Consumer segmentation is probably one of the most important pre-cursor to devising any marketing campaign. Know your customer before, then pitch your product!
To define in crisp and short way, Consumer segmentation is defining your target audience/consumer group, the one that you want should use your product. All your marketing and communications are designed keeping in mind this target group. Now it is not just consumer segmentation but has evolved into higher study of consumer profiling.
We at Cobaltqube media have been working with brands day in and day out and our most prized tool at identifying the right segmentation for the brands we work with is Hemingway’s Iceberg model. With iceberg model as the basis for consumer profiling, we tend to cover all the important aspects and get into great details with our marketing strategy.
When we worked on a Kannada psychological thriller movie, Bhinna, it was one of the most challenging product to market. How do you define who wants to watch a psychological thriller? Why would they want to watch it? Is it for thrills or for the horror chills? What is the right consumer profile – eccentric, intelligent or unconventional? Is there a standard definition to it? Well, that discussion is for another time. However, the point I am trying to make here is that just knowing the demographics of your consumer segment is not enough anymore, you have to lodge yourself into depths of consumer profiling and hit the sweet spot with your marketing strategy!
Even you jump right into implementation phase of your marketing strategy without considering your consumer segmentation you wont be able to get half as far. For example, today the social media marketing is the most crucial part of any digital marketing campaign and any agency will claim to be good at it right off the bat, but are they following the right steps? Most of the platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn which have billions of users today, they understand how crucial consumer segmentation/profiling is to get to the right audience and provide their inbuilt tools to define the target audience/consumer segment in great detail. So what’s the point of delving into it without working on the storyboard first?
When we define segmentation we take into consideration – what is the target group to which we want to sell our products. When we define consumer profile we take into consideration – who is the person who is using our product, what are his/her qualities, behaviour, needs and wants, motivation. It’s an odd ball mix where you have to know everything about your consumer even his internet browsing habits if digital marketing is your go to strategy.
What is Iceberg model?
Iceberg model clearly states that there is more than what meets the eyes. The part of the iceberg which is above the water is what you can see/know. The part of the iceberg below the water is more based on observations and conclusions about daily lives of your consumers.
In the iceberg model for consumer segmentation, demographic and psychographic segmentation form the part of the iceberg that is above the water i.e. easily seen or understood whereas motivational and behavioural segmentation form the part of the iceberg which is below the water i.e. not easily seen/understood.
Some of the factors/criteria that fall under these categories are below –
Demographic segmentation factors: Age, gender, geography, religion, occupation, marital status, no of children, income levels, education level, social class (lower, middle, upper), nationality
Psychographic factors: Lifestyle, personality, beliefs, values, attitude, interests
Behavioural factors: When do they decide to buy our product? when do they actually buy your product? what is the time to take the purchase decision? do they buy in store or online? how often do they buy? what quantities do they buy and how often? are they buying only for promotional schemes? are they loyal customers? are they advocates of your brand and a lot more that you can imagine to ask!
Motivational: What is it that motivates a person to take a particular action say. why click on an online advertisement of your product? why spend x amount of time browsing? Why walk into your store? what is the motivation to buy your product? Why be an advocate of your brand?
The above four segmentation criterions makes one think about all possible factors to define your consumer in a detailed and correct manner. If you are struggling to define your consumer segmentation right, try defining the above four factors and answer all possible related questions to know your intended consumer better.
