A better way to find and market to your customers

Marketing Sherpa recently made available a nice case study on segmentation. It looks at H2O+, a skin care products retailer, that has been segmenting their audiences by personas.

Segmentation can be overlooked when developing marketing strategies, especially the further removed we are from the academic study of marketing. We tend to make quick assumptions about who we are trying to reach and use tired caricatures--soccer moms, business professionals, twenty-somethings. However, in a world that demands justification for each marketing dollar spent, it is wise to carefully and deeply define your market through segmentation.

To do it right, look beyond simple demographics. In a cluttered marketplace, targeting women 25-54 with household incomes of $75K+ will rarely lead to relevant messages. Instead, consider lifestyle segmentation, which is at the heart of building key customer personas.

Real success comes in crafting marketing messages that match perceived lifestyles.

Take the mature, 55+ market. Instead of targeting wealthy seniors, target near retirees who feel 7 years younger than they are and are still striving to achieve life goals. Or market to the persona of the empty nester standing on the threshold of endless opportunity armed with a working professional’s salary.

By thinking in terms of persona, or lifestyle, you are forced to make more personal decisions to craft your message. The result: messages that are relevant to an audience that is ripe for your product.

Photo from nicolasnova at Flickr.