Hewlett Packard, better known as HP, is a major manufacturer of computer hardware in the computer industry. The computer industry serves a variety of customers, ranging from typical home users who surf the web to multinational conglomerates. HP’s products consist of a variety of computer equipment including desktops, laptops, printers, monitors, and servers. HP designs and markets these products to server the entire computer industry. In order to better meet the needs and expectations of all of their customers, HP segments their customers into three categories. HP’s first category consists of home users and small office or home businesses. HP attempts to meet their needs by offering lower end performance computers that are more economical for customers with limited funds. The second category for HP consists of small and medium size businesses. The equipment HP offers at this level is more expensive then the equipment offered to the first category, but the equipment is also of a higher quality. The third and final category is targeted to meet the needs of large enterprise businesses and conglomerates. The equipment at this level is the most expensive but it is also HP’s top of the line equipment. HP attempts to reach their target markets through store-based retailers like Best Buy or Circuit City, online retailers like CDW and Insight, and by reaching the customer directly through HP’s website. HP also has a partnership program where computer consulting firms can apply to become authorized to sell HP products. This is extremely helpful for HP to reach their larger customers since the complexity of a computer solution for their large customers is generally higher then that of their low and midrange customers.
Even though HP reaches a great dea ...