Of Hico: Segmenting

STDP of Hico
SEGMENTING
Geographic:
At the start the only market Hico served was Lahore. After the year 1997 they expanded there
business and entered in other cities as well including Karachi, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and
Peshawar. Hico covers Punjab Cities more strongly because they are closer to its Lahore factory.
Hico has near 20% share of Lahore ice-cream market.
Demographic:
Hico has ice-cream for nearly all demographic segments. They have Ice Lollies and Creamy Pops
for kids. For teenagers they are offering Mega New Bar, Mega Cone and Cups. For the families
they have all there flavors in family take away packs.
Behavioral segment:
Hico is the only company which is offering the Diet ice-cream for those people who have diabetes
problem or are diet conscious. It is a large untapped market segment which Hico is serving.
Targeting:
The question of target market is pivotal for any organization’s success. Organization stake special
care while identifying and defining their target markets. On one end the target markets can provide
new horizons and on the other hand a wrong selection can play havoc with company’s resources
and image. Earlier the management of Hico Company did not define their target market properly
and there was no segmentation of customers. As stated earlier, customers use to come to factory
and buy the ice-cream. Hico has somewhat established its marketing department now and the
segment there target market as follows:
Positioning:
Hico does not do proper formal advertising through TV, internet, radio etc; the most common
mediums of communicating with mass audiences targeted by Hico. However, it does print some
ads on some magazines and sometimes, uses local cable channels for advertising.
The key strength of Hico ice-creams is its heritage. According to companies management
institutional buyers and general consumers use to queue outside the factory and get there ice-
cream. Even today Hico has very good reputation among the bulk quantity or B2B buyers.
Freddie’s café and Pearl Continental are also in the list of its buyers enjoying high customer loyalty
among these consumers. Hico can well use this in its ads to cash its competitive advantage.
Another of key strengths is Hico’s family take away packs and its product with unique flavors like
Paraline and Oreo cookies. Not only that they are unique flavors, Hico also takes advantage of
using co-branding strategy with a very well know brand Oreo. Also, its Ice-creams are made of
milk and butter purely unlike Walls and other competitors making it the only pure dairy ice cream.
The primary weakness of Hico ice-creams is it’s not so strong marketing, no proper positioning,
low brand equity and multinational rivals. Walls ice-cream, for example, uses its international
experience and R&D to come with very high quality products and popular tastes.
Hico has a very week distribution network being out of stock even at major retail stores. There
trolleys are also not as much present as walls trolleys are. It also has unattractive packaging as
compared to competitors.
Also, it does not offer as many flavors as Walls and others have come up with. It still has an image
of a fun loving brand that focuses on high quality, purity of ice cream and is serving a niche being
economical at the same time. But that affordability comes into practice more in its family packs,
some consumers just simply view it as a low quality product mainly because of its low marketing
activities. This issue needs to be catered on a serious note.
Question1:
Who are our target customers?
Answers:
Hico uses geographic, demographic and behavioral segmentation to segment its market. Hico
primarily serves Lahore market, and it also has presence in Karachi, Faisalabad, Multan,
Rawalpindi and Peshawar. Each city differs slightly in their needs and cultures. Hico have products
for kids, teens and families. Each of these demographic segments has different needs and different
motivational factors to take ice-cream. Hico also targets health conscious people with their diet
ice-cream.
Question2:
Where can we best reach them?
Answer:
sTelevision is a media almost ubiquitous among our target market. More over internet has also
become a media of choice for many. Then there are always newspapers and magazines. Launch of
many trendy FM channels also provide us with a new choice of media.
Question3:
How do we want to position our company in the market?
Answer:
The basic message we want delivered is that Hico is pure dairy ice-cream. We will have three
different messages for three target market segments that we will be positioning. For kids the
message will be that Hico ice-creams are nutritious and eaten by super heroes. Hico cannot use
heroes like Superman, Spider man or Batman because they have copyrights with their respective
owners. However, Hico can create its own story around a “Hero” character. There have been
examples in the past where companies created their own stories, Ding Dong bubble gum had a
story centered around a cat and more recently Safe guard has been running a campaign with
a super hero character “Captain safe guard”. The nutritional factor in the advertising message will
give satisfaction to parents that Hico ice-creams will not harm their child’s health.
For teens and college going students we will position Hico ice-creams as a first choice for a dessert
when hanging around with friends. In our positioning campaign we will show Hico ice-creams as
inciting sentiments. This positioning theme is used by almost all of our competitors. We will
differentiate our positioning campaign by adding an element of humor in our campaigns.
For family the positioning campaign will deliver the message of a dessert to be taken at festive
occasions. Positioning campaign will show a gathering of people all having a great time. They will,
of course, be taking Hico ice-creams. We will also position unique flavors of Hico like Praline and
Oreo Cookies flavor as classic delicacies. These delicacies will be shown taken in parties set
around a very sophisticated and delicate themes.

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STDP of Hico

Who are our target customers?

Where can we best reach them?

How do we want to position our company in the market?

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