Marketing segments are more than just an approach which marketers use.
Every customer develops a need for a product and, as companies, we develop a product that serves best a group of customers. That is why you can choose among, for example, hundreds of shampoos that have specific features such as natural ingredients or that work for a specific problem. If the only reason to exist was to clean your hair, there wouldn’t be so many options!
At Twelve12, we want to help you understand the need to identify and understand your particular segment with the help of our Orange County marketing team.
The first step is to identify the basic need. In the case of shampoo, the basic need would be a cosmetic product that cleans hair. You will find that there are a lot of people who have this need, but not everyone has the same preference. This is where the segmentation of your target begins.
Following the same example, we could identify two basic groups also: a feminine group and a masculine group, where the needs are different. Hormones play a huge role in how one’s hair is affected, and while feminine hormones tend to dry the hair or make it thinner, masculine hormones tend to minimise hair growth. It is easier to see this basic segmentation at the supermarket aisle, where many shampoo brands have the words “body”, “shine”, and “conditioning” in the labels for feminine products and the words “clean”, “fresh”, “anti-hair loss” in the male section.
As you get deeper and deeper into the character of a brand, you will be able to see that it is so specialized that there’s a whole family of products that do exactly the same thing, but with different scents or natural components that add value to the product. I use this example because is very easy to understand how deep you can go when you want to segment your audience and/or develop a product for a very specific need.
Both sides of the spectrum (highly specialized and generic) work for some products, and you need to choose where to stand based on what works in your particular case. If you are not sure where you should be, we suggest you try and place your product just about the middle and leaning towards a specialized choice, and see if it has a better performance than before. It is easier to adjust your strategies and products from that position than from the periphery.
If you want to know more about marketing segments for your Orange County marketing, give us a call today. Twelve12 will be delighted to hear from you and answer all of your questions.