Five Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment
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You can improve your marketing by knowing and utilizing the criteria necessary for a market segment.
To be successful your marketing must target the people most likely to buy your products or services. These people are your target market.
You need to know who your best potential customers are and the market segments that they belong to. This knowledge enhances your ability to use marketing methods and messages that appeal to your potential customers.
You need to know five criteria necessary for a market segment:
First Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Commonality Of People In The Market Segment
Second Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Heterogeneity Between Market Segments
Third Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Market Segment Can Be Identified And Counted
Fourth Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: The People In The Market Segment Can Be Reached And Persuaded To Take Action
Fifth Criteria Necessary For A Market Segments: Ability To Make A Profit
Understanding all five criteria necessary for a market segment will make your marketing more successful. The first two are covered in this article. You can get information about the other three at my blog.
First Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Homogeneity Within The Market Segment
For a segment to exist, the people in it must share characteristics that make them similar in some significant way.
For example, generations comprise market segments. Baby Boomers have certain characteristics in common. Generation Xers have certain characteristics in common, but Xers characteristics differ from Boomers’. Marketing to a Boomer the same way that you market to a Generation Xer will fail.
The more characteristics that a market segment’s members share, the more you can treat the people in that segment as a single target market.
The more alike the people in a market segment are, the easier it is to target them with the same product or service. The more they have in common, the easier it is to select appeals and language to market across the segment.
Second Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Market Segment Have Different Characteristics Than The Mass Market
For a market segment to exist, the people in the segment have to be different from everybody else in some identifiable ways.
If there are no significant differences between the people in the market segment and the mass market, you have:
No characteristics to distinguish the market segment from everybody else,
No reason to select the market segment as a target market, and
No basis to design a unique marketing mix.
When people in a market segment differ substantially from people not in that segment, it’s easier to target those people. Thus, differences between segments is a major criteria necessary for a market segment.
When segments are different, each requires a unique marketing campaign.
Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Synthesis And Recommendation
If you identify a market segment in which the people have lots in common, but are quite different from people in other market segments, you have the beginning of a successful marketing campaign.
Still you need to assure that you can determine how many people are in the segment and if there are enough of them for a good return on your marketing investment. You also should know that they will take actions like joining your list or buying your product.