A specific product or service does not turn out to be attractive to all consumers, especially if one takes into account the large number of buyers in a market and that each of them represents different expectations, hopes and needs.
Each person is a potential consumer, you are, I am, we all are, of what? You, for example, if you are reading this information article, I also had to consume information to be able to write it, your neighbor who is a pork consumer, your friend who is a music consumer, etc., etc., etc. For this reason, companies have the need to identify the most attractive parts of their markets.
In the past, companies promoted their products massively, there were relatively few companies and little competition, but today, competition is much more acute, the number of companies grows exponentially and consumers are more demanding, these factors, among others, force firms to specialize, to find their place in the market and to produce with the client and their satisfaction in mind.
Consumer market segmentation consists of dividing a market into different groups of buyers who may need different products or marketing mixes. For example, the cereal market (in which brands such as kellogg's, nestlé, cap'n crunch, etc. act) is divided into several groups, one would be that of people who eat cereal mainly looking for nutrition, others will look for the flavor, others a mixture of the two, others a healthy digestion, others… For each of these groups the manufacturing firms have developed different products, sweets and chocolate for those who prefer the flavor, those that contain more fiber for those looking for a healthy digestion, those that contain greater nutritional components (vitamins, proteins…) for those looking for better nutrition…
Although markets are generally segmented under some basic criteria, income level, age, sex, occupation or place of residence, there is no single way that serves to segment any market, the different variables must be examined and mixing, to determine which ones will be truly valuable when segmenting the market.
The most used variables are:
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Geographic |
Country, city, region, community, neighborhood, neighborhood, climate, size of the city,… |
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Demographic |
Age, sex, family nucleus, income, occupation, education, race, religion, marital status, nationality,… |
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Psychographic |
Social class, lifestyle, personality,… |
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Behavioral |
Attitude towards the product, purchase rate, purchase occasion, benefits sought,… |
Let's talk a bit about each one.
Geographical Segmentation: division of the market into different geographic units, nation, state, city,… Companies generally operate in certain geographic areas and although with the internet they can reach the whole world, companies like AOL and Yahoo! They segment markets in such a way that there is AOL Argentina and Yahoo Spain for example, because people's customs change from region to region, from country to country, from city to city…
Demographic Segmentation: divide the market into groups based on demographic variables such as those presented in the table. It is the most popular of the segmentations and is the easiest way to differentiate consumer groups, since preferences are often closely related to these variables. An example of demographic segmentation is the automobile market, where there are several ranges that target different market segments, depending on their income level. Renault, for example, produces cars of the three ranges, high-end for high-income people (Renault Laguna), mid-range for middle-income (Renault Mègane) and low-end for middle-income (Renault Twingo), of course with those prices in What are the cars, they all look high-end.
Psychographic Segmentation: divides consumers into different groups based on their social class, their lifestyle, or their personality characteristics. The example of Renault cars can also serve us in this case. A Renault Laguna attacks the segment of people who, in addition to having high incomes, lead an executive life, they are not people who have to travel through difficult roads or travel continuously to the countryside. A Renault Megane from the Scenic line, for example, can be aimed at people with a family lifestyle, who go out with their partner and children in the same car for a walk. A Renault Twingo attacks the segment of single people, with a more youthful rhythm of life, who do not have large families and are married at most.
Behavioral Segmentation: division of buyers based on the occasion, their knowledge, attitude, use or response to a product. An example of a purchase occasion, home furniture, your purchase usually occurs when a couple gets married, when a new member of the family is expected, when the little one has grown enough to leave his crib or when the used ones deteriorate, it is not usual for a family to change everyone's beds annually.
Segmentation of industrial markets can be carried out based on many of the variables used in consumer markets, it can be segmented geographically or by behavioral variables, for example. The most common ways in which they segment industrial markets are: by end-users and by customer size.
For segmentation to be useful, it must have the following characteristics: measurability, the degree to which the segmentation variable can be measured; accessibility, the degree to which the different segments can be reached and served effectively; sustainability, the degree to which the segments are large and profitable enough, and drive, the degree to which effective programs can be formulated to attract and serve the segments.
Minimum Conditions
If all buyers of the same product buy the same quantities weekly, consider that all brands of that product are the same and want to pay the same price, that market would be minimally segmentable.
