Segmentation
Knowledge Base
Segmentation is an invaluable tool for companies seeking to increase market share. But many companies are not implementing effective segmentation strategies. Even household names can be guilty of schemes that purport to be segmentation, but which in fact are merely data-enabled selling schemes.
Companies know that they need to meet the customer’s wants – what they don’t know is how to do this. Data offers some useful clues, but it can’t give the whole picture. Squeezed on one side by maturing markets, and on the other by merciless price-cutting, many companies struggle to compete in today’s post mass-market arena. The result can be undifferentiated offerings that fail to please anyone.
So far this issue has mainly affected consumer companies. But segmentation is now becoming a real concern for b2b markets, as their markets mature as well.
The answer for these companies is to engage in real segmentation, rather than data collecting and guesswork. The Devil and the Deep Blue A, B or C calls on marketers to address this lapse in marketing thinking by focusing on context, instead of outmoded concepts of ‘the customer’.