Friday, January 24, 2014

Using Behavioral Segmentation To Boost Returns

By Judy Sullivan


As a marketer, it is very unlikely that you will encounter a set of two consumers who have exactly the same tastes and preferences. That is expected. As human beings, many differences exist among others. From our genetic make-up, our cultural background, our levels of education, life experiences and so on. One will therefore not be surprised to when consumers demand different things from a product or service. Behavioral segmentation is the subdividing of a market based on these differences.

The traditional way of marketing is rather straightforward but has poor returns. The marketing involves targeting the entire pool of consumers regardless of any differences that exist between them. The marketer sends out a message to all the potential consumers in the hope of reaching out to willing buyers. This is different from the segmentation approach where different groups of customers are treated differently depending on their specific demands.

There are several types of behaviors that one may choose to use in the stratifying the market. There are really no hard and fast rules about these. All that you need to do is to identify the determinants of the demand for your goods. Product loyalty varies widely among clients. By identifying the groups of loyal and the less loyal customers, several segments can be created on this basis. The next this is to identify the reasons behind this difference.

The other way to achieve the subdivision is to use the benefits sought as the guideline. Even for the same product, consumers do not always look for the same things. It is important to be aware of the different reasons that will make consumers demand for your goods. If the different segments are large enough then it may be necessary to modify the product in a manner that helps each consumer maximize on the benefits.

There are many goods and services that are subject to occasional buying. Buying goods at some times of the year and not the other may pose a great challenge to supply and may actually result in demand and supply mismatch. Commonly, gifts with a religious connotation are usually sold around the time of these religious festivities. Such is the case for Christian goods during Easter and Christmas. The supplier needs to understand the number of customers that are expected during such a period of time so that they can increase the quantity of goods supplied.

Usage rate is yet another criterion commonly used segmenting markets. The idea here is to create consumer groups based on how frequently they use the product or service in question. Generally, customers can be divided into three major groups using this criterion: these are the heavy, moderate and light users. Other than the frequency the quantity used by each of them can also be used as an attribute.

Buyer readiness is the willingness of a buyer to use a service or good. While some buyers simply like a product others are willing to pay for it. The levels of willingness are divided into 6 that represent increasing levels of willingness to spend on the product. The first stage is awareness of product existence and the last stage is the purchase stage.

Apart from behavioral segmentation, there many other ways of subdividing markets. The commonly used ones include the use of geographic, demographic and psychographic characteristics. The most important thing is to ensure that the segment created has members that share the same concerns.




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