What is segmentation?

Question

explain in detail with some examples its from marketing subject

Answer 1

Segmentation is simply put classifying the consumers in the market into subsets depending on demographics, geographies, psychographics, ethnographics, usage behavior, consumer buying behavior etc depending on what kind of product or service you want to sell to that market.

Segmentation is done mainly to

- Understand the market

- Know the various segments which exist in market and their sizes (volume as well as value)

- Know how one set of consumers differ from other

- Which set of consumers to target with our product or service

- What their buying and usage habits

- Know what is value sought by the consumers

- What positioning to take up?

- What kind of product or service to offer? What will its various attributes?

- What kind of communication to work for target audience?

Segmentation can lead to unique consumer insights which if used properly make the products/brands formidable in the market.

Detergents market in India is a fragmented market. U cud segment the market by price, by consumer demographics, by geographies, by usage, by kind of value sought.....

By consumer demographics: SEC A/B/C

By price: Premium detergent, mid end detergent, mass detergent

By usage: Washing machine users (front load, top load), Bucket wash, hand wash, laundry wash

By value sought: Whiteness clothes, brightness of colours, Stain removal, fabric softening, economy, less water usage, easy washing

In each of the segmentation ways it is essential to put a value to the segment classified (how many consumers are there in that segment? How much they pay? how much do they buy? --- hence wat is the monetary value)

Advisable to use more than method of segmentation to understand the consumers in a more detailed manner

Answer 2

There are economic segments /market segments; by income, by marital status, family status, geographic status, education status, how often you fly and to where, size of your home, rent or own, where you went to college, political affiliations, body size, shoe size, age, height, weight, ethnic, to name a few.

When you take a statistics course(s) you will have the opportunity to correlate and  compare these segments with various degrees of confidence and limits and make some inferences about similarities and address the quantitative and qualitative reliability of your research.  Good luck.

Answer 3

Segmentation is essentially the identification of subsets of buyers within a market who share similar needs and who demonstrate similar buyer behavior.

Answer 4

A market segment is a subgroup of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics that cause them to have similar product needs. A true market segment meets all of the following criteria: it is distinct from other segments (heterogeneity across segments), it is homogeneous within the segment (exhibits common attributes); it responds similarly to a market stimulus, and it can be reached by a market intervention.

Market segmentation is the process of classifying a market into distinct subsets (segments) that behave in similar ways or have similar needs. The segmentation process in itself consists of segment identification, segment characterization, segment evaluation and target segment selection. If each segment is fairly homogeneous in its needs and attitudes, it is likely to respond similarly to a given marketing strategy. That is, they are likely to have similar feelings and ideas about a marketing mix comprising a given product or service, sold at a given price, and distributed and promoted in a certain way.

Answer 5

(Market) Segmentation is the process by which a firm/individual classifies or categorizes the whole relevantt population of the bussiness into identifiable groups under various stratas such as Age, Gender, Income, Ethnic groups, Nationality etc. so that it could focus its suitable products to the most relevant set of customers likely to create potential sales.These groups (known as Market segments) usually have the buyers with similar needs, wants and tastes.

Ex:- Motorola mobile phone company produces a wide range of mobiles, it produces designer good looking phones in colors like pink for young girls(market segmented to female(by gender) and younger ages), and produces large expensive PDA type ones for the high income earning(segmented by income level), busy and professional type(entrepreneurs) men( segmented by gender).

     Another prime example is the production of food, some ethnicities like Muslims eat only "Halaal" food due to laws in the religion, while other religions do not have such restrictions, so a firm could segment its market into the Muslims and the non-muslims and cater halaal and non-halal food accordingly, that is segmenting according to ethnicity./