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The Forest is Made Up of Trees: Market segmentation allows you to divide your market into manageable pieces. By dividing your market into smaller pieces you can focus more of your efforts on those groups where you expect a higher return on your investment. The other benefit that market segmentation provides is that it gives you the opportunity to develop messages for specific target groups. Finally, market segmentation allows you to be very specific when you are looking at results. For example, overall sales trends may hide significant changes in one or more of your target populations.
Market segmentation studies provide you with the who, what, where, when and how of your market. The benefit of using off-the-shelf market segmentation systems is that they have segmented every household in the United States so they can be used to identify households or neighborhoods that fit the characteristics you are looking for. Off-the-shelf systems may also be tied to media usage. In some instances though, it is desirable to develop a local segmentation system. The drawback to off-the-shelf systems is that they may not be designed for your specific market. You may need a system that specifically represents your customers. In addition to being familiar with existing segmentation systems, I also have the ability to develop a segmentation system that is unique for your business or industry.
Customers and markets are constantly changing. One of my primary interests is developing processes and procedures that will promote ongoing organizational learning. Once the initial analyses have been completed and specific actions have been identified, I will help you design processes for implementing those actions and measuring the outcomes. The goal is to develop a knowledge loop where actions are taken, outcomes are measured and processes are modified to adapt to ongoing changes.
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