Today I want to discuss leisure activities some more and reveal my favorite ones.
My Leisure Activities
I like landscaping and home improvement. My husband, Jim, and I
spend many weekends in these “leisure” activities.
I put leisure in quote marks because these activities involve a lot of physical work. Of course after sitting in front of a computer for 50 or so hours every week, I welcome the physical exercise.
But my favorite leisure activity is going couple, country dancing. It also involves physical exercise and so much more. It’s stress relieving. It’s romantic. It’s totally not work or expensive. And it’s just plain fun.
Plus, Jim likes it as much as I do, so he’s always ready for a good Friday night on the dance floor.
We usually go early so we have the dance floor much to ourselves. Then we leave early while the drunks are still at the clubs instead of on the streets.
What Leisure Activities Can Tell You
These leisure activities tell you quite a bit about me: I like physical exercise, dancing, country music, to work outside, and to have fun. I need some stress relieve. I’m a romantic at heart, and I prefer to avoid crowds.
Knowing the leisure activities of your target market reveals much about their interests and provide good marketing appeals. So leisure activities should be a part of your market segmentation research.
Discover more about market segmentation with my Matrix Market Segmentation report. Subscribe to my blog, and I’ll email you it and weekly post summaries. Just complete the form below:
Or you can get my ebook, Know’em Sell’em: How To Discover The Best Appeals For Your Target Market. Just click it’s picture in the upper left corner.
Posted 5-30-08:
Market Segmentation
and Leisure Activities
A final consideration in determining the criteria necessary for a market segment is how you define a market segment.
Market Segment Definitions Vary
Many marketing experts define a market segment like a target market. So when they refer to a market segment, they mean the target market for a specific campaign.
I use slightly different terminology that comes from my public relations background. Instead of referring to a specific market within the mass market as a segment, I refer to that market as a target market. Likewise, instead of using market segment to refer to a target market, I use it to refer to a demographic variable, from which psychographic and behavioral variables can be determined.
You may notice my different use of terms when reading my special report on my
Matrix Market Segmentation Process
This process simplifies the market’s segmentation. It starts with facts
(demographics) that most business owners have about their markets and uses a systematic process to determine personality (psychographics) and behavioral characteristics.
It enables you to gather significant information about a target market without the technical skills, computer software and statistics required for so many other market segmentation processes.
By considering all the characteristics across different segments, you can determine four to five shared characteristics that will effectively communicate with and relate to members of the market segment.
Discover more about market segmentation and market segments. Subscribe to my blog, and I’ll send you weekly post summaries and a copy of my Matrix Market Segmentation report. Just complete the form below:
Or you can get my ebook – Know’em, Sell ‘em: Discover The Best Appeals For Your Target Market. Just click the art in the upper left corner.
Posted 5-29-08:
Criteria Necessary
For A Market Segment:
Market Segment Definition
You can improve your marketing by knowing and utilizing the criteria necessary for a market segment.
To be successful your marketing must target the people most likely to buy your products or services. These people are your best potential customers or what marketers call your target market.
You need to know who your target market members are and what demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics that they share. This knowledge enhances your ability to use marketing strategies, tactics, and messages that appeal to your best potential customers.
Wikipedia lists five criteria necessary for a market segment:
First Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Market Segment Share Similar Characteristics
Second Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Segment Differ From Those Not In The Market Segment
Third Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Market Segment Can Be Identified And Counted
Fourth Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Market Segment Can Be Reached And Persuaded To Take Action
Fifth Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: The Segment Is Large Enough To Be Profitable
First Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment
Homogeneity Within The Market Segment
For a segment to exist, the people in it must share characteristics that make them similar in some significant way.
For instance, social classes comprise market segments. The working class share common characteristics. Middle class members share characteristics. However, the two classes’ characteristics are different. If you try to market to both the same, your marketing will fail with one or both.
The more characteristics that a market segment’s members share, the more you can treat the people in that segment as a single target market.
Because when people are similar, they are more likely to want and need the same products and services. When they share many characteristics, it’s easier for you to design a marketing campaign that builds on their common needs.
Second Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment
Differences Between People In The Market Segment
And Other People
Being able to distinguish how the people in a market segment differ from everybody else is an important market segment criteria.
If the people in the market segment are not substantially different from everybody else, you have:
No characteristics to distinguish the market segment from everybody else,
No reason to develop a marketing campaign for the target market, and
No basis to design a unique marketing mix.
If there are no important differences between people in different segments, there is no foundation for target marketing. So having segments differ from one another is another criteria necessary for a market segment.
Thus, each market segment requires different marketing strategies and tactics than others in the mass market.
Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment
Conclusion And More
If you identify a market segment in which the people have lots in common, but are quite different from people in other market segments, you have the beginning of a successful marketing campaign.
If you identify a segment that is homogeneous within the segment and heterogeneous from other segments, you still must know that the segment provides enough people to warrant a marketing campaign. You also must assure that if successful, the campaign will produce the results that you want.
This is my third post on the criteria necessary for a market segment
A Market Segment Must
Comprise Potential Customers
Criteria necessary for a market segment - profitability
The market segment that you select to target must contain the people that you believe are most likely to buy your products or services.
A Market Segment Must
Be Large Enough To Turn A Profit
It must also be large enough, that if only a small percentage of it’s members purchase, you will still make a profit. That means that you will make enough money to pay for the marketing campaign and still make a large enough profit to warrant the time and other resources invested.
Your Price Must Be Profitable
This requires that you consider how you price your products and services. Your prices must produce a profit if you get a specific number of projected sales. Don’t forget as you set your price to include the the cost of your marketing campaign.
If you want to learn more about pricing, click on the price category in the right sidebar and you’ll access several of my posts on pricing.
Assuring that the market segment is large enough to be profitable is the last of the criteria necessary for a market segment. Measuring and identifying the people in a market segment provides the third of five criteria necessary for a market segment.
Get more marketing information like this. Subscribe to my blog, and I’ll send you weekly post summaries and a copy of my matrix Market Segmentation report. Just complete the form below:
Posted 5-28-08: Criteria Necessary For
A Market Segment:
Profit Potential
Linda holds a Doctorate in Education (Ed.D.) and is accredited in Public Relations (APR). She has practiced marketing, public relations and communication skills for over 30 years. She is President of Best Books Plus, Inc., an online and off line publishing company.
Posted 5-30-08: 
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