Consumer Behavior and Market SegmentationThis paper will explore how consumers and customers make buying decisions.  We will look at how Amazon uses the environmental factors of offering and price to influence the customer to purchase their products.  Amazon developed the Amazon Echo, a product most consumers did not know that they would have a need for, the Echo is a smart speaker that connects to voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service known as Alexa.  The Echo was first introduced during the 2016 Super Bowl where there would be millions of people watching.  The commercial played throughout the game, and this was the first step in the offering of the Echo to a mass targeted market.  Studies have shown that the super bowl is one of the largest watched programs on TV and it is a perfect place to introduce a new product.Whether a consumer has a need for the Echo or not, the commercial embedded the device in the minds of million and this is the first step in the consumer factors, of the buying process.  Now that there is a visual imagine of the Echo. The next step is for the customer to start researching the product, once this is done your search for the Echo is stored.  You will start seeing adsin your social media thread and even if you visit Walmart or Target the Echo will pop-up on the side as a reminder that you did a search on this item.  These advertisements start to stimuli your mind and you become more curious and start a more detailed search on the Echo.  At this point, Amazon has gathered enough information on the customers to start focusing on a targeted market.   They will market products that interest you along with the Echo and show you items others have purchased along with the Echo.  After so many ads, the customer starts to get rating about the product from online reviews and ask around.  If the ratings are good the customer will most likely purchase the Echo.  This is known as the consumer response stage.  Though, I have explained how Amazon stimuli a consumer to purchase their products.  Amazon count on the use of demographic and psychographics to segment the market.  Their segmentation is on actual purchase behavior and not the assumption or expressed interest.  Amazon targets each customer individually and converting visitors into high-value and long-term customers, using the micro-level segmentation strategies.  Amazon audience is the middle and upper-class customer who really do not have the time to go out to a shopping mall or a physical outlet to shop.  Amazon has successfully positioned itself as a “Go Global Act Local” e-commerce giant.  You can buy anything and have it shipped directly to an isolated location.Amazon EchoPerceptual Mappingmore capable, less expense, play music, order pizza, control TV                  Records/save personal infoadd calendar events                                            add calendar events              play music                Records/save personal info                                                                          cost moreMarketers, tend to predict how one would response to a product base on their thinking and behaviors.  Since we know that customers thinking and behaviors are unpredictable we must look for other ways to market to consumersAmazon uses demographic marketing, and this market is between the ages of 21 – 60, their ability to keep such a large customer base is due to the Amazon Prime membership.  Amazon membership is estimated to have 58 million members worldwide.  And the membership fee $99 a year, this membership allows the customer to purchase items at a lower rate with the option of free shipping or next day shipping.  Amazon also uses psychographic segments.  They studied their customer’s spending, hobbies, buying habits and values.  These two marketing segmentations are best used at Amazon and they are very profitable whereas, they do not need to do any other marketing.I am an Amazon shopper and I also, own the Amazon Echo, but when I shop I would consider myself a person who would like to get the best price and best quality of a product.  I did not know of the Google Home Speaker until after I purchased the Amazon Echo. I did not receive any marketing from Google about their smart speaker.  I guess as an Amazon customer I take it they did not share my search for the smart speakers with Google.I did not do a comparison of speakers until I started this assignment.  Google marketing strategies are a little different, as for searching the web and things like that I would say, Google is the number one search engine online.  But for the Google Home, I would have to say differently, because when I was in search of the Echo there was nothing to compare it to. According to Joshua Spanier, the marketing director for Google global media “Everybody on The Planet Is Our Target Audience: Google Marketing Boss”.  It seems as if Google uses a mass target marketing segment and it has fail, but failing is how they get better.  Spanier states that having a potential customer base of eight billion-plus there will never be a marketing team large enough.When trying to market to a large audience it would be difficult to pin down what the consumer spending or buying habits are.  If this is Google philosophy on marketing, then this is the reason I was not able to find any information about the Google Home smart speaker. As a consumer looking for a smart speaker device, Google was not able to target me because they did not have enough information about me as a consumer. Amazon has repositioned itself, Amazon started out as an online merchant of books.  Jeff Bezos, the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Amazon.  Amazon is now known as the largest online shopping retailer on the Web.ReferencesAmazon Prime Demographics Chart – Business Insider. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-demographics-chart-2015-1Everybody On The Planet Is Our Target Audience: Google Marketing Boss – B&T. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bandt.com.au/marketing/everybody-on-the-planet-is-our-target-audience-google-marketing-bossGoogle Home vs. Amazon Echo: A Face-Off of Smart Speakers – The New York Times. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/technology/personaltech/google-home-vs-amazon-echo-a-face-off-of-smart-speakers.html?_r=0Jeff Bezos – Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_BezosMarketing strategy of Amazon – Amazon marketing strategy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-of-amazon/