Bases for Segmenting Consumer Markets
To compete more effectively, many companies are now embracing target marketing. Effective target marketing requires that marketers
- identify and profile distinct groups of buyers who differ in their needs and wants (market segmentation),
- select one or more market segments to enter (market targeting), and
- establish, communicate, and deliver the right benefit(s) to each target segment (market positioning).
This chapter focuses on the first two steps; Chapter 7 discusses the third step
Market segmentation divides a market into well-defined slices. A market segment consists of a group of customers who share a similar set of needs and wants.
The marketer’s task is to identify the appropriate number and nature of market segments and decide which one(s) to target.
We use two broad groups of variables to segment consumer markets.
Some researchers define segments by looking at descriptive characteristics—geographic, demographic, and psychographic—and asking whether these segments exhibit different needs or product responses.
Other researchers define segments by looking at behavioral considerations, such as consumer responses to benefits, usage occasions, or brands, then seeing whether different characteristics are associated with each consumer-response segment.
Regardless of which type of segmentation scheme we use, the key is adjusting the marketing program to recognize customer differences.
The major segmentation variables—
- geographic,
- demographic,
- psychographic, and
- behavioral segmentation
—are summarized in Table 6.1.
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