Market Segmentation: How to Do It and How to Profit from It, Revised and updated 4th Edition

Chapter 1

Market segmentation – the bedrock of successful marketing

Summary

This chapter contains a brief review of the state of marketing. It provides some key observations on why it has today lost much of its influence in the corporate world, in spite of all our best efforts. A model outlines what marketing should actually entail if it is to regain its rightful place at the heart of organizational strategy-making. At the core of this model of best practice is market segmentation.

It is the failure to get to grips with market segmentation that lies at the heart of much of marketing’s current malaise. This emphasizes the pivotal importance of this book, since little of what is best in marketing theory and practice works without correct market segmentation.

Before starting any project, let alone one as strategically critical as market segmentation, it is important to know where you are heading and what the route map looks like. A clear cut case is presented for the particular methodology to adopt, along with an overview of the process this methodology requires you to follow. Details of the process form the main content of this book.

This chapter is organized as follows:

• A review of marketing
• A definition of ‘marketing’ and what it actually entails
• The central role of defining markets and segments, and understanding value
• A review of different approaches to market segmentation and why the customer’s perspective defines the approach that delivers the best results
• A summary of the ...