Market Segmentation Strategies

Market Segmentation Strategies

Market segmentation strategies have documented a lot of benefits of the successful implementation of marketing plans. In order to understand the strengths of the Market Segmentation Strategies in business, it is very important to fully grab the meaning of Market Segmentation itself. Let’s just have an eyeball of Segmenting the Broad Market.

Creating subsets of a broader target market that have similar or common needs and desires is segmentation. Marketers may choose to serve a single segment or two or three segments at the same time based upon the common needs, interests, and priorities of the end consumers, business customers for B2B selling, or offshore countries. Proper Market Segmentation enables the Companies to market the products and design and implement the Market Segmentation Strategies to target the subsets of the market.

Designing and Executing the Marketing plan requires precise and clear Market Segmentation Strategies. Furthermore, the Segmentation Strategies define and identify the targeted customers and help the marketer to decide the product positioning strategies depending on the product and product lines offered by the company. In order to come up with executable marketing and advertising plan, the company must design the business activities to accomplish the marketing goal and objectives.

Types of Market Segmentation Strategies

• Geographic Segmentation Strategy
• Demographic Segmentation Strategy
• Behavioral Segmentation Strategy
• Psychographic Segmentation Strategy
• Occasional Segmentation Strategy
• Cultural Segmentation Strategy

Geographic Segmentation Strategy

This Market Segmentation Strategy answers the WHERE question for the marketers and the company. Where to serve, market, or sell the company’s product?

Geographic Segmentation is the Star of all the Market Segmentation Strategies means dividing the market according to the geographical regions for example continents, countries, and regions. So this provides the Companies a clear snapshot of the end consumer based upon their location and specific requirements of that area.

Hence this Strategy enables firms to consider the similarities and dissimilarities between the customers residing at a geographical location, Cultural disparities, and climate. In fact weather conditions between geographical locations and language barriers; ultimately help the marketer to efficiently market the products.

Demographic Segmentation Strategy

This Market Segmentation Strategy answers the WHO question for marketers and organizations. Whom to serve, market, or sell the company’s product?

Dividing the market based on the demographic variables such as age, sex, generation, income, social class, race, family lifecycle, occupation, religion, level of education, Qualifications, and the actual and perceived benefits; the brand or product or service; may deliver.

Understanding and closely identifying the needs wants, trends, usage rate, and frequency of the end consumers is essential for the successful implementation of Market Segmentation Strategies. Moreover measuring end consumer preferences for brands, products, and finished goods by marketers is commonly used to execute the Marketing Plan.

Behavioral Segmentation Strategy

The end users today are mostly style oriented and prefer to spend for the uniqueness of the product or brand; something that tells or depicts their unique stature, style, and personality.

Many marketers place the variables associated with behavior as the most effective base for market segmentation. In this type of strategy, the users are divided into segments. So according to their usage behavior i.e. when they use the product. Moreover, what is the frequency of the use of the product, and what quantity of the product is consumed?

Psychographic Segmentation Strategy

Opinions, interests, and activities mostly referred to as lifestyles are studied to develop Psychographic based market segments. In this type of segmentation, the marketers determine users based on their leisure activities and the factors by which users are most responsive and get influenced.

Psychographic segmentation is usually done for high end & luxurious products. Mass media usually helps this segmentation strategy attain desired results by inculcating a better-targeted lifestyle in users’ minds.

The most interesting tactic out of all the Market Segmentation Strategies that marketers nowadays use is segmenting the market psychographically. Therefore playing in the market based upon consumers’ social class, trends, lifestyles, personality traits, living patterns, and buying interest helps the companies in brand building and collecting a significant market share.

Hence assuming that the brands and products will define the personal characteristics of the buyer. Actually, that is the key to the successful implementation of the Marketing Plan.

Occasional Segmentation Strategy

The quite simple and interesting market segmentation strategy that now multinational companies are opting for is the Occasional Segmentation Strategy. So identifying and analyzing the occasions on which the brand, product, or service may be used; independent of the consumers, users, or customers is segmenting the market according to the Events. Taking into consideration a soft drink company; the product is being marketed based on the Event of Thirst without considering the differences in the income, buying power, and personal stature of the product consumer.

Using Customer Segmentation and Event Segmentation in conjunction with each other creates a model of Occasional customer segmentation. This strategy enlightens the marketers about the impact on customers’ behavior and needs under various occasions of time & usage. The uniqueness of this segmentation model is manifested in the attribution of more than one segment depending on customers’ circumstances.

Cultural Segmentation Strategy

The name indicates this strategy relies on the cultural dimensions of the society.  However dividing the market according to the population proportions according to the region, territory or state is Cultural Segmentation. Thus the consumer buying pattern and usage rate largely depend upon the cultural dimensions.