Market segmentation strategies are the key to a company getting their message across to the right people at the right time. With the high volume of information available to every consumer due to the internet and other technology, a company without a segmentation strategy will struggle to be as successful and profitable as they might otherwise be.
There are a number of market segmentation strategies that intelligent marketers can call upon, depending on the product or service that is being market, and on the availability of information to the marketer. In general, the more information a marketer has at his or her disposal, the more segmentation they will be able to consider.
One primary opportunity for market segmentation is demographics. This is especially important in business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. Companies can gather information on gender, age, race, and more in order to target their potential customer base with specific messages. There is a big difference in the needs, wants and attitudes of a Caucasian teen-aged girl as compared to an African-American, male senior citizen. Companies who can get their demographic segmentation right will have a big advantage over those who cannot.
Another area is geographic segmentation. Depending on where the potential customers live, marketers can send messages, place advertising or do other things with a regional or a country focus to reach their market. One area where this has been working very well for some marketers is in the many “daily deal” coupon sites that have sprung up around the world, especially in the USA.
For those marketers who deal more in a business-to-business (B2B) environment, another market segmentation strategy is to break up the market by industry or customer type. For example, a company selling automotive tires to corporate fleets may look differently at markets such as law enforcement, schools, and construction companies, because of their very different needs and product usage requirements. They may also have a group of industries that they keep together because their needs do not vary widely. For example, insurance brokers and pharmaceutical reps may be in different industries, but they have virtually the same needs for tires.