I recently published an article on the criteria necessary for a market segment. If you came here from that article, you will find the remaining three criteria in this and the following two days’ posts.

To access the next post in this series, click the following link: Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Access and Action

Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: You Need To Identify And Measure Your Target Market

For a market segment to represent a good target market, you must be able to first identify and then measure the people in the market segment. If you have no way to identify them or don’t know how many people are included in the segment, you may want to reconsider basing a marketing campaign on the segment.

The easiest way to identify the market segment is with demographic, psychographic or behavioral characteristics.

Demographics represent the easiest of these three. Demographic characteristics such as age, education level, type of occupation and gender, provide a good way to identify and measure a target market. You can measure the number of members by these demographic variables and determine the total number of members in the target market.

For example, if you want to target people between 45 and 55, you can identify them as Baby Boomers in the middlescence life stage. Many articles on the Internet and off line give numbers for Baby Boomers so you can measure them.

My e-book Know ‘em Sell ‘em: How To Discover The Best Appeals For Your Target Market provides either numbers or percentages by many demographic characteristics. I also offer individual target market Profiles on Demographic Market Segments to help you identify and measure the people within each.

Measuring and identifying the people in a market segment provides the third of five criteria necessary for a market segment. To learn about the fourth criteria click on the link below:

Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Access and Action

Add to Onlywire

Get A Free and Instant Target Market Analysis by completing the form below:

Posted 5-26-08: Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment:
Measurable and Identifiable

Bookmark It

Two aspects of market segmentation that are often overlooked are cultural expressions and leisure preferences.

Today I want to reveal something about me that demonstrates how both provide insights into your target market.

I like country music. That hasn’t always been the case. I didn’t like it as a young person, but I haven’t been a young person for a long time. Country music has changed since then.

I first learned this when my second husband, Gail, and I went to dinner with one of his childhood friends and his wife. After dinner, they announced that they were going dancing and invited us to go with them. So we did.

Gail and I didn’t dance then, but we enjoyed the music and watching everyone else dance. While I watched and listened, I realized the cultural significance of the music and the dancing. I recognized that dancing occurs throughout our world and differs by culture.

All music and dance styles evolve within a culture and become a reflection of that culture. Thus, they can be used in market segmentation to gain insights into a target market.

Within just the USA, people prefer many different dance styles, and styles sometimes vary by regions. Dance style preferences are often tied to demographic characteristics and aid your understanding of people.

So market segmentation isn’t just about buying preferences. The entire purpose of market segmentation is to identify and get to know a target market. Sometimes, really personal information like music preferences and dance styles can be very telling.

To read about another of my favorite leisure activities, click the link below:

Market Segmentation and Leisure Activities

Add to Onlywire

Learn about your Target Market with an instant FREE report! Just complete the form below:

Posted 5-23-08: Market Segmentation
and Dance Styles?

Bookmark It

Many market segmentation experts define market segmentation as the process by which you separate a target market from the mass market. Thus, when they refer to a segment, they refer to what I call a target market.

Market Segmentation – My Definition

I use slightly different terminology. 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 “segment” to refer to a target market, I use it to refer to a demographic variable, from which psychographic and behavioral characteristics can be determined.

Criteria For a Target Market

As a result, I consider several demographic variables as criteria necessary to determine a target market. These include age, occupation, education level, gender and race or national origin.

You may notice my different use of terms when reading the report on my matrix market segmentation process.

Simplifying Market Segmentation

This process simplifies market segmentation. It starts with demographics because most business owners know at least some demographic characteristics of their target markets. It then uses a systematic process to determine psychographic and behavioral characteristics based on the demographics.

By considering all the characteristics across different demographic segments, you can determine four to five shared characteristics that will effectively communicate with and relate to target market members.

In addition to defining segments and necessary criteria differently, my matrix market segmentation process also differs from many other market segmentation processes because of what it doesn’t require. It enables you to gather significant information about a target market without the technical skills, computer software or statistics required by most market segmentation processes.

You can get more information on market segments at the following link: Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: Measurable and Identifiable

Add to Onlywire

Learn about your Target Market with an instant FREE report! Just complete the form below:

Posted 5-22-08: Market Segmentation:
Defining Market Segments

Bookmark It

A direct-to-consumer distribution business provides you, as a small business owner, with two major advantages.

First, you save money because no middle man takes a cut of your business’s profit for distributing your products. That’s the major financial advantage of a direct-to-consumer distribution business.

Second, you have more direct contact with consumers. This enables you to more efficiently gather information to improve many aspects of your business. That’s the major intelligence advantage of a direct-to-consumer distribution business.

Models Of Direct-To-Consumer Distribution Businesses

Many models of direct-to-consumer distribution businesses can provide you with these financial and intelligence advantages.

One model of a direct-to-consumer distribution business is a direct-mail business. In a direct-mail business, you sell your product through mail or advertisements and then distribute the product through inexpensive postal mail or a more costly alternative like FedEx.

A second model of a direct-to-consumer distribution business is an Internet information business. If you’re an Internet marketing publisher like me, you’ll often provide digital products that can be downloaded. The advantage of distributing digital products by downloads is that first it’s instant, and second it’s free.

A third model of a direct-to-consumer distribution business is where products are produced and sold from the same building. An example is a doughnut shop that makes doughnuts fresh everyday in the back of the shop and sells them directly to consumers in the front of the shop. Products are distributed face-to-face through the store.

This model uses efficient distribution, but it limits your target market to people within a reasonable driving distance to your store. So if you want to expand your geographic market nationally, you’ll have to use another one of the models of a direct-to-consumer distribution business to get your product to your customers.

Marketing Your Direct-To-Consumer Distribution Business

No matter which model of a direct-to-consumer distribution business that you use, it will require that you know as much as possible about your consumers. Just as no middle-man takes part of your profit, no middle-man does your marketing.

Thus, the responsibility of knowing your target market and creating the best appeals to sell your target market members with your marketing messages fall directly on you. My matrix market segmentation process can help you to discover the best appeals for your target market.

If you are more of a product creator than a marketer, operating a direct-to-consumer distribution business may not be the best for you.

If you decide to stick to this type of distribution, you will need to devote about half of your resources to marketing. You can hire an in-house marketer, or a marketing agency. A consultant can tell you what to do, but you will need to still hire someone to do it for you if you want to devote your time to other aspects of your direct-to-consumer distribution business.

Add to Onlywire

Get Your Free Instant Market Analysis by completing the form below:

Bookmark It

This is my second post on marketing your direct-to-consumer distribution business.

Yesterday’s post covered telephone sales.

You can access the next post in this series by clicking the following link: Direct-To-Consumer Distribution Business

Today’s post covers infomercials as a way to market your direct-to-consumer distribution business.

What Are Infomericals And What Do They Require?

An infomercial is a cross between information programming and a television commercial.

It is the most expensive marketing tactic covered in on this site. Part of that expense is incurred in developing the infomercials. This requires writers, actors and narrators, videographers, and studio time.

It’s also expensive to broadcast infomercials. Although most are aired at night and early morning when the cheapest rates apply, one television broadcast will cost thousands. Unless you are targeting a specific geographic area, you will need to broadcast on many stations. So a campaign can cost hundreds of thousands or even a million or more.

The most effective infomercials offer a special promotion product or price to get people to call. Then sales people up-sale them to more expensive products and services.

Although infomercials use the mass medium of television, it’s still vital to target your message to your best potential customers who can be reached during the time that the infomercial airs.

Add to Onlywire

Get Your Free Target Market Report by completing the form below:

Posted 5-20-08: Infomercial Marketing For Your
Direct To Consumer Distribution Business

Bookmark It