Market Segmentation

Market segmentation is defined as dividing a single market into smaller

segments. The basic reason for dividing the market into small segments is to make it

simple to address the needs of smaller groups of customers and try to manufacture

different products according to their consuming habits. Particularly it is done

according to the people who have similar characteristics. It can be done on the basis

of age, gender, lifestyle, region, etc.

Segmenting a market is required by the organizations that manufacture goods or provide services so that they don't have to worry about addressing each and every individual customer but a group of customers grouped together under a category or segment. The segmentation can be based on the types of population, by age, color, sex, etc this type of classification is usually called demographic segmentation. Income, lifestyle are other factors based on which Another type of segmentation can be geographic. People would have various buying behavior depending on where they are located. This is because of the climatic conditions of that region, the tradition and culture of the people of that region. It would not make sense for a product to be marketed in a same way across the globe. Because the different regions of the world have different people with different preferences, the marketing effort also has to be suitably targeted.

Nowadays with online marketing becoming more popular the organizations that have products to sell, tend to target their customers accordingly. Here are some market segmentation examples that apply to online marketing. At the time of registration on a website, social media site such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, etc, people are also asked for their preferences and with that data companies are able to target their prospective customers appropriately. For example if a travel organization wants to send email marketing brochures to its target audience, it wouldn't be right for this organization to send email flyers to people who have never travelled or who do not have credit cards as the possibility of them ever leaving their home town are near zero. It is better to target children between 10 to 18 if the organization that is sending the email marketing brochures are selling game products such as PS2 / X-Box / Wii etc

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Howard, J. A., & Sheth, J. N. (1969). The theory of buyer behavior. New York: John Wiley &

Sons, Inc.. Johnson, R. H., & Winchell, W. O. (1988). „Educating for quality‟, Quality Progress, 2, 48-50.