Viper Strategic

The Importance of Market Segmentation

Author: Neil Wilkins

Neil learnt his marketing with the likes of Orange, NatWest, BP Castrol and Ordnance Survey and now helps individuals and businesses to communicate more effectively. He trains and mentors marketers on professional Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications through to post-graduate level.

Lo and behold market segmentation has been picked up by the Chartered Institute of Marketing's magazine 'The Marketer' with an in depth article focusing on this essential marketing technique. They advise that:

• Ensure everyone agrees it’s needed and get buy-in across the organisation
• Find specialist segmentation professionals as usual research agencies may not have the skills
• The data may not give all the answers so have a strategy about what you are trying to collect and understand
• Statistically correct answers may not exist in segmentation so expect variations
• Segmentation is as much an art as it is a science
• Ensure your outcomes and segments are simple and usable
• Survey data relies on producing averages but make sure they are meaningful
• Bring your segments to life with names and images
• Segmentation is the start of the journey to deliver better value for customers

Market segmentation is not just something that you do when you are creating your marketing plans it should be a mantra for all successful communications people. If you aren't quite sure what we mean by market segmentation or you would like to explore how you might start to do it for your organisation please get in touch because it's something we can help you with and you'll never look back and generalise about your customers again.

- Posted on Tuesday 07 Apr 2009 at 23:17 by Neil Wilkins

Tags: chartered institute of marketing (3), cim (3), communications (23), essential marketing technique (1), market segmentation (8), marketing (66), marketing plans (3), the marketer (1), viper (64)