Sulbing Critic - Successful Geographic Segmentation by Pinpointing

Sulbing has implemented successful geographic segmentation by pinpointing where – domestically and globally – Sulbing should open branches. Sulbing situated a majority of their domestic branches in the following cities: Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Suwon, Degu, Dejeon, and Gwangju. These locations have a higher average income, population, and desert café culture that will result in the largest profit for their business. On an global scale, East Asia Pacific has seen a steadily growing market demand for frozen desserts – such as ice cream or bingsoo – so it would be appropriate to introduce Sulbing to locations of China and Japan where this demand is growing, there is an existing dessert café culture, and most importantly, are likely to already be aware of what bingsoo is – saving future trouble in acquiring customers quickly enough to maintain branch locations.

By examining the price and size of Sulbing to the average price and size of bingsoo at other dessert cafés, it can be concluded that Sulbing has on average a larger portion of bingsoo and topping for the price. While Jae Day stated that paying on average 7-8,000 won for one bingsoo is not targeting price-sensitive consumers but only targeting quality-sensitive consumers, this is not the case. Customers have come to demand reasonable of price what they pay for. One portion of bingsoo at Sulbing is not meant for one person, but for 2-3 people. By portioning their product to be large enough for up to 3 people and pricing their product in the average 7-8,000 won range, I believe that Sulbing is straddle positioning with a POP of affordable, bingsoo/dessert and a POD of premium ice and unique toppings – similar to how Subway operates their business. Thus, their targeting should not include people who prefer quality desserts over economical prices, but should include both price-sensitive and quality-sensitive consumers.

Furthermore, it is an incorrect conclusion according to the analysis