So the question is how can I divide up the market?
And you might understand the idea that I'm going to go
after market segments and I'm going to choose one of them.
And then I'll give
a unique product package, or marketing mix, to one of those segments.
Maybe you understand that concept.
But then the question is well, what are the different ways to segment the market?
And there are actually lots of different ways.
The most common way that people most, that usually think about
is to divide up the market on characteristics of the customer.
So intuitively, you might think about demographics.
Well, men and women like different things, so
let's make a female product and a male product.
Or, old people like things that are different than young
people, or rich people have different needs than poor people.
So one of the segmentation schemes people
frequently think about are characteristics of the customer.
Another one though, which doesn't really focus on characteristics of
the customer says, well people like different things in products.
They focus on different benefits so, in running shoes,
some people care about comfort, some people care about asthetics.
Some people
care about technology, and so it might make sense to divide
up the market or segment the market on benefits that people seek.
A third way to think of it is how do people purchase?
Maybe they purchase online.
Some people purchase online, some people like to go to physical stores,
some people like to use their phones or some people purchase very frequently.
Some people only purchase once a year.
Some people like to switch around,
other people like to be loyal.
All of these are different characteristics that you can use to segment the market.
Let me just give you a few examples of some of the interesting
ways that people have segmented the market, just to give you some ideas.
One of the ones, people talk about demographics so
they talk about old versus young, male versus females.
City dwellers versus country dwellers.
Another thing that and I'm sure you've heard of this.
You may not know it by this term.
Another way to think about it is cohort analysis.
And what cohort analysis says, it's not really whether you're young
or old, it's the life experiences that you've experience as a cohort.
And in particular it's very important what happens when you're coming of age,
you know, right around 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, that, those kind of.
Those things that hit you at that time of your life are
critical, and they frame you as a generation.
And so this is the idea, you've heard probably of baby boomers.
That's a cohort.
Baby boomers were born, there's two cohorts of baby boomers.
There's one that are born about 1950 and then
the ones that are born you know about 1960s.