Research On Differentiated Marketing Strategy Of High-Speed Railway Passenger Market For China Railway Corporation

ABSTRACT:As China’s high-speed railway operation distance was over 19,000 kilometers in 2015, and the daily average passenger flow by multiple units reached 2.9 million which accounting for 43.7% of the total railway passengers, China’s railway has entered the era of high-speed rail. With the acceleration of railway, high-speed railway, civil aviation and highway competed in passenger market within different distance scope. Therefore, making differentiated marketing strategy based on personalized passenger demand, carrying reasonable marketing segmentation, determining target market and positioning, these work have significant practical value for enhancing the passenger market competitiveness and passenger satisfaction.The research ideas presents as the folio wings:"reasons of differentiated marketing strategy -select which differentiated points-how to implement". The main contents of this paper include three parts. First, we comb the relevant research based on the 4P strategy and summarize lessons of foreign high-speed rail passenger marketing to provide guidance for China’s passenger market. We discuss the problems of domestic passenger marketing and stress the necessity of differentiated marketing, and then we use marketing SWOT analysis to determine the growth strategy for China Railway Corporation. Second, under the guidance of the growth strategy, we determine target market through STP analysis. We use factor and cluster analysis to segment passenger market based on consumers benefits, and divide the passenger market into four segmenting; then we estimate the segmenting according to market size, potential and competition, determining target markets positioning of efficiency, respectable and fashionable, comfort. Third, depending on the target market positioning and target customers’benefits, we design differentiated marketing strategies including product, pricing, channel and promotion strategy for the three target market.The paper presented two points uniquely. First, we use quantitative methods to segment passenger market, especially consumers’ benefits is used as the segmentation criteria. Second, this paper proposes differentiated marketing strategies to fill the theoretical research gaps. The research conclusions based on first-hand information and quantitative analyses provide suggestions for China Railway Corporation to promote competitiveness, creating more customers’ value.