Concept of Segmentation

“Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.” - Mike Volpe

According to the Kotler, strategic marketing or marketing strategy is a long-term approach to planning with the objective of achieving the sustainable competitive advantage in the market. Over the years, the process of segmentation has been widely debated as various scholars have argued regarding the variables that should be considered while segmenting the market. 

SEGMENTATION

Market segmentation is the process of dividing the market into subgroups of similar consumers where the groups comprise with several differences or market segmentation is the process of identifying the most industrious base for developing the segment description on the identification of the different segments. Through effective utilization of the segmentation, marketers can identify mature markets to discover unexplored consumers, niches with explicit needs and deliver more effective and focused marketing message. The consumer markets or market can be divided into three main classes named background consumer characteristics, consumer attitudes and consumer behaviour. 

Further, these three classes can be expanded into some subclasses which can be the most useful base for segmentation; demographics, psychographics, lifestyle, beliefs and value, life stages, geography, behaviour and benefit. The demographics segmentation involves the break down of the market by any combination; education, marital status, household, ethnicity, income, gender, age, occupation and many more where psychographic segmentation refers to the emotions and personality which is completely based on the behaviour.

Furthermore, the lifestyle segmentation refers to the vacation, entertainment, recreational; hobbies and other non-work time pursuits whereas the segmentation on the basis of values and beliefs involve cultural, nationalistic, political and religious values and beliefs. Lastly, the life tags involve chronological benchmarking of life so the people; geographic segmentation involves division on the basis of country, region, area, population density etc. and behaviour segmentation refers to the distribution channel, benefits sought, usage level, brand loyalty and the nature of the purchase.       

Segmentation is considered the most important tool in the market to specify the different customer base of the company. This tool helps the organization in creating the small subgroups or segments with an extensive market for selecting the adequate market for various brands in the market. Market segmentation is the tool which helps the marketers and owners of the organization in implementing and devising relevant strategies for promoting the products among the potential target market.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE MARKET SEGMENTATION

Considering the advantages associated with the market segmentation is that it enhances the choice of target market because market segmentation divides the heterogeneous market into some small homogenous segments. Further, the segmentation allows the marketer to acknowledge the needs of the customers and helps in saving them in an effective manner.in addition, market segmentation enables the marketing efforts to make both economic and efficient as it tries to fulfil the needs of each different segment. At last, it is also benefited the customer as it distinguishes one end user group from another.   

The major drawback of the segmentation is that it becomes an expensive proposition because a marketer faces several considerable difficulties because he/she had to develop various marketing mixes for the different segments. Further, the profitability is eroded because it is quite difficult to manage the promotional expenses and cost of keeping adequate inventory. At last, the administrative expense increases because marketers have to device varying marketing programs which suit to different segments.