The following post is an example to be used for my students in the «Marketing and Branding in the Digital Age» module. It shows how target market segmentation can be discussed in less than 300 words.

DAZN is a global sports streaming service that focuses on combat sports, mainly boxing (DAZN, 2020). Target audience characteristics need to be assessed for DAZN to market their over-the-top (OTT) service; this enables efficient and effective financial and human resources allocation to reach marketing objectives (cf. Pickton and Broderick, 2005). Mullins et al. (2018) define such a market segmentation “the process by which a market is divided into distinct subsets of customers with similar needs and characteristics that lead them to respond in similar ways to a particular product offering and marketing programme” (p. 7/4). Common segmentation bases include demographics, geographics, socio-cultural/geodemographics, psychographics/ lifestyle, and behaviour/product-related (Pickton and Broderick, 2005; Funk et al., 2016).

DAZN’s target audience is predominantly male (Zembura and Zysko, 2015; Mereu, 2020) and 25 to 44 years old (Buron, 2017; Mereu 2020). Although Hispanic viewers can traditionally be considered to express a strong interest in boxing (Iber, 2011; Heiskanen, 2012), other possible audiences need to be considered due to DAZN’s current geographic reach—i.e. Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and USA—and planned expansion to 200 countries (Businessinsider.com, 2020). Viewers of boxing are historically considered working-class (Woodward, 2007), which impacts the chosen price-point (Argyle-Robinson, 2017). A comparison of DAZN’s price in Switzerland (exemplary) shows that it charges CHF 12.90 monthly (DAZN, 2020), whereas their competitor SkySports charges CHF 25 monthly (sky.ch, 2020). The appeal of non-scripted entertainment (Sigismondi, 2012) and mobile TV for sports (Kunz, 2014) suggest a modern lifestyle where sports entertainment is but one click away, ultimately, establishing new norms regarding access and curation of sports entertainment (Hutchins et al., 2019). Hence, a variety in programming needs to be offered to keep DAZN customers from trying other OTT services (cf. Goldsmith, 2014).

To my students: Here we have it, in 291 words. In a real-life situation, of course, a proper target audience and market segmentation would be much more in-depth. Nonetheless, you can prove that you understood the company or brand you analyse in your assignment by following a similar format as the one shown above.

References:

• Argyle-Robinson, C. (2017). Why would someone pay to watch your sport? [magazine] sportcal insight, 15, Available at: https://www.sportcal.com/PDF/magazine/insight15.pdf [Accessed 14 April 2020]. 
• Buron, J. (2017). UFC vs Boxing: The combat of social media. [online] Available at: https://resources.audiense.com/blog/ufc-vs-boxing-combat-social-media [Accessed 14 April 2020]. 
• Businessinsider.com. (2020). DAZN Expanding to More Than 200 Countries and Territories. [online] Available at: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/dazn-expanding-to-more-than-200-countries-and-territories-1028957353 [Accessed 14 April 2020].
• DAZN. (2020). DAZN Media Centre. [online] Available at: https://media.dazn.com/en-us/ [Accessed 16 April 2020].
• Funk, D.C., Alexandris, K. and McDonald, H. (2016). Sport consumer behavior. Oxon: Routledge. 
• Goldsmith, B. (2013). “SporTV” The Legacies and Power of Television. In: B. Hutchins and D. Rowe, ed., Digital Media Sport: Technology, Power and Culture in the Network Society, 1st ed. New York: Routledge, pp. 53-65.
• Heiskanen, B. (2012). The Urban Geography of Boxing: Race, Class, and Gender in the Ring. New York: Routledge.
• Hutchins, B., Li, B. and Rowe, D. (2019). Over-the-top sport: live streaming services, changing coverage rights markets and the growth of media sport portals, Media Culture & Society, 41(7), pp. n/a.
• Iber, J, Regalado, S., Alamillo, J. and De Leon, A.(2011). Latinos in U.S. Sport: A History of Isolation, Cultural Identity, and Acceptance. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
• Kunz, R. (2014). Sportinteresse und Mobile TV: Eine empirische Analyse der Einflussfaktoren des Nutzungsverhaltens. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.
• Mereu, S. (2020).  Boxing to understand fan motivations for sports consumption: The Wilder vs Fury rematch. [online] Available at: https://sportsbusinessresearch.academy/2020/03/31/boxing-to-understand-fan-motivations-for-sports-consumption-the-wilder-vs-fury-rematch/ [Accessed 14 April 2020].
• Mullins, J., Walker, Jr., O.C. and Jamieson, B. (2018). Marketing. [textbook] Edinburgh: Heriot-Watt University.
• Pickton, D. and Broderick, A. (2005). Integrated Marketing Communications. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
• Sigismondi, P. (2012). The Digital Glocalization of Entertainment. New York: Springer.
• Sky.ch. (2020). Sky Sports. [online] Available at: https://sport.sky.ch/en [Accessed 16 April 2020].
• Woodward, K. (2007). Boxing, Masculinity and Identity: The ‘I’ of the Tiger. New York: Routledge.
• Zembura, P. and Zysko, J. (2015). An Examination of Mixed Martial Arts Spectators Motives and their Sports Media Consumption in Poland. Journal of Human Kinetics, 46, pp. 199-210.