In advertising, marketing division or market segmentation is the technique of dividing a large consumer or industry group into smaller categories of buyers based on some sort of common characteristics. Market segmentation can be done in many different ways, including market research, target markets analysis, and market survey. Market segmentation allows advertisers to focus their marketing efforts on a smaller group of potential buyers.
With this method, advertisers can more effectively direct their messages to a smaller portion of the population. It also allows them to better control their costs. It is important to find the right criteria for classifying consumer groups. Let’s take a look at the different types of market segmentation that are commonly used. There are four types of market segmentation.
The four types of marketing segmentation are: Affographic, Demographic, Geographic, and Niche.
These could be further broken down into further categories: personalized market segmentation, which includes age, sex, education, and income. In addition, the four types of segmentation are based on four unique factors. These factors are psychographic, geographic, behavioral, and demographic division. And even these, in turn, can be broken down even further according to how they apply to a business and their target market.
Let’s take a look at these four categories. They have different characteristics that will affect the success of your marketing campaign. Therefore, they need a customized approach when you are building a successful promo campaign for a certain product. Or your business overall.
#1: Psychographic Market Segmentation
Psychographic segmentation refers to who you are as a brand. According to psychographics, you can segment the audience based on characteristics like age, gender, ethnicity, cultural heritage, socio-economic status, and interests. Psychographic also encompasses personality.
So for instance, these kind of segmentation helps you determine who you should aim for when creating a certain product. Something that might sell among millennials, will not do that wen in case of Gen X. Furthermore, psychographic division helps with determining your target’s purchasing habits. What is their priority when making a decision about buying products or services? Is it trust? Or do they search for more or less affordable pricing? Do they attach special importance to things like sustainability?
Emotion marketing, situational marketing and buying habits play an important role in this type of market segmentation. It’s one of the most important aspects of the marketing cycle and can’t be skipped when building a promo campaign.
Above, we have mentioned that there’s a special category of segmentation that includes personalization of a target market. It cam be applied to each out of this four categories and you will see how in the examples below.
#2: Geographical Market Segmentation
Geographical division is based on where you live. Location has a lot to do with who you want to reach out to. According to geography, you can categorize people based on where they reside. This is helpful in marketing different products and services. It enables you to start targeting potential customers who live close to you or have similar interests.
There are several factors to consider here. Firstly, it’s about you and your business. What will you be up against when you first start operating in a certain area. Are you a local or an outsider trying to expand in the area? What do you have to do and how you have to adjust your business to build authority in this specific geographical territory.
Geographical market segmentation has a lot to do with the market culture. Which is a subcategory of culture in general and can be differentiated from country to country (even from city to town, or city VS small villages). Even things like choosing your niche as a startup will depend on the prime geographical area of your business operation. You need a solid fundament. So something that will generate first profit quickly. This is to ensure you can continue with your business without major losses.
Some more examples of location marketing:
To give you a particular example, niche that works for a seaside town will not work well (or at all) elsewhere. You can’t start a surfing board business in an mountainous area. If you have a store in two different cities, for example, one in Chicago and one in San Francisco, you can segment the population according to its location. You might then market to people who live in Chicago but would travel to San Francisco if they wanted to buy your product. Geographic segmentation is helpful in finding new markets you can expand into.
On a global scale, major marketing elements like customer buying habits depend on the culture. In western culture people prioritize different things when making a purchase compared to the eastern cultures. The same can be said for the north and south. Biggest companies who operate on a large scale around the world have different promo campaigns for the same products. This is to adjust the campaign to the culture of a certain geographical area to maximize profit.
Geographical market segmentation helps you determine who exactly you are targeting and the most optimal things your business can do to generate profit. You have to make your target audience feel like you are a part of the community they live in. This way, you will build trust and authority which ultimately builds a successful brand image.
Specifics of location marketing when it comes to product segmentation:
Retailers can create business listings using zip codes and region-based variables. In this case, customers are grouped based on their geographical location. Marketers can also use other types of variables such as commute times and home prices to segment customers geographically. In this case, shoppers in certain areas may be more likely to buy a particular product than others.
The same way, you have to adjust your promotional campaign. For instance, let’s take marketing on social media. We know that one of the key factors to success on social media authority growth and engagement generation is timing. Using the information on commute times, local holidays and working hours will help you determine when is your target market most active. According to the data, you can schedule your posts and be sure they will be seen and engaged with.
There’s another specific thing when it comes to location marketing.
This involves identifying neighborhoods or regions. Based on the information you obtain from zip codes, you can start targeting products to potential, ideal customers within a particular area. For instance, you can target grocery stores based on the commute time they offer. This enables you to serve prospective customers who can reach your store conveniently.
A great way to reach success using zip code data and particular geographical area analysis can be achieved in a drop shipping business. Determine what is it that the residents lack and start providing them with those products. This way you establish your name as an authority and guarantee to be on top of your competitors that will emerge in the future.
Even more, you can use location marketing with influence marketing. Simply determine who is the local authority on Instagram or YouTube and offer a collaboration with them. A household name elsewhere might not work in a certain area for many reasons. You need to give people what they want.
#3: Behavioral Market Segmentation
Another important factor is behavioral segmentation. It looks at what your customers do with your product or service. Based on studies, behavior marketing has proven to be effective in reaching more consumers. However, there are also drawbacks. Behavioral market segmentation needs a bunch of lengthy and expensive studies. Which should be done by professionals. The results should then be analyzed by marketers to adjust company directory accordingly.
Behavioral market segmentation is a part of geographical and psychological one and it can be said to be a mixture of two. However, this type of division is more detailed and can focus on an individual as well as a certain group of customers. It includes elements that the other two types do not pay special attention to.
Behavioral marketing is a key factor in analyzing your market.
The age range, income level, and ethnic groups are some of the factors that you can analyze. For instance, you can target different genders with a variety of one and the same product, adjusted slightly to appeal to them. You can further break it down according to age of a certain age. If you want to target LGBTQA+ community, you should perhaps offer a special edition of gender neutral variety of the product. Which, in fact should naturally be included in your marketing campaign.
When you plan promotional campaign according to gender segmentation you might have to use different means of promotion. Even the use of social media can be varied. Pinterest and Instagram will be especially helpful in case of attracting teens, young adults and women. Twitter or Facebook could be a better option for a male audience and older adults of all gender. YouTube for Kids will be useful to target kids and their parents, but basically no one else.
Behavioral segmentation uses consumer behaviors to identify groupings of people. For example, you might segment consumers educational background, or occupational class. You cannot market luxury products in a poor area. On the other hand, you can offer those people a good quality alternatives of a luxury product at a more suitable price for their income level. Marketing for rich people and celebrities should not be too focused on price, but rather making something out of a quality material or offering them a unique experience.
Using these sub categories is crucial for the success of your business.
These behavioral sub-categories can help you predict which segments of consumers you are most likely to reach out to. So it’s not only important in a product development and post production cycle or when planning a promo campaign. Just like with every other market segmentation types, the analysis should be done BEFORE you launch your business. It guarantees profit that you need to keep going.
So in conclusion, you need to use data to predict which customers will buy what. A good example is the TV ratings. By predicting which shows are popular with the audience, you can advertise programs that are likely to gain audience appeal.
You can start to target these segments immediately after identifying your customer. However, if you don’t have identified your customer yet, it’s better to start segmenting based on demographic. Marketers can use various types of statistical tools to identify certain characteristics of individuals. For instance, using the U.S. Census, you can identify different groups of people by their age, income, gender, and other characteristics. It’s basically a ready made data on which you would have to spend lots of money otherwise.
A Wrap Up
Marketing segmentation is not just about identifying the ideal customer. First of all, it’s about you and your business. The goal of target selection is about maximizing profit in the first place. Therefore, it’s about you no matter how you look at it. The four types of market division roughly summed up include psychographic, location, behavioral and niche segmentations.
Nothing much was said about niche segmentation above but that’s simply because it largely depends on the other three. But it’s also unique in a way. To give you an example, a law firm is operation in a law industry marketing to people who seek the help of professionals in the field. Law firm niche division happens according to which area of the legal industry certain firm caters to. This could be mortgages, criminal justice or financial deals.
In any case, the four types are as closely tied together as they are unique. A business owner needs to learn to implement all into their business operation strategy from the very beginning.
Over to you:
These are just the basics about the 4 types of market segmentation. There are many more. If you’re interested in exploring the topic further, you can consult with professionals. The Internet has lots of good information and resources for this topic. Indeed, this topic is very important to understand and implement into the operation of your business no matter the niche.
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