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 Analysis: market segmentation, targeting and brand positioning
Source: Ventures Africa
Industry & Policy

Analysis: market segmentation, targeting and brand positioning

by Grace Akinosun July 24, 2018 8 min read

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation is the analysis that determines, how an organization divides its customers with supported characteristics, this can range from differentiating characteristics such as age, income, behaviour and even temperament. This division can later be familiar with optimizing products and advertising to entirely totally different customers.

At its core, market segmentation implies the division of your target market into approachable groups. This creates subsets of a target market supported by demographics, common interest, priorities, needs, and totally different psychographic or behavioural criteria accustomed to a higher target market.

Types of Market Segmentation

With segmentation and targeting, you get to grasp the organisation market and also understand how your market will respond during a very given state of affairs, like obtaining your merchandise. In several cases, a prophetical model is also incorporated into the study in order that people that are classified inside known segments supported specific answers to specific survey questions.

Geographic Segmentation

For a set of demographics, geographic segmentation is often the best. This creates totally different target client teams that are supported by geographical boundaries.

Demographic Segmentation 

Demographic segmentation focuses on components like age, education, position, family size, race, gender, occupation, income, among others.

It is one of the commonly used sorts of segmentation as a result of the merchandise and services we tend to purchase, however, we tend to use those merchandise, and the willingness to pay on them is most frequently supported by demographic factors.

Firmographic Segmentation 

Firmographic segmentation is similar to demographic segmentation, the major distinction is that while demographics explore people, firmographics focus on organizations. Firmographic takes into thought things like company size, range of staff.

Behavioural Segmentation 

This classifies groups by behaviours and decision-making patterns like purchase power, consumption, lifestyle, and usage. For example, younger consumers would be illustrated to buy a body wash, whereas older shopper teams could lean towards soap bars.

 Psychographic Segementation

Problems around the psychological aspects of buyers’ behaviour.

Evaluating targeted segments for an organizational context

Evaluating Targeted Segments

Market segmentation need not be complicated to be effective. These are 5 steps of segmentation.

  • Conduct preliminary analysis: Get to understand your customers by asking some initial, open-ended questions.
  • Determine the way to phase your market: Decide the criteria or you wish to phase your market by.
  • Design your study: Raise a mixture of demographic/firmographic, psychographic, and activity queries. take time and patience to create your queries quantitatively.
  • Create your client segments: Analyze your responses either manually or with applied math computer code to determine your segments.
  • Test and restate: Appraise your segments by guaranteeing that they are usable and useful. If they are not, attempt to segment different criteria.

After you determine your segments, to evaluate the segmentation these analyses must go through the following;

    • Measurable: Measurable implies that identified segmentation proponents are directly related to purchasing a product
    • Accessible: Your segment’s characteristics and behaviours ought to assist you to establish the most effective means to meet them. For instance, you will notice that a key section is immune to technology and consider them unfit while putting confidence and faith in newspaper or radio ads to listen to and know more about store promotions, whereas another section is best reached on your mobile app
    • Substantial: The market section should have the power to buy
    • Actionable: The market phase should manufacture the differential response once exposed to what the market provides. This suggests that each of your segments should differ and distinctive from one another.

Designing a differentiated brand position for targeted segments for an organizational context. Market segmentation cannot be said to be a precise science. As you go through the method, you will understand that segmenting supported behaviours does not provide you with the exact segments, however, behaviour will. You will wish to ingeminate on your findings to make sure you have found the simplest work the requirements of your promoting, sales and merchandise organizations.

A Differentiated Brand Position For Targeted Segments.

Understanding sections start with learning concerns that are assorted with ways in which a market can be segmented. There square measure four primary classes of segmentation, and they are illustrated below:

Demographic

Segment

(B2C)

Firmographic

Segment

(B2B)

Psychographic

Segment

(B2B/B2C)

Behavioural

Segment

(B2B/B2C)

DefinitionBased on individual attributesBased on organization attributesBased on attitudes, aspirations, values, and other criteriaBased on behaviours like product usage, technology laggards, etc.
ExamplesGeography Gender Education Level Income LevelIndustry Location Number of Employees RevenueLifestyle Personality Traits Values OpinionsUsage Rate Benefit Types Occasion Purchase Decision
Decision CriteriaYou are a smaller business or you are running your first projectYou are a smaller business or you are running your first projectYou want to target customers based on values or lifestyleYou want to target customers based on purchase behaviours
DifficultySimplerSimplerMore advancedMore advanced

 


About the Researcher

Lanre Ogungbe is a Business Development Strategist who is delighted in thinking about abstract ideas and writing on a variety of subjects.

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