Understanding the Customer: Segmentation and Marketing

Segmentation must be seen as a process that involves marketers in many areas and at many different stages in the marketing process. Marketing research will be used to identify different customer groups with different product needs and these will be translated by product developers into product benefits. There is no single way to segment a market. A marketer has to try different segmentation variables to find the best way to view the market structure.

Segmentation is the process of splitting customers, or potential customers, in a market into different groups, or segments, within which customers share a similar level of interest in the same or comparable set of needs satisfied by a distinct marketing proposition.

This Calvin Klein advert represents several layers of segmentation: youth, gender, wealth and a lifestyle interest in fashion. The brand name keys into the young market using text messaging in shorthand.

"I don't know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everyone." Bill Crosby

There are different types of segmentation which further helps marketers target consumers with more specific variables. These include geographical segmentation which divides the market into different geographical units, demographic segmentation which divides the market into groups based on demographic variables such as age, gender, occupation, religion and nationality, life-cycle segmentation which offers products or marketing approaches that recognise the consumer's changing needs at different stages of their life. Psychographic segmentation which divides a market into different groups based on social class, lifestyle of personality characteristics and behavioural segmentation which divides a market into groups based on consumer knowledge, attitude and the use or response to a product.

Adverts will not be successful if they do not bear any relevance to the needs and interests of the target audience. Detailed customer profiles should be developed for all market segments with an exact description of participants. For example, television or magazine adverts would not necessarily catch the eye of an elderly person as their wants and needs are not the same as they would be for a person in their 20's or 30's. This could be due to the upbringing of an elderly person in a different era where they lived through the war and experienced rationing so they are likely to use products that they are familiar with and will not be influenced by wanting to use the highly fashionable porducts on the market. The younger generation would be more attracted to adverts promoting beauty or fashion products as there is always the pressure to follow the latest trends and products that keep you looking younger for longer.

"Segment, segment, segment! Dark and Lovely cuts the market several ways to find their niche: race, age, gender and lifestyle (organics)." The advertising archives.