MARKETING PERSPECTIVE: OPERATIONS AT EQUATE PETROCHEMICAL COMPANY

MARKETING PERSPECTIVE: OPERATIONS AT EQUATE PETROCHEMICAL COMPANY

Marketing Perspective: Operations at Equate Petrochemical Company

The importance of the relationship between operations management and marketing cannot be undervalued in the current corporate world. Essentially, it is imperative that the two departments work together to meet the strategic requirement of customer satisfaction and increased sales.This paper analyses Equate Petrochemical Company with a particular focus on its operations sector and the associated marketing strategy. Equate Petrochemical specializes in the manufacturing of high-quality petrochemicals such as polyethylene, benzene, ethylene, heavy aromatics, and styrene monomer. The firm has a global footprint, selling its products in European, North and South American, African, the Middle East, and Asian markets. The firm’s operations department at Equate plays a critical role in the firm’s supply chain. The department confirms that the organization has the resources needed to work at full capacity and maximize its revenues. As with other sectors of the firm, Equate marketing function in the operations department has aligned its strategies with the broader corporate marketing strategy of market segmentation, targeting, and communication approaches that are aimed at customizing its marketing mix.

Main Market Segmentation Methods

Market segmentation is a markedly modern strategic approach to contemporary marketing. Generally, market segmentation involves the division of potential buyers into different clusters, with each group having similar needs and wants. Both for-profit and charitable organizations engage in segmentation tactics despite having visibly different objectives. Segmentation, as a marketing strategy, is applied to enable firms to maximize customer satisfaction by directing available resources to produce services and goods that satisfy buyers’ needs and wants effectively. The main segmentation methods include:

1. Demographic variables – this involves the grouping of potential customers based on demographic attributes, such as nationality, location, ethnicity, income, education, age, socio-economic status, and gender, among others.
2. Psychographic segmentation – concerns the categorization of customers based on individual lifestyle characteristics and preferences, such as aspirations, hobbies, fashion preferences, political and religious beliefs, and attitudes, among others.

• Behavioural segmentation – refers to the grouping of customers by considering their knowledge, attitudes, usage patterns or responses concerning a particular product.

Market Segmentation at Equate’s Operations

Equate’s operations marketing segmentation methods focus on subdividing corporate clients rather than individual consumers since it is a business-to-business organization. Equate Petrochemicals Company employs demographic segmentation based on the two variables of industry type andnationality. It alsoengages psychographic segmentation based on purchasing approach and behavioural segmentation in line with existent personal characteristics. These are discussed in detail as follows.

Demographic segmentation by nationality and Industry Type. Mostly, business-to-business organizations often utilize demographic segmentation by location and industry type since the two variables are critical in identifying potential customers while also reflecting competition and logistic considerations. In such cases, organizations will prefer locations with many industrial consumers of their products that do not have a high number of competitors.

Equate has partitioned its market according to different nationalities, which include the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia (Equate Petrochemicals 2019). The firm has established several branches and partnered with other firms in these regions to take its operations closer to its customers in potential locations and ensure their needs are appropriately fulfilled. Additionally, Equate has divided its customers based on industry types (Lindridge et al. 2013). Therefore, it has customers fromdifferent industrial groups, such as consumer electronics, textiles, pharmaceuticals, food packaging, detergents, and footwear, which use different petrochemicals to produce various items. Besides, Equate has segmented its market into both medium and large-sized customers.

Psychographic segmentation by personal characteristics. This technique focuses on clients’ loyalty, attitude towards risk, and buyer-seller similarity (Lindridge et al. 2013). Naturally, this method aims at identifying suitable customers and reinforcing customer relations to facilitate customer satisfaction and retention.

Equate’s sectioning, in this regard, includes the not loyal, loyal, and very loyal customers to whom it has accorded privileges accordingly(Equate Petrochemicals 2019). Moreover, the corporation has sectioned its customers based on their buyer-sellersimilarity in terms of operations, which enables it to differentiate between potential customers and competitors. As a petrochemicals firm dealing in the production of highly dangerous and delicate products, the firm also strives tosegment consumers with a compromising attitude towards the risks involved.

Behavioural Segmentation by Purchasing Approaches. The purchasing approaches variable enables this segmentation method to take into consideration buying criteria, buying policies, and current relationships (Lindridge et al. 2013). This approach is often considered where there is a need to focus on customers with whom a firm’s purchasing transactions are streamlined.

Equate’s operations marketing employsthis approach to segment its market to identify potential customers with suitable purchasing preferences. It has also decentralized its purchase strategies to the branch level in attempts to meet the purchasing choices of different segments(Equate Petrochemicals 2019). In doing so, the firm can facilitate smooth transactions with credit, cash-paying, bidding, pre-paying, and post-playing customers. Furthermore, Equate has also segmented its customers into two groups, which include repeat clients and new customers. Besides its efforts to strengthenpurchasing relations with the existing clients, it also tries to attract new customers by adjusting its purchasing strategies accordingly.

Benefits of Segmentation Strategies to Equate

Segmentation approaches based on demographic and personal characteristics are the most effective in the organization. These two variables have enabled Equate Petrochemical Company to align its marketing mix to meet the overarching needs of its customers and increase its revenues to $4.89 billion in 2018(Equate Petrochemicals 2019). For example, regarding the demographic variables,such as nationality, company size, and industry type, the corporation has established global branches that produce different petrochemicals on a largescale to avoid inventory stockouts and delivery delays. Similarly, segmentation based on personal characteristics,such as loyalty, attitude towards risk, and buyer-seller similarity, have allowed Equate to offer trade discounts, manufacture premium products, and nurture mutual respect to promote customer retention.

Targeting Criteria

Targeting involves the identification of particular market segments for specific content. Often, targeting comes after segmentation and denotes the act of selecting individual sections to which a firm will dedicate the more substantial part of its resources(Lindridge et al. 2013). It is a strategy that is widely applied in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. There different criteria that firms may use for identifying the segments to target

1. Segment size and growth potential–the rationale is that a section should be selected because it is of reasonable size and has the potential to facilitate the required reward
2. Measurability – a segment should be measurable concerning profitability, purchasing power, size, and scale of provision

• Profitability of Segment – the organization should be able to make profits by providing its products and services to the segment

1. Competition – the fewer the current and potential competitors, the more attractive a section is to an organization
2. Organization’s capabilities – resources and capabilities of an organization should match the needs of a segment
3. Accessibility – the segment should be accessible to the organization(Lindridge et al. 2013)

Targeting Criteria at Equate

Equate uses the segment size and growth potential criteriatoensures that the size of its segment is adequately significant tofacilitateopportunities for future growth – it focuses on regions as large as continents. The broad scope of corporate customers ensures that Equate manufactures and sells the entire six million tons of petrochemicals produced annually without experiencing inventory stockouts or shortage (Equate 2011).

Moreover, Equate uses the measurabilityand profitability of segmentcriterion to measure its market segment based on customers’ number, purchasing power, needs, and profitability. Concerning the clients’ number, Equate analyzes the number of repeat and new customers who purchase petrochemicals annually. In this regard, an increase in the number of new corporate consumers indicates that the company has to adjust its marketing mix to meet their needs effectively (Magalhães, Pereira &Frederico 2019). Additionally, it employs the purchasing power ability perspective to target financially stable firms, which can purchase and pay for the ordered stockto avoid cases of bad debts and bankruptcy.

Finally, an organizational capability is a paramount criterion incorporated by Equate to target its customers. Importantly, it has adequate and refined high-tech, human, and financial resourcesto manufacture petrochemical products (Magalhães, Pereira &Frederico 2019). For instance, it has employed over 5,000 employees and a network of branches and partnerships that spans the globe.

Targeting Approach

Targeting approach refers to the manner in which an organization will target the identified potential segments. There are various targeting approaches utilized by organizations, including:

1. Undifferentiated targeting – a relatively cheap and feasible method since all clients are treated equally, despite their vast differences
2. Differentiated targeting – seeks to treat market segments differently based on their respective characteristics

• Focused targeting – reflects the flexibility of choice where an organization may focus on a few segments due to limited resources or scarcity of the service or product offered

1. Customized targeting – is reserved for loyal or willing-to-pay customers in need of highly specialized services of products(Lindridge et al. 2013).

Targeting Approach at Equate

Equate uses theundifferentiated targeting approach to reach and connect with its customers. According to Sundermann, Boenigk, and Willems (2017), this strategy refers totreating all customers equally, irrespective of potential differences that exist in the market. For instance, the firm offers relatively standardized prices for its products to clients across the globe. Its preference for this approach arises from the fact that it is cost-effective since it eliminates additional expenses that arise from differentiating the marketing mix based on the attributes of each customer segment.

Marketing Communication Model

Generally, marketing communications denote the collective techniques employed by a firm to relay promotional messages concerning its products and services. The sole aim of the communication process in marketing is to inform and persuade targeted customers and reinforce market credibility.

Equate Communication Model

Equate’s operations marketing utilizes a relatively basic communication model to reach and connect with both local and geographically dispersed existing and potential customers.

In the model, Equate’s operations brand agency is the source of the message. The encoded message from this team includes items, such as advertisements and promotions that aim topersuade targeted customers concerning the affordability, reliability and quality of its products and services and reinforce market credibility. The firm thenengages different mediato transmit its ‘messages.’ A typical example concerns its regular updates in its news section on its website. It also positions billboards near highways and cities’ central business districts, which have high traffic,in order to increase the chances of reaching the target audience.

Subsequently, potential customers, which include corporate managers in other firms, decode the message displayed in the advertisement. At this stage, Equate hopes that this target audience will see the value of outsourcing the supply of exclusive petrochemicals from the company. On its part, Equate anticipates that potential clients would respond by choosing it as their preferred supplier. Lastly, the operations and sales manager collect feedback by researching the number of people who received and acted on the message by purchasing the brand.

Promotion Activities

Promotion activities refer to the marketing communication actionsaimed at relaying the various offers provided by an organization. Common promotion activities include:

1. Advertising – refers to all paid-for, non-personal marketing communication in which the firm involved and its products and services are identified
2. Sales promotion–involves the act of offering incentives to potential buyers to convince them to purchase in bulk or promptly – induce inadvertent buying

• Public relations – unpaid communications or press releases aimed at establishing and maintaining relations with stakeholders

1. Personal selling – involves the face-to-face sales-related interactions between a firm’s sellers and its potential buyers
2. Point-of-sale display – includes the in-shop branded display that is visible to many customers
3. Trade fairs – open exhibitions where a firm can display its products and services to potential clients(Lindridge et al. 2013).

Equate Promotion Activities

Promotion activities in Equate’soperations are aligned to the firm’s overall marketing promotions activities. These are summarized as follows.

Equate Promotion Activities

Equate employs different forms of paid commercials, such as billboards, company websites, and audio and video internet advertisements in order to market itself to the target audience. Furthermore, it uses public relations by adopting sustainability practices to create a positive reputation and image. For instance, the corporation tries to minimize its carbon emission by recycling plant water and establishing the Green Carbon Project, which supports the reuse of 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide emitted annually (Equate 2011). Apart from public relations, the corporation uses personal selling to promote its products to its customers. Notably, the sales manager organizes face-to-face meetings with corporate clients to inform them about the firm’s product offerings, the mark of quality, and the terms of sales followed by the corporation in order to deliver petrochemicals to its target audience. Lastly, Equate offers occasional discounts to its customers for purchasing inputs on a largescale. These forms of promotion present the company with several benefits.

Benefits of Promotion Activities at Equate

First of all, Equate’s public relations strategy has enabled the company to succeed in influencing customers to develop a positive perspective towards the brand. By adopting sustainability practices, Equate Petrochemical Company has managed to attract and win the loyalty of eco-friendly corporations that advocate for the adoption of sustainability practices. Additionally, advertisements have enabled the company to create product awareness and inspire their target audience to purchase their petrochemicals (Hines et al. 2011). This strategy has enabled the organization to increase its sales revenues and attract new clients. Finally, promotion activities have assisted Equate to publicize its value proposition of selling quality products to their target customers.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Equate’s operation subunit employs demographic, personal characteristics, purchasing approaches, and operating variables to segment its target market. At the same time, it applies different target segmentation criteria such as measurability, segment profitability, organizational capabilities, and growth potential. Lastly, it engages in various promotional activities such as advertising, public relations, and sales promotion to market itself to the target audience.

Reference List

Equate Petrochemical Company 2011, Sustainability report. Available from:           <https://www.equate.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Sustainability-Report-2011-           English.pdf>. [10 March 2020].

Equate Petrochemical Company 2019, Home. Available from: <https://www.equate.com/>. [10    March 2020].

Hines, AA, Henley, N, Raffin, S&Caemmerer, B 2011, ‘The application of marketing       principles to a social marketing campaign’, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 29,    no. 7, pp. 697-706.

Lindridge, A, Ali, H, Francis, G & Lucas, M 2011, Understanding marketing and financial           information, London: The Open University.

Magalhães, M & Pereira, M &Frederico, D 2019, ‘The marketing strategy and implementation      of strategic business units: How to choose a methodology of segmentation strategic      marketing?’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 1.

Sundermann, LM, Boenigk, S & Willems, J 2017,‘Under blood pressure–differentiated versus      undifferentiated marketing to increase blood donations’, International Review on Public       and Nonprofit Marketing, vol. 14, no.3, pp.321-340.

MARKETING PERSPECTIVE: OPERATIONS AT EQUATE PETROCHEMICAL COMPANY

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Marketing Perspective: Operations at Equate Petrochemical Company

The importance of the relationship between operations management and marketing cannot be undervalued in the current corporate world. Essentially, it is imperative that the two departments work together to meet the strategic requirement of customer satisfaction and increased sales.This paper analyses Equate Petrochemical Company with a particular focus on its operations sector and the associated marketing strategy. Equate Petrochemical specializes in the manufacturing of high-quality petrochemicals such as polyethylene, benzene, ethylene, heavy aromatics, and styrene monomer. The firm has a global footprint, selling its products in European, North and South American, African, the Middle East, and Asian markets. The firm’s operations department at Equate plays a critical role in the firm’s supply chain. The department confirms that the organization has the resources needed to work at full capacity and maximize its revenues. As with other sectors of the firm, Equate marketing function in the operations department has aligned its strategies with the broader corporate marketing strategy of market segmentation, targeting, and communication approaches that are aimed at customizing its marketing mix.

Main Market Segmentation Methods

Market segmentation is a markedly modern strategic approach to contemporary marketing. Generally, market segmentation involves the division of potential buyers into different clusters, with each group having similar needs and wants. Both for-profit and charitable organizations engage in segmentation tactics despite having visibly different objectives. Segmentation, as a marketing strategy, is applied to enable firms to maximize customer satisfaction by directing available resources to produce services and goods that satisfy buyers’ needs and wants effectively. The main segmentation methods include:

1. Demographic variables – this involves the grouping of potential customers based on demographic attributes, such as nationality, location, ethnicity, income, education, age, socio-economic status, and gender, among others.
2. Psychographic segmentation – concerns the categorization of customers based on individual lifestyle characteristics and preferences, such as aspirations, hobbies, fashion preferences, political and religious beliefs, and attitudes, among others.

• Behavioural segmentation – refers to the grouping of customers by considering their knowledge, attitudes, usage patterns or responses concerning a particular product.

Market Segmentation at Equate’s Operations

Equate’s operations marketing segmentation methods focus on subdividing corporate clients rather than individual consumers since it is a business-to-business organization. Equate Petrochemicals Company employs demographic segmentation based on the two variables of industry type andnationality. It alsoengages psychographic segmentation based on purchasing approach and behavioural segmentation in line with existent personal characteristics. These are discussed in detail as follows.

Demographic segmentation by nationality and Industry Type. Mostly, business-to-business organizations often utilize demographic segmentation by location and industry type since the two variables are critical in identifying potential customers while also reflecting competition and logistic considerations. In such cases, organizations will prefer locations with many industrial consumers of their products that do not have a high number of competitors.

Equate has partitioned its market according to different nationalities, which include the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia (Equate Petrochemicals 2019). The firm has established several branches and partnered with other firms in these regions to take its operations closer to its customers in potential locations and ensure their needs are appropriately fulfilled. Additionally, Equate has divided its customers based on industry types (Lindridge et al. 2013). Therefore, it has customers fromdifferent industrial groups, such as consumer electronics, textiles, pharmaceuticals, food packaging, detergents, and footwear, which use different petrochemicals to produce various items. Besides, Equate has segmented its market into both medium and large-sized customers.

Psychographic segmentation by personal characteristics. This technique focuses on clients’ loyalty, attitude towards risk, and buyer-seller similarity (Lindridge et al. 2013). Naturally, this method aims at identifying suitable customers and reinforcing customer relations to facilitate customer satisfaction and retention.

Equate’s sectioning, in this regard, includes the not loyal, loyal, and very loyal customers to whom it has accorded privileges accordingly(Equate Petrochemicals 2019). Moreover, the corporation has sectioned its customers based on their buyer-sellersimilarity in terms of operations, which enables it to differentiate between potential customers and competitors. As a petrochemicals firm dealing in the production of highly dangerous and delicate products, the firm also strives tosegment consumers with a compromising attitude towards the risks involved.

Behavioural Segmentation by Purchasing Approaches. The purchasing approaches variable enables this segmentation method to take into consideration buying criteria, buying policies, and current relationships (Lindridge et al. 2013). This approach is often considered where there is a need to focus on customers with whom a firm’s purchasing transactions are streamlined.

Equate’s operations marketing employsthis approach to segment its market to identify potential customers with suitable purchasing preferences. It has also decentralized its purchase strategies to the branch level in attempts to meet the purchasing choices of different segments(Equate Petrochemicals 2019). In doing so, the firm can facilitate smooth transactions with credit, cash-paying, bidding, pre-paying, and post-playing customers. Furthermore, Equate has also segmented its customers into two groups, which include repeat clients and new customers. Besides its efforts to strengthenpurchasing relations with the existing clients, it also tries to attract new customers by adjusting its purchasing strategies accordingly.

Benefits of Segmentation Strategies to Equate

Segmentation approaches based on demographic and personal characteristics are the most effective in the organization. These two variables have enabled Equate Petrochemical Company to align its marketing mix to meet the overarching needs of its customers and increase its revenues to $4.89 billion in 2018(Equate Petrochemicals 2019). For example, regarding the demographic variables,such as nationality, company size, and industry type, the corporation has established global branches that produce different petrochemicals on a largescale to avoid inventory stockouts and delivery delays. Similarly, segmentation based on personal characteristics,such as loyalty, attitude towards risk, and buyer-seller similarity, have allowed Equate to offer trade discounts, manufacture premium products, and nurture mutual respect to promote customer retention.

Targeting Criteria

Targeting involves the identification of particular market segments for specific content. Often, targeting comes after segmentation and denotes the act of selecting individual sections to which a firm will dedicate the more substantial part of its resources(Lindridge et al. 2013). It is a strategy that is widely applied in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. There different criteria that firms may use for identifying the segments to target

1. Segment size and growth potential–the rationale is that a section should be selected because it is of reasonable size and has the potential to facilitate the required reward
2. Measurability – a segment should be measurable concerning profitability, purchasing power, size, and scale of provision

• Profitability of Segment – the organization should be able to make profits by providing its products and services to the segment

1. Competition – the fewer the current and potential competitors, the more attractive a section is to an organization
2. Organization’s capabilities – resources and capabilities of an organization should match the needs of a segment
3. Accessibility – the segment should be accessible to the organization(Lindridge et al. 2013)

Targeting Criteria at Equate

Equate uses the segment size and growth potential criteriatoensures that the size of its segment is adequately significant tofacilitateopportunities for future growth – it focuses on regions as large as continents. The broad scope of corporate customers ensures that Equate manufactures and sells the entire six million tons of petrochemicals produced annually without experiencing inventory stockouts or shortage (Equate 2011).

Moreover, Equate uses the measurabilityand profitability of segmentcriterion to measure its market segment based on customers’ number, purchasing power, needs, and profitability. Concerning the clients’ number, Equate analyzes the number of repeat and new customers who purchase petrochemicals annually. In this regard, an increase in the number of new corporate consumers indicates that the company has to adjust its marketing mix to meet their needs effectively (Magalhães, Pereira &Frederico 2019). Additionally, it employs the purchasing power ability perspective to target financially stable firms, which can purchase and pay for the ordered stockto avoid cases of bad debts and bankruptcy.

Finally, an organizational capability is a paramount criterion incorporated by Equate to target its customers. Importantly, it has adequate and refined high-tech, human, and financial resourcesto manufacture petrochemical products (Magalhães, Pereira &Frederico 2019). For instance, it has employed over 5,000 employees and a network of branches and partnerships that spans the globe.

Targeting Approach

Targeting approach refers to the manner in which an organization will target the identified potential segments. There are various targeting approaches utilized by organizations, including:

1. Undifferentiated targeting – a relatively cheap and feasible method since all clients are treated equally, despite their vast differences
2. Differentiated targeting – seeks to treat market segments differently based on their respective characteristics

• Focused targeting – reflects the flexibility of choice where an organization may focus on a few segments due to limited resources or scarcity of the service or product offered

1. Customized targeting – is reserved for loyal or willing-to-pay customers in need of highly specialized services of products(Lindridge et al. 2013).

Targeting Approach at Equate

Equate uses theundifferentiated targeting approach to reach and connect with its customers. According to Sundermann, Boenigk, and Willems (2017), this strategy refers totreating all customers equally, irrespective of potential differences that exist in the market. For instance, the firm offers relatively standardized prices for its products to clients across the globe. Its preference for this approach arises from the fact that it is cost-effective since it eliminates additional expenses that arise from differentiating the marketing mix based on the attributes of each customer segment.

Marketing Communication Model

Generally, marketing communications denote the collective techniques employed by a firm to relay promotional messages concerning its products and services. The sole aim of the communication process in marketing is to inform and persuade targeted customers and reinforce market credibility.

Equate Communication Model

Equate’s operations marketing utilizes a relatively basic communication model to reach and connect with both local and geographically dispersed existing and potential customers.

In the model, Equate’s operations brand agency is the source of the message. The encoded message from this team includes items, such as advertisements and promotions that aim topersuade targeted customers concerning the affordability, reliability and quality of its products and services and reinforce market credibility. The firm thenengages different mediato transmit its ‘messages.’ A typical example concerns its regular updates in its news section on its website. It also positions billboards near highways and cities’ central business districts, which have high traffic,in order to increase the chances of reaching the target audience.

Subsequently, potential customers, which include corporate managers in other firms, decode the message displayed in the advertisement. At this stage, Equate hopes that this target audience will see the value of outsourcing the supply of exclusive petrochemicals from the company. On its part, Equate anticipates that potential clients would respond by choosing it as their preferred supplier. Lastly, the operations and sales manager collect feedback by researching the number of people who received and acted on the message by purchasing the brand.

Promotion Activities

Promotion activities refer to the marketing communication actionsaimed at relaying the various offers provided by an organization. Common promotion activities include:

1. Advertising – refers to all paid-for, non-personal marketing communication in which the firm involved and its products and services are identified
2. Sales promotion–involves the act of offering incentives to potential buyers to convince them to purchase in bulk or promptly – induce inadvertent buying

• Public relations – unpaid communications or press releases aimed at establishing and maintaining relations with stakeholders

1. Personal selling – involves the face-to-face sales-related interactions between a firm’s sellers and its potential buyers
2. Point-of-sale display – includes the in-shop branded display that is visible to many customers
3. Trade fairs – open exhibitions where a firm can display its products and services to potential clients(Lindridge et al. 2013).

Equate Promotion Activities

Promotion activities in Equate’soperations are aligned to the firm’s overall marketing promotions activities. These are summarized as follows.

Equate Promotion Activities

Equate employs different forms of paid commercials, such as billboards, company websites, and audio and video internet advertisements in order to market itself to the target audience. Furthermore, it uses public relations by adopting sustainability practices to create a positive reputation and image. For instance, the corporation tries to minimize its carbon emission by recycling plant water and establishing the Green Carbon Project, which supports the reuse of 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide emitted annually (Equate 2011). Apart from public relations, the corporation uses personal selling to promote its products to its customers. Notably, the sales manager organizes face-to-face meetings with corporate clients to inform them about the firm’s product offerings, the mark of quality, and the terms of sales followed by the corporation in order to deliver petrochemicals to its target audience. Lastly, Equate offers occasional discounts to its customers for purchasing inputs on a largescale. These forms of promotion present the company with several benefits.

Benefits of Promotion Activities at Equate

First of all, Equate’s public relations strategy has enabled the company to succeed in influencing customers to develop a positive perspective towards the brand. By adopting sustainability practices, Equate Petrochemical Company has managed to attract and win the loyalty of eco-friendly corporations that advocate for the adoption of sustainability practices. Additionally, advertisements have enabled the company to create product awareness and inspire their target audience to purchase their petrochemicals (Hines et al. 2011). This strategy has enabled the organization to increase its sales revenues and attract new clients. Finally, promotion activities have assisted Equate to publicize its value proposition of selling quality products to their target customers.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Equate’s operation subunit employs demographic, personal characteristics, purchasing approaches, and operating variables to segment its target market. At the same time, it applies different target segmentation criteria such as measurability, segment profitability, organizational capabilities, and growth potential. Lastly, it engages in various promotional activities such as advertising, public relations, and sales promotion to market itself to the target audience.

Reference List

Equate Petrochemical Company 2011, Sustainability report. Available from:           <https://www.equate.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Sustainability-Report-2011-           English.pdf>. [10 March 2020].

Equate Petrochemical Company 2019, Home. Available from: <https://www.equate.com/>. [10    March 2020].

Hines, AA, Henley, N, Raffin, S&Caemmerer, B 2011, ‘The application of marketing       principles to a social marketing campaign’, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 29,    no. 7, pp. 697-706.

Lindridge, A, Ali, H, Francis, G & Lucas, M 2011, Understanding marketing and financial           information, London: The Open University.

Magalhães, M & Pereira, M &Frederico, D 2019, ‘The marketing strategy and implementation      of strategic business units: How to choose a methodology of segmentation strategic      marketing?’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 1.

Sundermann, LM, Boenigk, S & Willems, J 2017,‘Under blood pressure–differentiated versus      undifferentiated marketing to increase blood donations’, International Review on Public       and Nonprofit Marketing, vol. 14, no.3, pp.321-340.