Dr. Philip Kotler defines marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments the company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate products and services.”
Let’s keep it simpler marketing is the art of finding the right customer segment which suits your product or service. Your all the marketing efforts will go into vain if you have not targeted to the right customer segment. Effective market segmentation and targeting and positioning is the key behind the success of any brand. There are four different ways to consider segmenting a market:
- Geographic
- Demographic
- Psychographic
- Behavioristic
The following are some examples of geographic variables often used in market segmentation and targeting.
- Region: by continent, country, state, or even neighborhood
- Size of metropolitan area: segmented according to size of population
- Population density: often classified as urban, suburban, or rural
- Climate: according to weather patterns common to certain geographic regions
Some demographic segmentation variables include:
Age, gender, family size, family lifecycle, income, occupation, education, marital status, nationality, religion and social class.
Many of these variables have standard categories for their values. For example, family lifecycle often is expressed as bachelor, married with no children (DINKS: Double Income, No Kids), full-nest, empty-nest, or solitary survivor. Some of these categories have several stages, for example, full-nest I, II, or III depending on the age of the children.
3) Psychographic SegmentationPsychographic segmentation groups customers according to their lifestyle. Activities, interests, and opinions (AIO) surveys are one tool for measuring lifestyle. Some psychographic variables include:
- Activities
- Interests
- Opinions
- Attitudes
- Values
Behavioral segmentation is based on actual customer behavior toward products. Some behavioristic variables include:
- Benefits sought
- Usage rate
- Brand loyalty
- User status: potential, first-time, regular, etc.
- Readiness to buy
- Occasions: holidays and events that stimulate purchases
These are the four methods by which you can identify your target market segment and plan your marketing activities accordingly.