Susan has passed along quite a bit of information about the local and national dog grooming market. In order to develop a clear picture of your target market, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Begin by reading Susan's email: This will provide you with instructions and relevant documents that you will need to do your assignment.

2. Download the attachments: You should download the attachments to Susan's email as they provide important background information and the tools you will need to complete your assignment. To download the attachments:

• Right-click on the link in the e-mail and select "Save target as..." OR open the link and then save the document.

• Save the document on your desktop or in a folder that you can easily access.

3. Review the information Susan provided.

• Begin to build your familiarity with the motivations of dog grooming consumers by first reviewing the cluster diagram created by Tom Blanchard. In that diagram, Tom organized survey respondents according to two criteria—the importance of price and the importance of convenience. When he did that, he was able to identify three main “clusters” or groups of respondents.

• For each of these groups, Tom summarized some of their other survey responses. Review his summary of survey responses by cluster to learn more about each group of respondents.

• Read through the “fact sheet” provided by Tom for information on national and local trends in pet ownership and consumer spending on pet goods and services.

• Finally, review the Groomer’s Quarterly article to learn a bit more about the professional dog grooming business.

4. Open the Mobile Dog Grooming Market Overview, which is an Excel workbook attached to Susan's email. In this workbook, Susan began to analyze the information she received from Tom Blanchard. Your job is to continue this analysis.

5. Make a list of questions you would want answered in order to understand the potential size of the Empire City mobile dog grooming market. For example, how many pets are in Empire City? How frequently does each pet get groomed? How many consumers use professional grooming? How much do they spend on other pet-related categories? Each question should become a data row in your mobile dog grooming market overview. Review the available data about pet grooming and describe the size of the Empire City mobile dog grooming market in the Excel workbook.

6. Next, you’ll need to analyze the cluster diagram and survey results. First, identify the cluster that you feel would be most likely to utilize Petopia’s mobile dog grooming service. Next, try to describe Petopia’s target consumer. Remember to target Petopia’s market specifically and to use demographic, psychographic, and behavioristic factors in your description.

7. Proceed to the worksheet: Click the "Open assignment worksheet" link above in order to record your conclusions by answering the following questions:

• How big (in terms of number of customers, and in terms of revenue) is the potential dog-grooming market in Empire City? Summarize how you arrived at that figure.

• Describe Petopia’s target market.

• Based on your research into the target market, would you suggest to Susan any refinements or additions to your vision for Petopia?

What Next: Click "What do the experts have to say about defining Petopia's target market?"

When you're done, click "Open assignment worksheet" to get started with your work.