Market Segmentation   Tags: demographics, market research, market segmentation, marketing, mkm, mrk, psychographics, statistics, trends  

Market segmentation is the process that many organizations use in order to analyze their audience or service group. By dividing their audience into subgroups which have special needs, wants, or behaviours, you increase the ease of communicating, providing services or selling to them.

Marketers use four main methods to segment (or divide) an audience. These are demographic, geographic, psychographic and behaviouristic segmentation:

• Demographic segmentation divides a market according to objective categories such as age, income, occupation and education;
• Geographic segmentation separates people by where they live;
• Psychographic segmentation looks at attitudes, values, beliefs and interests -– what they think; and;
  
• Behaviouristic segmentation concentrates on habits, preferences, and purchasing patterns (also called lifestyle) -– what they do.

For example, a market segmentation analysis of Prime Minister Stephen Harper would look like:

• Demographic: 50 years old, male, married with two children, post-secondary education (Masters of Economics), Christian, Canadian
• Geographic: Permanent home in Calgary, Alberta (currently living in Ottawa, Ontario)
  
• Psychographic: Follows the Conservative party platform
  
• Behaviouristic/Lifestyle: Watches ice hockey, writes books on hockey history