Market segments consist of groups of people or organizations that are similar in terms of how they respond to a particular marketing mix or in other ways that are meaningful for marketing planning purposes.
The entire field of market segmentation is based on this idea, that consumers have differing needs. They will find value in different products. They will respond differently to marketing communications. They will gravitate toward different price points.
Because of this, businesses operate more efficiently if they can act on those differences. A business that tries to offer a single undifferentiated product with generic marketing support will always lose out to more nimble competitors who have specific targets and know how to serve them.
We often work for health plans. In the Medicare Part D world for instance, health plans are struggling to make sense out of new regulations while meeting very tight deadlines. But todays difficulties are going to give way to a market where segmentation will be of great benefit because mass marketing will not work.
Which Segment?
It is obvious that all competitors cannot target the same segment and...