). The trucking industry’s sustainable development is critical to the modern logistics industry’s and supply chain management’s long-term viability (Dulebenets, 2018). Both individual and organizational customers might be interested in aspects that were mentioned before, which are eco-friendliness and technological advancement of the company. That is especially important for organizations that hold specific policies towards the environmental consequences of their business. If the trucking company does not pay sufficient attention to the environmental issues, that will contradict to the approach of organizations that impose eco-friendly policies. Similarly, if an organization values technological development, the chances of them using the company’s service would be higher in the case when the company implements innovative technologies to the trucking service. When defining a target market, the company should understand which requirements of the customer it fulfills (Lumen Learning).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the target market of the hotspot trucking company is a wide range of different groups. In order to contribute to the efficient marketing and targeting strategy, it is essential to refer to the possible requirements of each category of the target customers. They might differ from the values and needs of a specific organization, individual or operating sector. Specific characteristics of the target categories will help to provide an analysis of the target market.
References
Cori´c, D.S.; Ani´c, I.D.; Rajh, S.P.; Rajh, E.; Kurnoga, N. (2017). Organizational buying decision approaches in ´ manufacturing industry: Developing measures and typology. J. Bus. Ind. Mark, 32, 227–237.
Dulebenets, M.A. (2018). A diploid evolutionary algorithm for sustainable truck scheduling at a cross-docking facility. Sustainability, 10, 1333.
Lumen Learning. Principles of marketing.
Zhang, H., Song, M., Yang, X., & Li, P. (2020). What are important technologies for sustainable development in the trucking industries of emerging markets? Differences between organizational and individual buyers. Sustainability, 12(1), 224.