Market Segmentation: How To Do It, How To Profit From It Review

Market Segmentation: How To Do It, How To Profit From It by Malcolm McDonald and Ian Dunbar is written primarily for marketing practitioners for corporations, marketing consultants and marketing academics, who wish to learn how to do market segmentation. But, it assumes a greater knowledge of marketing theory than most small business owners have.

It is written to guide marketing practitioners through the process of conducting market segmentation research for large corporations, either as a member of a corporate team or as a marketing consultant for corporations.

Its structure also works well for a textbook with each chapter having a preview and a review with references at the end. It also contains lots of infographics to illustrate the processes explained.

Because of its target market and purpose noted above, I don’t recommend it if you are a small business owner without considerable knowledge of marketing theory. However, I do find lots of the content relevant to small business owners.

For instance, the authors blame the failure to use market segmentation for the lost “influence of marketing in the corporate world.” They state that “few companies measure customer retention by segment.” They conclude that marketing is now considered a support function for sales because most corporations don’t really know what results they get from their marketing expenditures.

If corporations, with huge marketing budgets, can better monitor their marketing expenses by using market segmentation, then can’t market segmentation also help you small business owners better monitor your marketing expenses and return on investments.

The authors contend that only through market segmentation can marketing retake its former role in strategy-making, but that most marketers don’t even understand how market segmentation can help them to better understand customers, much less incorporate that understanding into strategy for their companies.

Corporations who do the most mass marketing need to understand their customers and target markets. Then don’t small business owners like you, who primarily do target marketing often to niche markets, have an even greater need to understand your customers and target market members.

The authors claim that market segmentation is central to “every corporate function,” including mission and objectives, market research, ongoing operations.

This is equally true for small business owners. Market segmentation provides information that should be included in all your small business’s functions and strategic plans.

In conclusion, I found much that I liked about this book. But it does require marketing knowledge and concentrated study. I believe few small business owners will want to or need to use market segmentation to the extent recommended and taught in this book. However, I believe that the importance, which the authors assign to market segmentation for improving corporations, increases for small businesses.

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Posted 4-11-08: Market Segmentation:
How To Do It, How To Profit From It Review

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