Are your marketing dollars working as hard as they could be?

Market segmentation strategy is all about resource allocation. EquiBrand can help stretch your marketing and product development budgets by optimally aligning spending with the right target customers.

Market segmentation (also called customer segmentation) and target selection are two related concepts central to marketing strategy and plan development.

Market segmentation flows from the perspective that not all customers are alike — and individual customer groups will seek out different products and brands for different reasons.

Quantifying a customer segmentation framework gives a clear understanding of the most attractive segments, including their size, profitability, and growth potential. Resources can then be better aligned to meet customer needs, both today and in the future.

Target marketing, a related concept, is one of the most critical, though often overlooked, components in strategy development. Targeting recognizes that most companies have limited resources and therefore need to “place their bets” to yield the highest return.

Many companies are reluctant to select a core target, fearing that excluding certain groups will decrease sales. In turn, companies try to serve all customer groups equally, which can result in a diffused offering, that no one group finds appealing.

Our marketing consultants understand the key difference between 1) the more narrow “target market” (think the center of the bullseye); and 2) the broader “consumption market” that falls outside of the core, though often finds the offering appealing. Targeting, then, becomes an issue of prioritization vs. necessarily excluding customer groups.

After grouping and targeting customers, strategic brand positioning is often the next step, completing the STP (or Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning) framework .