Segmenting Your B2C Market

If you have a business-to-consumer company, you can adapt the standard
tools of market segmentation to define various niche audiences by where
they live and how they spend their time and money. The most common
types of segmentation are

✦ Demographics
✦ Geographics
✦ Life stages
✦ Psychographics or lifestyle
✦ Affinity or interest groups

These categories affect not only your social media tactics but also your graphics,
message, content, offers, and every other aspect of your marketing.

Your messages need to be specific enough to satisfy the needs and wants of
the distinct subgroups you’re trying to reach.

Suppose that you want to sell a line of organic, herbal hair care products
using social media. If you described your target market as “everyone who
uses shampoo” on your Social Media Marketing Goals form (see Book I,
Chapter 1), segment that market into different subgroups before you select
appropriate social marketing techniques.

When you’re creating subgroups, keep these concepts in mind:
✦ Simple demographics affect your market definition. The use of fragrances,
descriptive terms, and even packaging may vary by gender.

How many shampoo commercials for men talk about silky hair? For that
matter, what’s the ratio of shampoo commercials addressed to women
versus men?

✦ Consider geography. Geography may not seem obvious, but people
who live in dry climates may be more receptive to a message about
moisturizers than people who live in humid climates. Or, perhaps your
production capacity constrains your initial product launch to a local or
regional area.

✦ Think about life stages. For instance, people who dye their hair look
for different hair care products than those who don’t, but the reason
they color their hair affects your selling message. (Teenagers and young
adults may dye their hair unusual colors in an effort to belong to a
group of their peers; older men may hide the gray with Grecian Formula;
women with kids may be interested in fashion or color their hair as a
pick-me-up.)

✦ Even lifestyles (psychographics) affect decisions. People with limited
resources who are unlikely to try new products may respond to
messages about value and satisfaction guarantees; people with more
resources or a higher status may be affected by messages related to
social grouping and self-esteem.

✦ Affinity or interest groups are an obvious segmentation parameter.
People who participate in environmental organizations or who recycle
goods may be more likely to be swayed by a “green shampoo” appeal or
shop in specific online venues.
Different niche markets are drawn to different social media activities in
general and to specific social media service providers in particular. In the
following several sections, we look in detail at different online tools you can
use to explore the parameters that seem the most appropriate for segmenting
your audience and selecting specific social media sites.

The most successful marketing campaigns are driven by your target markets,
not by techniques.