Are All Your Customers Named Melissa? Segment your Audience

in Forum: Marketing
Source of this discusssion: /series/105/9148/segmenting-website-audience.htm Page description: Learn the basics about audience segmentation for both consumer and business to business websites.
Jul. 21 2008 at 1:55 PM
No Photo Posted by: debbie36
I completely agree with this idea if you are selling a broad product line, but what if you want to really narrow your product line.  Should you still try to market to "everyone?" Or should we try to focus our efforts on one demographic in order to sell a more sophisticated brand?
Jul. 22 2008 at 8:50 AM
Thanks for your comment, debbie36!

I agree with you that there is a difference between marketing a broad product line vs. one that is narrowly focused. The point of the article is that regardless of the breadth of your product line, you should segment your audience and then market accordingly to each segment. In other words, not everyone is going to have the same emotive response to any one marketing message, and therefore you will have more success by targeting different audience segments with customized marketing.

Please note that the article is not suggesting that you try to market to "everyone". Instead, the article is suggesting that you decide which specific audience segments you are going to target (in certain cases this might be many different segments, and in other cases it might be only one segment).

Keep in mind, though, that demographic targeting might not be enough. Just as in the example presented in the article, Melissa and Mandy are the same general demographic. However, you still might find it profitable to segment this demographic along other lines (e.g., fashionistas vs. athletes, status-seekers vs. humanistic personalities, etc.).

Hope that this is helpful.

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