Week 4 Part A: Defining Target Markets

    The two businesses I picked for this assignment are the natural food stores, which are Cream of the Crop and sprouts. The demographics for these two aren't too different. Sprouts definitely targets people around the United States, while Cream of the Crop targets people only in Oceanside and areas around it. Some psychographics are that Sprouts is for people who value more options when deciding what they are buying. People who buy from Cream of the Crop are people who value helping local businesses. People who shop at Cream of the Crop also value buying products made locally.

    Immediately after starting to look at both websites, I noticed that Cream of the Crop's website had a lot of empty space. Spouts' website is full of many things which draw your attention to it. Compared to Cream of the Crop's website it has almost no empty space. There is also more stuff to click on Sprouts' website. Sprouts' website has pictures that look more professional compared to Cream of the Crop's website. Cream of the Crop's website also doesn't have much information listed about the products they are selling. Some of the more subtle things I noticed are that when you look next to Cream of the Crop's link at the top of the page, it says "not secure". I feel like this might scare some customers away. Sprouts doesn't have that problem. I imagine that since you aren't really giving any sensitive information on Cream of the Crop's website, they aren't in too much of a hurry to fix it. Another small thing I noticed is that Cream of the Crop's website asks you for your email too many times.

    Their two types of customers definitely have some crossover. They have demographics both include people who have more money. If their customers didn't have very much money they would be looking for cheaper alternatives. Their psychographics also crossover because their customers tend to be people who value health. Both businesses' customers value organic foods rather than other food types. The type of customers they both have care more about the food they are eating rather than chasing the best deals at the cheapest supermarket.

    Cream of the Crop's website attracts people who are more minimalistic compared to Sprouts' customers. From looking at Cream of the Crop's website, it looks like their customers are more mature and older. They also need to not care as much for brand names and care more for the quality of the products themselves instead of anything else the brand has that might be a bit lower quality. Cream of the Crop's customers also seem to be more loyal to that Cream of the Crop than Sprouts' customers. Cream of the Crop's customers want to come back to that business over and over.

    Sprouts customers also want more options when they buy products. They also want to try new things and try things they might not get to try again. Sprouts customers want more deals than Cream of the Crop's customers. Sprouts customers want an easier experience when shopping for what they are looking to buy. Their customers generally want to look for anything that they might be interested in buying or finding new products they haven't seen at other stores.