In conversations with marketing managers, general management and CEOs, I have realized that there is still a long way to go in achieving a segmentation strategy in accordance with the consumer or buyer information that can be obtained today with such tools. powerful ones we have.
There are a series of criteria beyond the classic ones of actionability, differentiability, and discriminating power, which must be taken into account when analyzing usefulness and efficiency segmentation.
- Segmentation must be a useful tool for the purpose for which it is intended, whether to build loyalty, attract or consolidate business.
- There should not be a single segmentation in the company. There must be at least two typologies, one for communication (message, brand and positioning) and another for the development of solutions (products and services).
- Eliminate the syndrome of “colorful monikers” or PowerPoint segmentation, beautiful on paper but useless in strategy. Those segments that talk about “freedom”, “individuality”, “aspirationality”. It is the brand itself that reflects that DNA in the strategy, not in the consumers.
- The barrier of social scientists, of closed psychographic models, such as VALS, Censydiam, etc., must be overcome.
- A segmentation must be dynamic and not static, moldable over time and specific to each market. We must flee from segmentations that equally serve a market banking than for mass consumption than for technology. I've seen them and they don't work.
- The key is to understand the needs and relational model of a market or category with the consumer.
- New technologies are there to help define behavioral patterns that are relevant to the business.
- The segments found must explain on their own the motivations, needs and covered and uncovered solutions of a consumer with their market or category. This is where the opportunities come from.
- It is essential to profile beyond sociodemographic or socioeconomic elements since these are obsolete to current consumer impact requirements.
- The self-employed, the millennials or the knowmads are not a segment, they are a part of the population that in itself can be segmented. Not all millennials think, behave or have the same needs and seek the same solutions. It is a mistake to speak of them as a single set.
And from here what we need for the strategy, a motivational segmentation? by needs or need-states? for solutions? for tasks? by moments of consumption? for attitudes?
And most importantly, none of them are exclusive, it all depends on the angle with which it is analyzed.
Jordi Crespo
