Strategic Marketing Basics

The segmentation approach aims at identifying and consolidating customers (or users) into sub-groups showing homogeneous needs, wants, attitudes or behaviors.

 

Targeting consists in evaluating the various segments of the market in order to determine the best target segment(s) to be covered by the marketer, taking into account the economic opportunity of the segment (size, growth, risk, etc.) as well as the objectives, competences and resources of the company.

 

This is a key strategic decision and the second step in the so called STP model:

 

Segmentation 
1. Identify segmentation variables and market segments 
2. Establish profiles of segments

 

TARGETING 
3. Evaluate the attractiveness of each segment and the (actual or potential) competitiveness of the brand / company / business unit on each segment
4. Select the target segments

 

Positioning 
5. Identify the potential positions to occupy in each chosen target segment 
6. Select and develop the positioning strategy in each chosen segment